(U) PARLIAMENT REJECTS LAW TO EQUATE NAZI AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L VILNIUS 000958 SIPDIS ALSO FOR EUR/OHI E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/06/2018 TAGS: LH PGOV PREL EUN SUBJECT: (U) PARLIAMENT REJECTS LAW TO EQUATE NAZI AND SOVIET CRIMES Classified By: DCM Damian Leader for reason 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Lithuania,s outgoing parliament on November 6 failed to outlaw praise or denial of Soviet aggression against Lithuania, but backers of the measure expect to try again next year. They said their bill was the first step in an effort to have the European Union legally equate the Soviet regime,s crimes with the acts of Nazi Germany. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Lithuania,s parliament, the Seimas, on November 6 voted down amendments to the criminal code that would make it illegal to condone, deny or trivialize acts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or "aggression by the USSR or Nazi Germany directed against the Republic of Lithuania." Violators would face up to two years in prison. Dainius Zalimas, who is head of the international-law department at Vilnius University and is an advisor to the Ministry of Defense, crafted the proposed amendments. He said they were based on the European Council of Ministers, framework decision on racism and xenophobia, passed in April 2007, but went beyond that European model. Zalimas told us that under the proposed amendments, "Genocide in Lithuania would also include the extermination of people based on their political convictions. The specific nature of Soviet crimes was that they were based more on grounds of political convictions. We regard the Soviet regime in more or less the same way, on the same footing as the Nazis." Genocide definitions differ -------------- ¶3. (U) Since 1998, Lithuania,s legal definition of genocide has included as an underlying factor the intent to destroy people belonging to "social or political groups" as well as groups defined by reference to race, color, religion, descent, and national or ethnic origin. The EU framework decision on racism and xenophobia does not include social or political groups in its definition of genocide. ¶4. (C) Parliamentarian Vilija Aleknaite-Abramikiene, who introduced the bill in parliament, told us her goal was to have the European Union eventually make Soviet crimes against occupied countries, such as Lithuania, equivalent to the Holocaust. Zalimas further told us it did not matter whether the Soviet Union,s actions in Lithuania were defined as genocide or as crimes against humanity. He said focus on the definition of genocide or debating whether Soviet and Nazi actions were equivalent served to take attention away from the main point. "It is better to criminalize all such crimes. The most important thing is to punish them, whether you call it denial of genocide or denial of crimes against humanity." ¶5. (C) Emanuelis Zingeris, the only Jewish member of Lithuania,s parliament and Chair of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, told us that denial of the Holocaust as well as of Soviet crimes against Lithuania should be outlawed. Zingeris said, however, "They should not create equivalence. They are not equal. It,s two separate and horrible crimes. The Soviet actions were based on colonizing another nation." But both regimes, he said, killed millions of Europeans, including many thousands of Lithuanians. Reasons for failure unclear -------------- ¶6. (C) It is not at all clear that the amendments were voted down on their merits. They were combined before the vote with unrelated proposals to protect wild mushrooms and other flora, and some parliamentarians voted against the entire package just to oppose the mushroom measures. But the strongest support came from the Conservative party, which won October elections and will lead the ruling coalition in the new Seimas that convenes later in November. Under parliamentary rules, the proposed amendments cannot be reintroduced for six months, and Aleknaite-Abramikiene, a Conservative, promised after the vote to do so. Still, not all Conservatives supported the measures. One Conservative parliamentarian, Kelutis Cilinskas, said the proposal would criminalize expressions of opinion and veered close to "political persecution." Prospects for eventual passage of the measures are not clear. ¶7. (U) The Conservatives have lumped Soviets and Nazis together before. In June 2008, the party successfully spearheaded passage of a law making illegal the display of either Nazi or Soviet symbols. While police have used the law to confiscate paraphernalia from souvenir sellers and others, two youths arrested for wearing Nazi and Red Army uniforms at a historical display were acquitted in October of violating the law. ¶8. (C) Comment: Lithuania suffered grievously at the hands of both German and Soviet aggressors, although the Soviet occupation lasted decades and is more bitterly remembered here. Lithuania has not handled its Holocaust legacy well since regaining independence, and has with some justification been accused of whitewashing its own citizens, roles in killing Jewish Lithuanians. While this legislative proposal was an attempt to require equal legal treatment of statements regarding Lithuania,s suffering under the Soviets and the Jews, treatment by the Nazis, the bill,s drafters appeared to be pushing an agenda of moral equivalence as well, and are unlikely to let this defeat stop them. End comment. CLOUD