International

Poles in Lithuania denied basic rights?

09.03.2010 10:32

The Polish minority in Lithuania say that their situation has deteriorated over the past 20 years since that ex-Soviet republic re-gained independence.

They claim that the authorities in Vilnius violate their rights to cultivate Polish traditions and learn the Polish language.

Lithuania is marking its Independence Day on March 11 with politicians from all over Europe, including Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski, expected to join the celebrations in the capital.

Secretary of the Union of Poles in Lithuania Edward Trusewicz says that in the early 1990s Polish schools and union organizations mushroomed all over the country.

“The Polish ethnic minority benefited a lot in the first years of building the independent Lithuanian stat,” Trusewicz told Polskie Radio. But today Poles feel the Lithuanian authorities are trying to strip them of their privileges by banning Polish street names and surnames.

A 2007 report by the Council of Europe, however, found that minorities in Lithuania were generally integrated quite well.

There over 200 000 Poles resident in Lithuania, constituting 6.4 percent of the population and are concentrated mainly around Vilnius, which was once a part of Poland during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. (kk/pg)

Comments: 21 Add new comment

Jasiek

09/03/2010 11:24:26

1. Lithuanian commoners, not nobles (most of whom had been culturally Polonised), became extremely against the Polish-ness in Lithuania just before German residents retreated from Lithuania at the end of the World War I, after which ethnic tensions between Lithuanians and Poles turned rapidly intense, Poland occupied Vilnius and Lithuania recaptured it in September 1939. As long as I personally see, the present day Lithuanians are still more or less haunted by the ethnic radicalism implanted during the first half of the last century.
2. In mid 1990s (1996?) the Polish residents in Lithuania, or Lithuanian-Poles, became radical against Lithuanians. Supposedly due to Lithuania having been ethnically more radical than before during the ethnic fanaticism observed since the fall of the Soviet Union. I am informed that the then Polish ambassador to Lithuania reprimanded the local Poles for having become extreme against Lithuanians, if I remember correctly.

Now that the main article says that the local Poles are complaining of being stripped of some of their civil rights and that the Council of Europe insist the situation is acceptably well. There is a big discrepancy between pieces of information. It is, therefore, too early to judge the issue.

Paulius

09/03/2010 11:26:39

"There over two million Poles resident in Lithuania" What the heck? The whole population of Lithuania is around 3,5 million. The proportion is OK - it is about 6,4 percent of whole population.

Yet this is a very political question in Poland. Here, in Lithuania, there are elder polish people who live there, are citizens of Lithuania and can barely speak lithuanian language. There are places where you cannot even speak lithuanian - no one will understand you, or you won't be able to understand the answer. And yet very few lithuanian see any problem with that. Maybe we are used to use of foreign languages even in our motherland. Actually, it was never allowed to use polish language in Lithuanian passports (I mean letters which are not lithuanian, like w), but there are talks about that possibility. Yes, there is a thing with street names in polish. But state language is lithuanian. Have anyone seen streets in Seinai or Punsk (where are many lithuanian living) named in lithuanian language?

Dainius

09/03/2010 13:30:14

There is a Polish political party in Lithuania. The text below is from their website - www.awpl.lt
--
The EAPL implements the statute assumptions by taking part in various elections – starting with municipal through parliamentary and ending with the elections to the European Parliament in 2004. Unexceptionally, for more than ten years, the EAPL dominates in districts inhabited mostly by Poles: Vilnius district ( 63 percent of Poles) and Šalčininkai district (80 percent of Poles). The EAPL constantly gains about 60-70 percent of votes during municipal elections. In several other districts the EAPL is a member of ruling coalitions and influences the decisions made. During the whole period of its existence the EAPL took part in many battles in defense of the interests of the Polish minority in Lithuania. Many of them were victorious. Moreover, the EAPL have organized great protest actions in defense of Polish education, language, and land in front of the Lithuanian Seimas.
---
As you can see poles fully controls the municipalities they have the majority of population. They also have their representatives in Lithuanian parlament and even one person in European parlament!

So what the hell are they complaining about!?

John

09/03/2010 13:44:25

What I admire Lithuanian most is to have been able to keep their nice little language, so to speak intact, through the ages of Polonisation.

Fernando

09/03/2010 15:12:39

A colleague of mine here in London is a Pole from Lithuania, and she says that there is no discrimination of Poles in Lithuania and that most of this is populist nonsense.

Jasiek

09/03/2010 15:16:29

A correction in my previous post:
"Lithuanian-Poles" in the second paragraph should have been "Polish-Lithuanians"

Sorry for the mistake.

Nerijusz

09/03/2010 15:21:27

Poles in Lithuania denied basic rights? -A 2007 report by the Council of Europe, however, found that minorities in Lithuania were generally integrated quite well. Title and content of the article go hand in hand!

There over two million Poles resident in Lithuania. What I like about articles as these is the word over. There are OVER... Poles in ...! This is always the case. And of course TWO MILLION, if so then pretty much every Lithuanian is denied their basic right to know that he is Pole!

And this : They claim that the authorities in Vilnius violate their rights to cultivate Polish traditions and learn the Polish language. Tell me the place outside Poland where Poles has better condittions than they are in Lithuanian then we will continue talk! The other side of this language issue is that knowing just Polish isn't enough in Lithuania and not knowing or knowing Lithuanian as little as possible and do not feel the part of Lithuanian community as such is not any basic right whatsoever.

Ivan

09/03/2010 15:58:37

Ihis is what they are complaining about. Read before you write. The two million Poles in Lithuania is obviously a mistake. I think that it's more like 300,000. “The Polish ethnic minority benefited a lot in the first years of building the independent Lithuanian stat,” Trusewicz told Polskie Radio. But today Poles feel the Lithuanian authorities are trying to strip them of their privileges by banning Polish street names and surnames."

Ivan

09/03/2010 16:24:01

P.S. All of the comments to this story have been from Lithuanians and from people who are not from Lithuania. I would like to see what the Polish minority in Lithuania thinks. Comments like "So what the hell are they complaining about!?" from a Lithuanian tells me that the the Polish minority has something to complain about.

Carbon

09/03/2010 18:00:01

So far I thought that Poles are persecuted only in evel Lukshenko's Mordor - Belarus

But it seems in democratic EU member Litwa they do the same LOL

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