Lietuva in brief - 2011-10-13

A lost opportunity to bring Ukraine closer to Europe will be detrimental not only for Ukraine, but also to the European Union, particularly to the region of the Eastern Partnership, the Lithuanian foreign minister says, reports ELTA. At a Monday meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis called for the conclusion of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU as soon as this year. Azubalis stressed that such selective serving of justice in cases like Yulia Tymoshenko’s is worrying and Kiev should be well-aware of this reaction. Nevertheless, there is no better way to bring Ukraine closer to Europe and its values than the Association Agreement that is under preparation, the minister noted. “Ukraine chooses its own way, but the path that we choose is important likewise. Do we want to change the situation in Ukraine; do we see our strategic interest to bring Ukraine closer? If we lose this opportunity, it will be harmful not only for Ukraine, but also to the European Union, not to mention the whole region of the Eastern Partnership,” Azubalis told the meeting.

Human rights group Amnesty said in a statement on Oct. 10 that its Finnish branch had identified more than 10 flights via Finland by aircraft owned by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency front companies during the so-called war on terror between 2001 and 2006, reports the Helsinki Times. Amnesty added that the earlier total of alleged torture flights linked to Finland had been three. Among the suspected rendition aircraft is, for example, a Boeing 707 with the tail-number N88ZL. The Boeing 707 from Afghanistan to Vilnius is alleged to have flown directly to the Lithuanian capital, but on the same day, in September 2004, it was photographed at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Helsingin Sanomat reports. From Helsinki the plane was said to have continued via Washington to Guantanamo. Amnesty International said it had passed the flight details to Finnish authorities, with the Foreign Ministry pledging to look into the matter.