Freedom in the World 1998 - Lithuania

1998 Scores

Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Civil Liberties: 2
Political Rights: 1

Overview

In a second round of presidential balloting held on January 4, Lithuanian-American Valdas Adamkus narrowly defeated former prosecutor general Arturas Paulauskas. Incumbent Prime Minister Gediminas Vagnorius was chosen in March to serve a second term.

One of the leading states of Europe during the middle ages, Lithuania merged with Poland in the sixteenth century and was subsequently absorbed by Russia in the eighteenth century. After becoming independent at the end of World War I, Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 under a secret protocol of the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact. The country regained its independence with the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

In 1992 parliamentary elections, the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party (LDDP), the renamed ex-Communist Party, won 79 of 141 seats. Algirdas Brazauskas, a former head of the Communist Party, became the country's first directly elected president in 1993. In 1996, with two LDDP-led governments tainted by financial scandal in the wake of a banking crisis, the LDDP was routed in parliamentary elections. Gediminas Vagnorius of the Homeland Union-Conservative Party (HU/LC) was named prime minister, replacing Laurynas Mindaugas Stankevicius. Vytautas Landsbergis, leader of the HU/LC, was made parliamentary chairman.

On January 4, retired Lithuanian-American and independent candidate Valdas Adamkus was elected president in a second round of balloting with 50.4 percent of the vote over former prosecutor general Arturas Paulauskas. The first round of elections on December 21 failed to produce a winner, as none of the seven presidential candidates received more than 50 percent of the vote. Subsequently, Adamkus and Paulauskas, the two front-runners after the first round, continued to a second round of balloting. Although formally independent, Paulauskas was strongly supported by the LDDP, and received most of his backing from those dissatisfied with the effects of post-communist reforms. On January 6, Adamkus proposed that incumbent Prime Minister Vagnorius of the HU/LC, with which Adamkus agrees on many issues, serve a second term. Parliament approved his nomination on March 10 by a wide margin.

As part of a subsequent government reorganization plan, the ministries of European affairs, communications, and construction were eliminated. These changes, as well as the replacement of some pro-Landsbergis cabinet members, were seen by many as the result of a power struggle between Vagnorius and Landsbergis for control over the HU/LC.

On May 23, the Lithuanian daily Lieutuvos Rytas published an article alleging that Landsbergis and former Interior Minister Vidmantas Ziemelis had ordered secret surveillance of high-ranking officials and political rivals. Both Landsbergis and Ziemelis denied the charges. The newspaper quoted the allegations of three cabinet members, all of whom were loyal to Vagnorius. Arturas Paulauskas and former president Algirdas Brazauskas also claimed to have been illegally wiretapped or followed. However, a parliamentary commission found no proof of wrongdoing, and the prosecutor general decided not to press charges due to a lack of evidence.

After previous delays which had provoked criticism from the Israeli government, the U.S. State Department, and Jewish organizations, the trial of accused war criminal Aleksandras Lileikis was postponed again in late 1998 due to the 91-year old defendant's poor health. The trial would mark the first proceeding against an alleged Nazi war criminal in Lithuania. In the country's first conviction under its broad genocide law, three former employees of the NKVD (the predecessor to the KGB) were found guilty in early December of killing a family of four in 1945.

The European Union failed to invite Lithuania to start formal membership negotiations, a process which is tied partly to the setting of a closure date for the Soviet-designed Ignalina nuclear power plant, the country's principle energy source.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Lithuanians can change their government democratically. The 1992 constitution established a 141-member parliament (Seimas), in which 71 seats are directly elected, and 70 seats are chosen by proportional representation, all for four-year terms. The president is directly elected for a five-year term. The 1996 legislative elections and the 1997-1998 presidential vote were declared free and fair by international observers.

The government generally respects freedom of speech and the press. There is a wide variety of privately-owned newspapers, including Russian and Polish-language publications. Several independent, as well as state-run television and radio stations broadcast nationwide. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by law and enjoyed in practice in this largely Roman Catholic country.

Freedom of assembly and association are respected, although the Communist Party of Lithuania continues to be banned. Workers have the right to form and join trade unions, to strike, and to engage in collective bargaining. However, ongoing problems include inadequate or employer-biased legislation, management discrimination against union members, and a lack of expertise on the part of the court system in labor related issues.

There have been credible reports of police brutality, and prisons remain overcrowded and poorly maintained. A lack of qualified lawyers has resulted in inadequate protection of the rights of detainees, many of whom are held in pre-trial detention without clear legal grounds for their incarceration. In late December, parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, despite recent polls indicating widespread public support for capital punishment.

The rights of the country's ethnic minorities are protected. In 1992, Lithuania extended citizenship to all those born within its borders, and over 90 percent of non-ethnic Lithuanians, mostly Russians and Poles, became citizens.

In July, parliament adopted legislation proposed by parliamentary chairman Vytautas Landsbergis banning former KGB officers from holding government office and a variety of private sector jobs for ten years. After President Adamkus vetoed the legislation questioning its constitutionality, parliament agreed to postpone its enactment until January 1, 1999. In October, 31 MPs asked the constitutional court to rule on the law's constitutionality, a decision which was still pending at year's end.

Women face discrimination in education and the workplace, and they are underrepresented in certain professions and in upper level positions in general.