BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/11/2006

Lithuanian parliamentary commission prepares report on state security agency activity

Mechis Laurinkus, former head of the State Security Department (VSD) of Lithuania, and the current ambassador in Spain, has testified November 17 before the committee on national security and defense of the Lithuanian parliament, online paper Penki kontinentai reports. In his opinion, the present head of the security department, Arvydas Pocius, should keep the post, and investigation of the VSD activity will be only an advantage for the agency.

Laurinkus marked that such an investigation was "natural enough" and similiar investigations had been led also earlier, as he could recall 3-4 such cases, and on similar questions, " another thing that they were not discussed publicly and were quite useful to the department". Laurinkus said those investigations had allowed to analyse the agency' s work more deeply, in particular, concerning structural and financial aspects of the problems. They had helped to solve also certain budget issues, according to the former VSD head.

Laurinkus paid some compliments to the current VSD head, having emphasized, that it was him who invited Pocius to work in the VSD, appreciating its operational experience in the struggle against smugglers. November 17 also Pocius himself and the consul of Lithuania in Grodno, Belarus, Dajva Motskuvene were questioned by the commission last time. This week the members of the commission will write the conclusions and it is not an easy task as it is necessary to make a publicly open report on the basis of classified information, the online paper concludes.

Source:

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1131