Militia major: “Lithuania and the rest of the world shouldn’t see it”

• 26.03.2008, 11:54

Lithuanian TV journalists were detained by riot militia, though they showed their certificate. A cassette was taken away from them and no official explanations were given.

“I’m shocked of what I’ve seen,” Ruta Ribaciauskiene, correspondent of the Lithuanian National Television, says. ”I worked in Russia and I have never been in such situations there.”

As the site ucpb.org reports referring to the journalist, the detention was “very brutal.”

“They were dragging us on the ground! I showed them the certificate, the accreditation and the passport, I shouted: ‘I’m a foreign journalist!’ Operator Jonas Griskonis and I were guarded to militia. They took away our cassette, didn’t explain anything, just laughed: ‘Why have you come there?’” the Lithuanian journalist said.

The Lithuanian journalists spent more than 2 hours in the internal affairs department of the Tsentralny District “for verification of the identity,” though the journalists had all necessary documents. They were set free later, but militiamen didn’t give a cassette back.

Militiamen from the internal affairs department of the Tsentralny District watched recorded crackdown of the demonstration and beating of peaceful protesters. A major said: “You shot, what you didn’t need to shot. Lithuania and the rest of the world shouldn’t see it.” They just take away the cassette and didn’t draw up any document,” R. Ribaciauskiene said.