VILNIUS- A Belarusian priest has been charged with
betraying the Lithuanian Forest Brothers in the 1950s. Juozas Bulka, a Catholic priest has
had a case opened against him by Lithuanian prosecutors, reported the
Lithuanian embassy in Minsk,
Belarus.
"The criminal case was opened, and Bulka was put on the wanted list,"
the embassy reported.
Bulka is accused of cooperating and conspiring with Soviet authorities in the
1950s, Belarusian media reported. Lithuania is now saying that he
identified the guerrilla fighters as Forest Brothers.
"This is all wrong. I have been fighting alcohol abuse all the time, and
they are ascribing a political case to me," Bulka told Interfax on April
6.
"People talking about the Forest Brothers want me out. I know where
this propaganda comes from," he said.
Forest Brothers is the name of
the civilian guerrilla movement of nationalists in all three Baltic
States from 1940-1957, many of who remained in hiding until the
early 1990s. In Lithuania,
the movement was most active in the years 1944-47. Some Russian historians
claim the movement was pro-Nazi, a claim denied by the west, and is known as
the national liberation movement.
