Farmers' protest falls on deaf ears

VILNIUS - There was a time when angry farmers blocking roads was something Lithuanians only expected to see on the TV news footage from France or Poland.

That all changed July 13, when the same type of protest was seen right here in Lithuania. Farmers gathered across the country for a one-day protest action organized by the tiny Lithu-anian Peasants Party. The official coordinator of the action was the MP and leader of this party Ramunas Karbauskis.

Protesters made 47 demands of the government, including compensation for fertilizers and diesel fuel, government commitments to buy all milk produced by farmers, otherwise known as state subsidizing of agricultural products.

The action was held in 18 of Lithuania's 44 districts.

"There were from 6,000 to 10,000 participants in the action," said Karbauskis. Some 12 percent of the 3.7 million Lithuanians work in the agriculture sector, according to Jonas Rekesius, a spokesman for the Agriculture Ministry.

All major farmers' organizations, including the Farmers' Union and the Association of Agriculture Companies, boycotted the protest calling it "a political action."

Jonas Ciulevicius, head of Farmers' Unity, which has 40,000 members, blamed this action as pure self-advertisement of Karbauskis' tiny party.

"This action had nothing to do with politics," Karbauskis said, denying accusations during a post-protest press conference held at the Parliament.

According to Rimvydas Valatka, a columnist for Lietuvos rytas, fulfillment of all the demands of the action would cost 1 million litas ($250,000) for the Lithu-anian government.

"If the government is going to buy the farmers' production, which nobody needs, why doesn't the government buy machines produced by Kuro Aparatura Fabric, which is nearing bankruptcy? Are workers worse citizens than farmers," Valatka told the Lithuanian Radio.

The Lithuanian Liberal Union was even more straightforward. Its activists charged that Lithuania, like other Western countries, overproduces agricultural products and the state simply does not need such a big farming population.

Some economists even suggested thinking about the possibility of paying farmers for doing nothing. It could be cheaper than subsidizing their production. So, no wonder that both Lithu-anian President Valdas Adamkus and Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas showed no will to compromise with the protesters.

Karbauskis insists that the government can find the money to support farmers' jobs.

"Why does the government find money for sending Lithuanian peacekeeping troops to Bosnia? This money must be given to peasants instead. I live well and I can't stand to see other people living poorly. That is why I organized this action. It wasn't a political action," said Karbauskis.

Karbauskis, in his late 20s, is the lone MP representing the Peasants' Party in Parliament. He is also known as the richest man in Parliament; in 1998, he officially declared his possessions to be worth 5.1 million litas. Karbauskis' firm Agrokoncernas imports mostly fertilizers from Russia. The daily Respublika even accused him of seeking financial profit from the action (the demand for compensation for fertilizers).

Karbauskis denied the accusations.

Rimvydas Gradauskas, president of Linava, an association of truck carriers, said his organization lost 150,000 litas thanks to the farmers' partial blockade. The Lithuanian Liberal Union said it is ready to give all legal assistance in helping to receive compensations from protest organizers to those who suffered financial losses. Karbauskis, though, said his group is ready to pay for all those who lost money.

A special case in the farmers' protest was the blockade of the Via Baltica, a major road, near Marijampole, southwestern Lithuania. This protest lasted until July 16. Some 100 protesters blocked the road making an improvised outdoor café there. They demanded money from the government to save the sugar fabric Marijampoles Cukrus, which is near bankruptcy. Actually they demanded the government give 35 million litas to Marijampoles Cukrus.

A little bit more than half of Marijampoles Cukrus shares belong to the Danish company Danisco Sugar, the rest is possessed by local farmers. "In Marijampole not farmers but rather the owners of a sugar factory were protesting and demanding the government save their private company," Rekesius commented ironically.

"The government has no right to save a private company from bankruptcy," said Jonas Cekuolis, a government spokesman. Paksas rejected the demands of the Marijampole protesters.

"Marijampoles Cukrus is a museum of old technology," said Agriculture Minister Edvardas Makelis.