VILNIUS - Parliamentary Chairman Arturas Paulauskas has proposed that the State Defense Council reconsider the country's involvement in the peacekeeping mission in Iraq.
Paulauskas sent the proposal to President Valdas Adamkus on Dec. 12.
The proposal arose following media reports about the conduct of U.S. troops with Iraqi prisoners of war violating international law standards.
Earlier, MP Petras Grazulis started collecting signatures under the address to the president, urging the latter to call a meeting of the State Defense Council to discuss the matter.
MP Audronius Azubalis, who sits on the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, was skeptical of the initiative and urged colleague parliamentarians not to sign the document. But Paulauskas' address to the president surprised the Conservative MP.
"If Grazulis might fail to understand the strategic goal of the civilized world - to create and strengthen democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, thus granting the democratic perspective to the entire region 's it should be known and clear to the second person in the Republic of Lithuania, the parliamentary chairman," Azubalis was quoted as saying.
