Speeches

Address by H. E. Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania, on the 20th Anniversary of the Massacre in Medininkai

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we stand on the soil that saw an atrocious massacre twenty years ago. OMON soldiers sneaked in on the night of July 31. They knew they were carrying out a terrible task: this outrageous night saw the killing of customs officers Antanas Musteikis and Sanislovas Orlavičius, ARAS police officers Algimantas Juozakas and Mindaugas Balavakas, road police officers Juozas Janonis and Algirdas Kazlauskas, and police officer Ričardas Rabavičius who died in a hospital a couple of days later.

This tragedy has a prehistory: massacres at the Television Tower and at the Seimas Building, the burning down of border control posts, and the shooting of border control officer Gintaras Žagunis at the Krakūnai border crossing point in Šalčininkai on 19 May of 1991. All these events were closely interrelated; they were aimed at terrifying people, making them lose faith in freedom and abandon this goal.

But the vicious plans of the initiators of these crimes were not destined to come true because those events only consolidated us and made us even stronger. Freedom was not offered to us as a gift, we shed our blood to defend it.

The tragedy in Medininkai, like January 13 events, is an open wound not only to us but also to the whole free Europe, as demonstrated by repercussions of the recent events when a suspect for these crimes escaped being surrendered to Lithuanian judicial authorities.

This was a vexing obstacle, but, fortunately and most importantly, we achieved quite much in the past years: a judgment, although not final, has already been taken in one case, and major steps have been made to bring the rest of the cases before courts and seek final judgments.

All suspects of the Medininkai tragedy are known but I will not pronounce their names here. They are not worthy to be mentioned out loud on this place so much important for the freedom of Lithuania. I believe justice will be served. Not only Lithuanian people need this. All advanced humankind who love freedom needs this.

The today's commemoration of the tragedy is a continuation of our fight for freedom and justice. It is about giving meaning to the sacrifice of our heroes. May the memory of this tragedy and our trust in justice consolidate us like back then!

Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania