Vilnius has postponed the removal of sculptures of Soviet soldiers at Antakalnis Cemetery after the United Nations Human Rights Committee put interim measures in place.
According to Justice Ministry, it received a letter from the committee after it was approached by several individuals who called themselves “ethnic Russians”, including Kazimieras Juraitis, who went to meet with the Belarusian authorities earlier this year, as well as Dmitrij Glazkov, Tatiana Brandt, and Anastasija Brandt.
According to Justice Minister Ewelina Dobrowolska, the interim measures were imposed based on misleading information.
“Lithuania, as a state with the rule of law and respecting its international obligations, has turned to the committee, presented its arguments, and asked for the interim measures to be lifted as soon as possible,” she said.
“We believe that the UN [committee] was approached in the manipulation of international human rights instruments, such as the 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Optional Protocol on the right of individual petition, and for purposes that are fundamentally incompatible with them. We hope that the committee will take Lithuania’s arguments into account and lift the measures imposed,” the minister added.
Later on Wednesday, Dobrowolska said the ministry expects an answer from committee within a month.
Removal postponed
Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius said he expected a “rational decision” from the committee, adding, however, that the sculptures will not be removed by November 1, as previously planned.
“There is no intention to desecrate the graves of WW2 soldiers or to demolish the memorial. The intention is to remove the relic of Soviet militarist ideology from the cemetery by relocating only one part of the memorial – the six sculptures featuring soldiers of the occupying Soviet army,” the Justice Ministry said.
Lithuania also said the applicants had requested interim measures “in the absence of the necessary legal conditions”, ie without a clear need to do so or any real threat of irreversible damage to the rights guaranteed by the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The complainants say that the Vilnius authorities’ decision to dismantle the Soviet sculptures at Antakalnis Cemetery violates the rights of national minorities and the right to respect for private and family life.
They are represented by Stanislovas Tomas, a controversial figure who claims to be a lawyer. He, however, was banned by the European Court of Human Rights in 2016 from representing applicants in this court.
The committee said it was not prohibiting Lithuania from dismantling the sculptures. The committee said it may review the need for interim measures at any time based on the state’s arguments.
The removal of the six grey granite sculptures featuring Soviet WW2 soldiers was unanimously backed by Vilnius City Council in early June after they were removed from Lithuania’s register of immovable cultural property by heritage officials.
The initial plan was to remove the monument by November 1, and Vilniaus BDT, a company that won the municipal tender, offered to do so for 48,000 euros.
On Wednesday morning, the monument was vandalised with an expletive.
CORRECTION: The earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the United Nations Human Rights Committee as the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
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