MP Denis MacShane Calls for Release of 7 Ambassadors’ Letter on Antisemitism and the ‘Double Genocide’ movement in Lithuania



The following exchange between human rights advocate MP Denis MacShane and the government’s Minister for Europe, David Lidington, was reported today in the House of Commons:

Mr MacShane:To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish the letter of 25 November 2010 sent by the UK and other ambassadors in Lithuania concerning the growing manifestations of anti-Semitism in Lithuania. [29665]

Mr Lidington:It has not been the practice of successive Governments to publish letters sent by diplomats in a confidential capacity. It is important for the effective conduct of international relations for diplomacy to be able to take place on a confidential basis where necessary.

The letter referred to was reported in this journal on 25 November 2010.

Denis MacShane is the author of Globalising Hatred.  The New Antisemitism, that was published in London in 2008 byWeidenfeld & Nicolson, to international acclaim. The book makes an explicit reference to the extreme reached in Lithuania when prosecutors began to ‘investigate’ Holocaust survivors who joined the anti-Nazi resistance (see extract here, under: 24 Sept 2008; also: here).

This journal believes that the recent letter, on matters of concern to the public, containing no confidential information, and proudly signed by the ambassadors of seven nations, should be made public without further delay. Its essence was in any case leaked to and extracts published by BNS.


This entry was posted in Ambassador Simon Butt, Denis MacShane, Estonia, EU, Free Speech & Democracy, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United Kingdom. Bookmark the permalink.
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