The Belarusian opposition’s planned “passports” will not be legally recognised in Lithuania.
This was stated during a meeting of the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs (URK) on Wednesday.
“There was a unanimous opinion from all the institutions issuing passports, registering, or dealing with the legal status of foreigners that, under current Lithuanian law, such a passport or document can’t be recognised,” URK chairman Remigijus Motuzas said after the meeting.
The office of Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsykhanouskaya, who resides in Lithuania, has decided to issue special documents to foreign-based activists who cannot have their Belarusian passports renewed.
The Social Democratic MP said that the Belarusian opposition had asked Lithuanian authorities to issue numbers for these documents but received a negative response.
“Mrs Tsikhanouskaya’s office was informed that it was actually impossible,” he added.
Motuzas noted that Lithuania already issues documents to Belarusians who live here and whose passports have expired, allowing them to travel.
“We were informed today that the Belarusian passport is valid for quite a long time, and there are fewer than a hundred people [whose foreign passports have expired]. Their numbers are higher in Poland, where 300,000 refugees live,” he said.
According to the Migration Department, 57,500 Belarusian citizens currently hold residence permits in Lithuania.
Some of them came to Lithuania after Alexander Lukashenko’s government began persecuting everyone involved in or supporting the mass protests that broke out in the wake of the controversial 2020 presidential election.
Subsequently Lukashenko’s government announced that Belarusian embassies would no longer renew expired documents.
The opposition’s “passports” are an attempt to supply documents to Belarusians who cannot return to the country to get new passports for fear of persecution.
“We agreed that Lithuanian state institutions will continue to maintain the position that this is not a legal document and will advise taking this into consideration when printing or issuing it,” Motuzas said.
On the other hand, the committee chairman pointed out that Lithuania cannot stop the Belarusian opposition from issuing “symbolic” documents.
“We know that both Mrs Tsikhanouskaya and the Belarusians living here are symbols of freedom [...]. Most of them have charges brought against them [...] and can’t return to Belarus, so the symbolic document with the Vytis or Pahonia, the symbol of freedom, is probably very significant to them,” the MP said.
“Therefore, we can’t forbid [such passports], but only send the message that this will not be an official document of the Lithuanian Republic,” he added.
Controversy over symbols
The Belarusian opposition “passports” also caused some controversy because their design contains an armoured knight on a horse, a symbol known as the Vytis in Lithuania and Pahonia in Belarus. Bot versions come from the historic Grand Duchy of Lithuania which covered both present-day Lithuania and Belarus.
The Vytis is Lithuania’s official coat of arms and some politicians expressed indignation about Belarusians using it, even though the design is not identical.
Conservative MP and URK member Audronius Ažubalis, one of these politicians, said after the committee meeting that it was regrettable that the Belarusians chose to use this symbol on their document.
“I can print myself a certificate with all sorts of emblems, but that doesn’t make me a duke or a king. In this case, it’s essentially meaningless,” the MP said.
“On the other hand, as rightly pointed out during the committee meeting, such a symbol on the document serves to create division rather than consolidation between Lithuania and Belarus’ democratic opposition,” he added.
He insisted that Lithuanian authorities should have been consulted over the use of the symbol and that “such unilateral action […] suggests a lack of respect for the country where these people live”.
Tsikhanouskaya shared a mock-up of the “passport” on social media last week. In her post, she also thanked the Lithuanian government for its “support and advice”.
Although this “passport” is not officially recognised as a travel document, the Belarusian politician says she regularly raises this issue in meetings with foreign politicians.
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