Speech by Viktoras
Muntianas, Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, at the
conference to mark the 30th anniversary of the Lithuanian Helsinki
Group
Honourable signatories of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group,
Your Excellencies Ambassadors,
Guests of the Conference,
30 years ago, on
25 November 1976, five Lithuanian patriots - Tomas Venclova, Karolis Garuckas,
Ona Lukauskaitë-Pođkienë, Viktoras Petkus, and Eitanas Finkeilsteinas issued
the Manifesto of the Lithuanian Group to Promote the Implementation of the
Helsinki Accords in Lithuania. The Manifesto referred to the Final Act of the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, signed in Helsinki on 1
August 1975, as the Helsinki Accords.
It was this Act
that provided certain opportunities for Soviet Union, including Lithuanian,
dissidents - the people opposing the official ideology - to engage in
opposition activities. These were the people fighting for the independence of
Lithuania and other countries.
The Final Act
was signed by the delegates from almost all European countries, the USA, and
Canada. The Act referred mainly to security and cooperation among European countries.
Part III, however, covered cooperation in the humanitarian field too. It was
here that human rights were mentioned. Human rights could become an instrument
for shaking the foundations of the Soviet Empire. Moreover, regular
organisation of conferences to monitor the implementation of the Helsinki
Accords was provided.
These favourable
conditions were used by the opponents of the Soviet system who established the
Helsinki Groups, which were most active in Moscow, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia,
and Estonia. 1976 was an ordinary gloomy year for building ‘the bright future’
when any signs of independence were ruthlessly suppressed, and the proponents
of independence arrested, tried, and sent to camps and prisons. The routine of
the Brezhnev epoch had permeated into every sphere of life, and it looked as
though nobody would stop the Soviet people on their way to ‘the bright future’.
But in reality it was the period of rapid slide towards economic collapse and
moral degradation – one thing meant, another thing spoken, and yet another
done.
Therefore, one
needed extreme courage to make the document of the Helsinki Group, which
breathed of the spirit of freedom, public and indicate the Group members’ names
and addresses. Especially bearing in mind that the Manifesto had a sentence on
the situation of Lithuania resulting from ‘the Soviet Army’s entrance to its
territory in 1940’. Although it was a diplomatically cautious statement, it
could infuriate the authorities in Moscow and have serious consequences to all
members of the Group.
The documents of
the 1975 Helsinki Conference were to become the moral commitment of the
signatory countries; on the other hand, it was obvious from the very moment of
signing them that the Soviet authorities were not going to comply with them.
The activities of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group as well as other Groups, set up
in the Soviet Union, were public, and the members of the Groups declared that
they would obey all the effective laws in order to prevent any reason to
persecute and suppress them. Unfortunately, the Soviet reality was the
environment where even formal principles of the Helsinki Accords were not
followed.
The members of
the Lithuanian Helsinki Group were soon tried and imprisoned. They were
sentenced to many years in labour camps, but after their return, they would
join the holly mission again – human rights watch in Lithuania, fight for the
country’s freedom and independence.
The essence and
the meaning of the activities of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group can be described
by a simple poetic metaphor - even a small group of likeminded people can break
the ice in the frozen sea. The frozen sea does not exist any more and the
thirst for independence has led our country and our citizens to freedom. But we
will always remember and pay tribute to those who paved this way to freedom.
We have with us
the founders of the Helsinki Group - Viktoras Petkus, Tomas Venclova, and
Eitanas Finkelsteinas is with us in his thoughts today. I invite you to stand
up and by applauding to pay respect to the first ambassadors of restored
independence, who were not afraid of suppression by the most powerful
totalitarian system, who put their freedom and perhaps their life at risk. I
would also like to welcome the representatives of foreign Helsinki groups:
Liudmila Alekseyeva from Moscow, Mart Niklus from Estonia, and Ints Calitis
from Latvia.
In conclusion, I
would like to underline that the protection of human rights as one of the major
objectives of the Helsinki Group should be a continuous and an ongoing process
in today’s Lithuania. The actions of state institutions are insufficient in
this field, therefore active participation of the public by informing about the
violations of human rights is needed, as well as the focus of the public’s and
the state’s attention on human rights infringements, and proposals for the
solution of different problems.
I wish the
participants of the conference to make an extensive overview, to recall and
remind the public of the historic activities of the Helsinki Group, and to
assess its implications for today’s independent Lithuania. The Helsinki Group
members started to lay the foundations of our independence 30 years ago.
