Last week, member of the Lithuanian parliament and candidate in the upcoming Seimas election Zbigniew Jedziński said the Belarusian security forces were “defending the constitution”, despite the emerging evidence of widespread abuse and torture.
“Lukashenko has learned from the Lithuanian conservatives how to suppress protests,” Jedziński, the lead candidate of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance (LLRA-KŠS), wrote on Facebook. “The only difference is that in Belarus, the police are defending the constitution, while in Lithuania in 2009, the police were defending those who breached the constitution.”
Jedziński was quoted by Kurier Wileński, the main Polish-language newspaper in Lithuania. The post was deleted from the politician’s Facebook profile soon after.
When asked to clarify the parallels he drew between the Belarusian and Lithuanian police, the politician remembered the Constitutional Court’s ruling that the government’s reduction of pensions and salaries in 2008 was unlawful.
“People were protesting, and the police were shooting. There were many injured. That is what I had in mind,” Jedziński told LRT.lt.
The MP also said that protesters are being beaten and arrested in many countries and Lithuania should not be the one assessing Belarusian police’s actions.
“I haven’t been there, you haven’t been there, Lithuanian journalists haven’t been there […]. Every side is showing its version. Only those who are there can assess the situation,” Jedziński commented. “The demonstrators were beaten and arrested everywhere – in Lithuania, in the US. The legality of this should not be assessed by us.”
A journalist from LRT.lt was in Minsk and reported on the brutal crackdown by the Belarusian security forces.
On Monday, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said that Jedziński’s statement was unacceptable but it did not represent the position of the political party that is part of Lithuania’s governing coalition.
“It was an individual statement by the member of parliament. The coalition, LLRA-KŠS have not declared a position differing from the Lithuanian position […]. The political party should comment on its MP’s statement. I can only say that it was completely unacceptable and incomprehensible,” Skvernelis said.
Juozas Bernatonis, the head of the Seimas’ Committee on Foreign Affairs also said that by justifying police actions in Belarus Jedziński demonstrated his lack of democratic values.
“The force used against the peaceful protesters is disproportional. [The statement] shows that the person has no clue of what is happening in the neighbouring country and doesn’t have the values that members of democratic parliaments should have,” Bernatonis told LRT RADIO.
The coalition leaders said that they were not planning to discipline Jedziński but Skvernelis assured that LLRA-KŠS could not remain in the government if it declared a similar position.
Read more: Surviving captivity in Minsk. Belarusian detainee recalls abuse and endless beatings
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