Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Lithuania
Newsline: Lithuanian man blows up himself near U.S. Embassy
A Lithuanian man blew up himself near the U.S. Embassy in the Baltic state’s capital overnight but the embassy was not thought to have been targeted, police said. “No, the initial suspicion is that this was a suicide,” a police spokesman said by telephone, when asked if the man had been trying to damage the embassy. An officer on duty at the embassy said it had not been damaged by the explosion, which took place a few hundred metres away and was heard throughout the city centre. “It was a horrible thing to happen, but the embassy was not the target,” an embassy spokesman said later. Delfi news portal said the police had identified the man killed as a 19-year-old from Lithuanian city of Kaunas based on documents found nearby.
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE8050DA20120106
Newsline: Poland summons Lithuania envoy over ethnic Poles
Poland’s foreign ministry summoned the Lithuanian ambassador inWarsawto express concern over the treatment of its Baltic neighbour’s Polish-speaking minority. The move is the latest sign of increased tensions between the two countries, which are both members of the European Union and of NATO, over a growing list of complaints, including the treatment of ethnic Poles and Polish investors in Lithuania. The ministry said it had expressed concern to Ambassador Loreta Zakareviciene about “a growing … atmosphere of enmity” inLithuaniatowards its Polish-speaking population.Vilniushas already distanced itself from recent nationalistic comments by some Lithuanian educators cited byPoland. “We should not let radicals prevail. The (Lithuanian) government wants emotions to be left aside, so the normal dialogue (withPoland) continues,” said Virgis Valentinavicius, a spokesman forLithuania’s prime minister. The two countries have had generally friendly ties since the fall of communism in 1989 andLithuania’s regaining of its independence in 1991 after the collapse of theSoviet Union. ButWarsawhas long fretted about the rights of the Polish minority inLithuania, which makes up around 7 percent of the small Baltic republic’s population, over issues ranging from the spelling of Polish names to land disputes and education.
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFLDE73I1O620110419
Newsline: Lieberman fraud probe throws spotlight on ‘incompetent’ envoy
Civil Service Commissioner Shmuel Hollander and Foreign Ministry Director Yossi Gal agreed on Wednesday that Ze’ev Ben Aryeh, now ambassador designate to Latvia and Lithuania and until recently Israel’s envoy to Belarus, will take a forced vacation as the investigation into his actions related to the police investigation of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman continues. Ties between Ben Aryeh and Avigdor Lieberman came under scrutiny this week as Lieberman fought to avert impending corruption charges. Ben Aryeh, until recently an anonymous junior diplomat, is suspected of leaking to Lieberman secret details of a police investigation that may soon result in a criminal indictment against the controversial minister. How Ben Aryeh, who immigrated to Israel in his thirties and is said to have only a faltering command of Hebrew, emerged from obscurity to lead key diplomatic missions to the former Soviet Union has been the subject of intense speculation among foreign ministry officials. Many diplomats were shocked when eventually Ben Aryeh, now in his 60s and like Lieberman a former Israel Radio employee, was appointed ambassador. Many suggest that without Lieberman’s patronage, he would never have advanced beyond routine desk work in Jerusalem. Less than 12 months after his previous promotion, he saw off competition from several senior and more experienced candidates for the post of ambassador to Latvia and Lithuania. Diplomats contacted by Haaretz were unanimous in their anger over the affair: “Never in the history of the Israeli diplomatic service have we seen this kind of outrage,” one said. “These are dark days for the foreign ministry.
