Lietuva in brief - 2005-05-25

  • 2005-05-25
A political declaration on establishing a joint battle group between Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Slovakia and Latvia, which will belong to the EU Rapid Reaction Force, was signed in Brussels on May 23. In November last year EU defense ministers agreed that the EU Rapid Reaction Force would be comprised of 13 battle groups. In case of a crisis, the battle groups would be deployed within 5-15 days. The Lithuanian-Polish-German-Slovak-Latvian battle group will start work in 2010.

Mental institutions and convalescent centers are in gross violation of the patients' rights and are even exercising torture, NGOs reported this week on the basis of a recent survey that involved nine convalescent centers and five mental institutions. "Such institutions are in rather gross violation of the human rights to information, private life, as people are being watched both day and night. They are also conducting torture, for instance, performing forced abortions," director of the Human Rights Watch Institute Henrikas Mickevicius said.

Vilnius' Old Town and the Curonian Spit may be included on the UNESCO World Heritage in Danger List, said Lithuania's permanent representative to the organization, Ambassador Ina Marciulionyte. "If things continue as they are, they may be listed," she told journalists after a meeting with President Valdas Adamkus. The development of tall buildings and poor reconstruction are the Old Town's main problems, she explained. Klaipeda's plans to build a bridge that would link the city with the spit also pose a threat to the site.

The Valstybes Zinios paper reported that Stanislovas Raulusaitis, who was born in 1960 and is now chairman of the Labor Party Varena bureau, secretly collaborated with Soviet security. The national TV program Panorama reported that Raulusaitis was recruited in Druskininkai in 1977 and collaborated with the KGB until 1989. He went under the alias of Baravykas (boletus). Raulusaitis was a candidate for Parliament from the Varena-Eisiskes single-mandate district and was included in the Labor Party list but was never elected. In the candidate's questionnaire, he never disclosed information on his past.

The Washington D.C. home of Vygaudas Usackas, ambassador to the United States, was broken into last week. Usackas was in New York at the time the incident occurred. His wife, Loreta, found the front door broken, and according to preliminary data, the burglars stole a computer, a video camera, some family valuables and a wallet with Usackas' Lithuanian documents. The U.S. Diplomatic Security Service is investigating the incident.

Vesiga sauce producer presented ketchup that allegedly stimulates sexual energy at the World of Private Label 2005 international exhibition in Amsterdam on May 24. The new ketchup, Eross, contains the most popular Brazilian aphrodisiac 's bark from the Catuaba tree, which increases sexuality and potency, stimulates the nervous system and improves memory without causing side effect, the PR agency Pro Group reported.