Lugovoy = Medininkai massacre, when the justice prevail?

Exactly 16 years ago, in 1991, July 31, the Medininkai massacre in Lithuania took place.  This atrocity was conducted by the Soviet OMON (garrisoned at Riga) against the Lithuanian customs post at the Medininkai border crossing point near the Vilnius.  It is thought that the attack took place at 4 am because one of the victims clock stopped at this hour.

Seven officers – were shot and killed. Customs Officer Tomas Šernas was severely wounded and became disabled, later to become a pastor. The unarmed officers were shot in the head, execution style.   Those killed were buried in the Antakalnis Cemetery. The post was turned into a memorial.

Many of the men suspected by the Lithuanian government as being responsible for these incidents are now citizens of Russia. The Lithuanian government continues to demand that the persons suspected in these incidents should be interrogated and tried in Lithuania if necessary, while Russia refuses to legally cooperate motivating that such actions would violate their constitution.  Hence, not only Lugavoy is protected by the Russian State.

President of Lithuania Adamkus regretted that Lithuania’s justice and retribution cannot yet extend to the criminals hiding in the neighbouring countries in the East.“They are still using something that is not theirs — freedom. Yet today we know the names of the killers, know what they did then — sixteen years ago in Medininkai post at the break of dawn, know where they live now,” the president stressed.

As the only survivor Tomas Šernas told to a newspaper today:  ’Perhaps it is not crucial if the guilty will ever be sentenced, I am not seeking revenge.  I want us to understand what actually happened there.  At the moment the case is regarded as the criminal offence – someone attacked somebody and killed.

All interpretation of the event is wrong. In reality a military formation in a cold blood massacred those who did not resist.  This should be regarded as a war criminal activity.  We should name the January 13 events to a military aggression and Medininkai tragedy to a massacre, a war criminal activity against a young state.  If we will not pay enough attention to that now, we will loose very badly sometime in the future.’