President Valdas Adamkus said he expects Lithuanian troops assigned with establishing and leading the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan to show excellent skills in the area of administration and security. Speaking of NATO, which Lithuania joined on April 1, 2004, he told reporters March 29 that "we are where we wanted to be." He added that, "What is most important is that through the course of the year we have been both accepted and come to be trusted immensely. Such trust is now expressed by the assignment of certain operations 's I mean the ones in Afghanistan, whereby the entire territory will be more or less administrated by Lithuanian troops."
Adamkus will visit Tallinn as part of festivities marking the Baltics' one-year membership in NATO. In addition to the celebration in Tallinn, the president will attend a bilateral meeting with his Estonian counterpart, Arnold Ruutel.
MP Petras Grazulis, who started a hunger strike to demand the resignation of Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis and Director of the State Security Department Arvydas Pocius, was joined last week by fellow MP Egidijus Klumbys, a Liberal Democrat. As Klumbys said on March 24, "Petras and I are comrades-in-arms, and I have no moral right to leave him alone in this trying period." Grazulis presented his colleague with a wooden plaque reading "Hunger Campaign" and "I demand the resignation of KGB reservists. The two MPs told the press conference they would continue with the hunger action "until victory."
A Boeing 737-500 that Lithuanian Airlines, a state-owned company, bought just two weeks ago has turned out to be a disappointment for passengers: Pilots were forced to land the plane when it malfunctioned immediately after take-off from Vilnius Airport on March 28. None of the 20 passengers were injured. The daily Lietuvos Rytas reported that after the Boeing left the runway, pilots noticed the front chassis would not retract. They therefore landed the plane immediately. Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Administration Alvydas Sumskas later stated that the incident was not hazardous.
The country has donated over 1 million litas (290,000 euros) to the victims of the tsunami in Southeastern Asia. Lithuania's Red Cross reported the completion of a collection campaign that lasted two months. A grand total of 1.01 million litas was donated. Resources will be allocated for reconstruction and rehabilitation programs in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The government has allocated 350,000 litas to tsunami victims, while some donations were collected by Caritas.
NATO became stronger by accepting Lithuania, Czech Ambassador to Lithuania Petr Voznica said. "It is nice that after some time, we can say that the results were and are convincing, and every persistent effort was justified," Voznica said during a celebration of the event's first anniversary on March 29. NATO foreign ministers, as well as their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts will meet in Vilnius in April to discuss new NATO activity guidelines.
