LITHUANIA AIMS TO SETTLE JEWISH PROPERTY ISSUE BY YEAR-END
Updated 2010-11-08
Lithuania aims by the end of this year to settle the issue of compensation for Jewish communal property seized by the Nazis in World War II and kept by the Soviets, the government said Friday.
"I hope the decision will be taken this year," Justice Minister Remigijus Simasius told AFP, after parliament cleared the first hurdle in a long-stalled legal process.
Late Thursday, the Baltic state's lawmakers backed a draft compensation bill which was drawn up by the government last year but had remained on ice.
The move enabled the 128-million-litas (37-million-euro, 53-million-dollar) package to be sent to a parliamentary committee, paving the way for a final vote.
Lithuania's centre-right government originally aimed to have the law passed by the end of 2009, but parliament got bogged down by votes on austerity measures amid a deep economic crisis.
Faina Kukliansky, a leader of Lithuania's Jewish community, hailed parliament's latest step.
"We are very satisfied that finally the resolution of this question has moved further along," she told AFP on Friday.
Pre-war Lithuania was home to 220,000 Jews.
But 95 percent perished during the 1941-1944 German occupation at the hands of the Nazis and local collaborators.
Today, some 5,000 Jews live in Lithuania, a nation of 3.3 million, according to the local Jewish community.
During five decades of post-war Soviet rule, Jewish property which had been seized by the Nazis was kept by the state, and much remained in its hands after independence from Moscow in 1991.
The issue of compensation has dragged on since then.
Synagogues were returned several years ago. But there was no blanket deal for dozens of other former communal buildings such as schools, and the financial package aims to settle that.
"This compensation law is not related to some moral responsibility of Lithuania as a state for the crimes committed. But moral, political and legal responsibility arises because the property in many cases belongs to the Lithuanian state," Simasius said.
"I hope the decision will be taken this year," Justice Minister Remigijus Simasius told AFP, after parliament cleared the first hurdle in a long-stalled legal process.
Late Thursday, the Baltic state's lawmakers backed a draft compensation bill which was drawn up by the government last year but had remained on ice.
The move enabled the 128-million-litas (37-million-euro, 53-million-dollar) package to be sent to a parliamentary committee, paving the way for a final vote.
Lithuania's centre-right government originally aimed to have the law passed by the end of 2009, but parliament got bogged down by votes on austerity measures amid a deep economic crisis.
Faina Kukliansky, a leader of Lithuania's Jewish community, hailed parliament's latest step.
"We are very satisfied that finally the resolution of this question has moved further along," she told AFP on Friday.
Pre-war Lithuania was home to 220,000 Jews.
But 95 percent perished during the 1941-1944 German occupation at the hands of the Nazis and local collaborators.
Today, some 5,000 Jews live in Lithuania, a nation of 3.3 million, according to the local Jewish community.
During five decades of post-war Soviet rule, Jewish property which had been seized by the Nazis was kept by the state, and much remained in its hands after independence from Moscow in 1991.
The issue of compensation has dragged on since then.
Synagogues were returned several years ago. But there was no blanket deal for dozens of other former communal buildings such as schools, and the financial package aims to settle that.
"This compensation law is not related to some moral responsibility of Lithuania as a state for the crimes committed. But moral, political and legal responsibility arises because the property in many cases belongs to the Lithuanian state," Simasius said.
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