Valdas Adamkus: Neo-Nazi march discredits Lithuania

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President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus has had on March 20 a meeting with minister of interior Regimantas Čiupaila, at which he for the first time expressed his opinion on the unsanctioned neo-Nazi march in Vilnius held on March 11. As REGNUM was informed at the Lithuanian head of state's press service, Mr Adamkus was outraged by the sluggish and late reaction of the police and interior ministry of Lithuania to the procession of the radical youth and chanting of slogans inciting ethnic hatred.

Such gatherings, at which ideas spurring ethnic hatred are disseminated, are inadmissible; they discredit Lithuania, Mr Adamkus said. In his words, “it is dangerous when ideas of intolerance towards national minorities are being disguised as patriotism.” Valdas Adamkus has warned the head of interior ministry that such incidents “should not repeat.”