Lithuania Reluctant to Assist Belarus
In “bear bombing” case.
Lithuania must observe all the international obligations regarding the investigation of July’s “bear bombing”, President Dalia Grybauskaite told reporters on September 7.
The president said that she would not decide whether Vilnius should help Minsk with the investigation.
“Lithuania is a democratic, law-based state,” the news website delfi.ru quoted her. “All the international obligations must be observed in one form or another. In what form, in what volume and how they should be observed is the responsibility of law enforcers, namely the prosecutor's office that is conducting the investigation.”
On July 4, a single-engine plane piloted by representatives of Sweden’s public relations agency Studio Total invaded Belarus’ airspace and dropped hundreds of teddy bears with “pro-free speech” signs on the town of Ivianets and Minsk before flying back to Lithuania unhindered.
In August, the Belarusian authorities asked Lithuania and Sweden to help them investigate the incident.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa Jukneviciene said on August 9 that Lithuania had no information about the incident, and that Belarus' request for legal assistance would be considered in accordance with national regulations.
“The airspace was not violated, that's for sure,” Ms. Jukneviciene said. “Small private aircraft constantly fly in Lithuania, they were flying at that time, but no airspace violations were detected.”
On the same day, Aliaksandr Lukashenka warned that Lithuania should not “sit like mice under the broom” over the incident. “They should tell us why they provided their territory for the violation of the state border,” he said. “To Lithuania, if anyone, the response won’t seem to be weak.”