The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania,

commemorating the 76th anniversary of the deportations carried out by the Soviet occupation regime which started on 14 June 1941;

noting that the brutal Soviet occupation of Lithuania on 15 June 1940 caused enormous harm to Lithuania and its people, while the perpetrators of crimes against humanity carried out by the regime during the occupation have still not been properly assessed at international and national level;

reminding that the crimes of a similar nature committed by the Nazi regime in both Germany and the Nazi-occupied territories were, through the efforts of the international community, legally assessed by the Tribunal of Nuremberg which not only assessed the crimes committed by individual leaders or agents of the Nazi regime but also found the whole national socialist party to be criminal;

welcoming the joint statement by the Ministers of Justice of the Baltic States of 5 November 2015, which clearly and unambiguously recognised the need for proper assessment of the harm caused by the communist occupation regime and ensuring that future generations have an objective understanding of the crimes committed during the occupation period and their perpetrators;

being convinced that, in seeking adequate international assessment of the crimes of the Soviet occupation, Lithuania itself has to take all the necessary steps to politically and legally assess such crimes at national level;

stressing that Article 1 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Assessment of the USSR State Security Committee (NKVD, NKGB, MGB and KGB) and the Current Activities of the Staff Members of this Organisation, adopted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania on 16 July 1998, states that “the USSR State Security Committee (NKVD, NKGB, MGB and KGB – hereinafter SSC) shall be regarded as a criminal organisation which has committed war crimes, genocide, acts of repression, terror and political persecution in the Republic of Lithuania occupied by the USSR”;

reminding that the European Court of Human Rights has noted on several occasions that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union played a decisive part in occupying and annexing Lithuania and other Baltic States (Kuolelis and Others v. Lithuania, Ždanoka v. Latvia and other cases);

having regard to the Lithuanian Partisans Declaration of 16 February 1949, which states that “the Communist party, as dictatorial and essentially opposite to the main aim of Lithuanian nation and keystone provision of the Constitution – independence of Lithuania, – is not considered a legal party”,

notes that throughout the Soviet occupation (in 1940–1941 and 1944–1990), the Communist Party of Lithuania established dictatorship in the country, acted as a loyal and proactive follower and executor of the will of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in its capacity as a regional branch of the organisation, and is responsible for the measures taken by the Soviet occupation regime, namely: genocide of Lithuanian citizens, crimes against humanity, war crimes, including mass repression, terror, punitive campaigns, deportation, extermination of civilian population and fighters for independence of Lithuania, imprisonment, torture and persecution of the opponents of the regime, sovietisation, nationalisation and confiscation of property of the citizens and legal persons in the occupied Lithuania, forced collectivisation, forced conscription into the Soviet Army, atheisation, censorship, destruction of cultural and religious monuments and other forms of denial of fundamental human rights and freedoms;

states that the activities of the Communist Party of Lithuania, as a Lithuanian branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, allegedly consist of elements of a criminal activity, which are manifested in the organisation and commitment, through subordinate repressive structures, of crimes, namely, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, against the Lithuanian residents;

invites the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, acting pursuant to the legislative tradition of Lithuania in assessing the repressive structures of the Soviet Union in Lithuania (the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Assessment of the USSR State Security Committee (NKVD, NKGB, MGB, KGB) and the Current Activities of the Staff Members of this Organisation), to draw up a draft law of the Republic of Lithuania which would recognise the Communist Party of Lithuania to be a criminal organisation;

stresses that this Resolution addresses the problem of assessment of the criminal activities carried out by the Communist Party of Lithuania as a legal entity, while the issue of criminal liability of the individuals who committed or participated in committing crimes of the occupation regime are dealt with in the framework of the currently effective criminal laws.

 

 

Speaker of the Seimas                                                                                        Viktoras Pranckietis