O P I N I O N
by Geoff Vasil
Ričardas Čekutis, “chief specialist” at Lithuanian’s state-sponsored Genocide Center in Vilnius old town, a fascist party leader and co-organizer of the annual neo-Nazi marches through Vilnius, has again made controversial comments on Facebook, this time apparently calling upon other Lithuanian neo-Nazis to murder three MPs. Two of the three are signatories to the Seventy Years Declaration (SYD) first published in DefendingHistory.com and presented to the president of the European Parliament in Strasbourg last month.
Confirming suspicions that SYD had angered not just the clique of apparatchiks who earn a good living from the Double Genocide industry in this part of the world, and had made wider waves in the Lithuanian neo-Nazi underground, Čekutis seemed to call for someone to shoot MPs Vytenis Andriukaitis, Justinas Karosas—both of whom signed the SYD—and the MP Petras Austrevičius.
Andriukaitis was outspoken in his support for the declaration and won a one-against-three debate on state radio against Čekutis’s fellow party member and neo-Nazi organizer Marius Kundrotas, Double Genocide industry commander-in-chief Ronaldas Račinskas, and the talk show host, who appeared to be under the influence of heavy Double Genocide mind control.
Kundrotas and Čekutis, both currently employees of the Lithuanian state, held a press conference on February 23, 2011 after they jointly formed the Young Lithuania pro-fascist party Young Lithuania for Vilnius municipal elections. At that press conference both men claimed they were being persecuted for their beliefs. Čekutis complained his sponsor and protectrix in parliament, former Genocide Center director Dalia Kuodytė had been forced to send him back to his old job as “senior PR specialist” and remove him as her personal assistant because of attacks by what Kundrotas and Čekutis characterized as “thought police.”
In earlier public Facebook postings documented by the two serious pro-democracy anti-fascist watchdog websites, antifa.lt (here and here) and anarchija.lt (English here), Čekutis called for excluding Jews from working in the public sector by checking their genealogy for four previous generations. He also called for the drawing up of lists of people subject to summary execution as enemies of the state in emulation of Nazi lists used to round up people for execution in Lithuania. Yet Čekutis is, as of today, still listed as “chief specialist” (on “parental leave”) on the Genocide Center’s website.
Following the “leak” of this and other public Facebook postings by Čekutis, he set his profile to “private” and presumably carried on as before with his neo-Nazi brethren.
Needless to say, calling for the exclusion of Jews from public life, the execution of enemies and the assassination of MPs is a violation of Facebook’s terms of service. It would be simple to have Čekutis expelled from the Facebook “community,” but now that incitement to commit assassinations of public figures has appeared, if Lithuanian law enforcement were in any way concerned with the rise of neo-Nazism, it would be expedient to have Facebook freeze his account and hand over all conversations, public and private, as evidence. Not only does Facebook clearly state that all text and pictures posted become the exclusive property of Facebook, they also regularly do hand over material to law enforcement around the world and have mechanisms in place for such cooperation.
On April 4, MP Petras Austrevičius, one of the targets of assassination, said that he’s not sure whether to consult the police or mental health specialists. MP Vytenis Andriukaitis, in an open letter on balsas.lt published on April 5 (English here) said he would go to prosecutors, and hinted he would pursue a case against Čekutis as a public employee. Since Čekutis is a party leader and the leader of a fascist youth organization, and because his earlier calls to form enemies’ lists was heeded—including attempts by neo-Nazi fellow traveler “Žygeivis” aka Kęstutis Čeponis to locate me on the fascist website he runs, lndp.lt) — seeking to have Čekutis removed from public service is probably too little, too late. There should be no problem for prosecutors to demonstrate that Čekutis’s “free speech” actually constitutes incitement to racial, ethnic and religious discord as well as murder, given that he does have influence over a number of followers.
As in the earlier series of Facebook postings featured on antifa.lt and anarchija.lt, Čekutis is again claiming he was “just joking.” Austrevičius noted the neo-Nazis have protectors inside the parliament who “go psycho” any time anyone attempts to put the brakes on Lithuania’s slide into fascism. One of the most vocal proponents of the fascist youth organizations is Gintaras Songaila, who christened his new “nationalist” party at the neo-Nazi march in Kaunas on February 16.
Čekutis’s main benefactress in parliament remains Dalia Kuodytė, former head of the Genocide Center and a member of the Lithuanian parliament’s contact group with Tibet, a cause espoused recently and publicly by Lithuania’s foreign minister Audronius Ažubalis in his public statement denouncing the eight Lithuanian signatories to the Seventy Years Declaration, and also including his now infamous statement about the relative moustache length of Hitler and Stalin.
If Kuodytė rises again this time to defend Čekutis, the former special assistant in parliament she regretfully kicked back to the Genocide Center earlier when his fascist youth party coined an anti-gay, anti-African, anti-Roma campaign slogan, will prosecutors ignore the call to assassinate her political opponents in parliament? Will Audronius Ažubalis move “behind the scenes” and diplomatically to smooth things over and save Double Genocide industry star employee Čekutis? Or when he “resigns” will Kuodytė ensure he gets a large severance package and promises of a more lucrative job in state service, serving the cause of Double Genocide? Will Songaila make Čekutis number 2 on his new party list?
“Today the streets, tomorrow: parliament.” So says the sign the neo-Nazi marchers have been carrying for three years now at their parades through Vilnius and Kaunas on Lithuania’s two independence days. Is this a case of “elect me before I make good on my threats to murder numerous individuals and politicians?” The poor neo-Nazi leaders, oppressed by the thought police even as they receive generous payments from the taxpayers for their service to the Double Genocide industry and even subsidies from the government to hold neo-Nazi summer youth camps, have tried this gambit numerous times before, threatening generically “there will be blood if the government doesn’t act” to stop this or that. The Conservative government seems to have a very cozy relationship with the neo-Nazi youth leaders, using them as ideological brownshirts to publicly float their own homophobic, xenophobic and repressive conceptions and policies. Presumably their flunkies—Ričardas Čekutis, Marius Kundrotas and Julius Panka—all know how the game is played by now, and only threaten a little bit of coup d’etat now and again, when it serves their Conservative masters.