Lituanica

Following heated debates, the Lithuanian Seimas recognized Tuesday the independence of Serbia’s break-off nation of Kosovo.

As the BNS reported the opponents to recognition reminded that Lithuania is especially active in supporting Georgia’s quest to maintain control over the separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia territories, however the country’s stance with regards to Kosovo is completely opposite. “Why don’t Lithuanians want to grant independence to Ossetians and Abkhazians, while they do so with the Kosovo Albanians?” one of the MPs noted.

As the BNS reported the supporters stressed that the Kosovo case is completely an exceptional one, as Serbia had undertaken repressions against its own citizens, which have to be protected by the international community. The others stated that given such animosity between the Serbians and Albanians, there is nothing left other than separating the two sides of the conflict with national borders.

This was a second attempt after a fiasco in April 1, when the Lithuanian Parliament failed to recognise Kosovo.  One of the main reasons behind the failure was that those MP’s who supported the recognition did not participate in the voting and chose to celebrate their colleague’s Sabatauskas birthday instead.