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At LGGRTC headquarters, researchers read excerpts from Georg Orwell’s famous 1984 dystopia in five minutes each, highlighting what they say was the center’s director, Adas Jakubauskas, who was trying to restrict freedom of expression and research. .
The historian M.Jurkutė herself participated in the protest, A.Jakubauskas had gone to the central branch in Žirmūnai at that time.
According to one of the initiators of the campaign, Vilnius University historian Tomas Vaivasa, G. Orwell’s work was chosen for the campaign because it describes the Ministry of Justice, which actually “spreads lies and rewrites history.”
This is a violation of the constitutional right of a person to express his opinion, which should not be in a free Lithuania, said T. Vaiseta.
“On March 11 we celebrated the restoration of independent Lithuania; on March 12, a person was fired for expressing his opinion: moderate, reasonable, reasoned, without any kind of to this. This is a violation of the constitutional right of a person to express his opinion, which should not be in a free Lithuania. There are more problems, the main one is that there is a danger at the center that the investigation will not be carried out freely and critically, ”T. Vaiseta told BNS.
The campaign took place a few hours later, when a special working group proposed that the Board of the Seimas address the parliament to assess the suitability of A. Jakubauskas for the position.
T.Vaiseta and other participants of the campaign believe that A.Jakubauskas should withdraw himself.
“It seems to me personally that this leadership, which is, will no longer be able to solve the problems. Because as far as the center worked, there were no scandals, the employees did not fight, now that the confrontation came when A. Jakubauskas came to the front. If he loves a free and independent Lithuania, I think he should go himself, ”said the campaign participant.
His colleague from the Faculty of History Nerijus Šepetys stated that A. Jakubauskas was unsuitable for the position due to lack of competence in this field. He asked the Seimas to make a “decisive decision” to change the director of the center, or A. Jakubauskas should step down.
“I think I should have done it a long time ago. He does not focus at all in this area, he does not realize it and he has shown it. I think in a sense it is a constructive group of people involved in strategic communication, who have long dreamed that in Lithuania, things related to history and memory would be handled differently, not through research. and diffusion. This group has been successfully established here and together with the director handles matters here, ”the historian told BNS.
It is not fully oriented in this area, it does not catch it, and it showed itself, – said N. Šepetys.
He said he expressed his solidarity with M. Jurkutė and other members of the center staff who are talking about problems at the center.
M. Jurkutė herself is convinced that the director of the center was pardoned for criticizing that it seeks to politicize the research of historians. A.Jakubauskas denies the allegations, saying that M.Jurkutė was fired not for criticism of management, but for violations of labor obligations, thus damaging the reputation of the Genocide Center.
According to A. Jakubauskas, the historian “exceeding her competence and authority” publicly evaluated in a biased way the work of the Commission of Participants of the Resistance and “without any mandate and without legal authority, she arbitrarily familiarized herself with the documents for the protection of personal data and publicly discussed its content “
The LGGRTC head said that the warning had been issued to staff, but that it had continued to ignore it “repeatedly, in a biased and unreasonable manner, and continued to provide inaccurate and misleading information about the Center’s activities.” A. Jakubauskas also stated that the historian did not present new scientific works, historical sources, new facts, did not deliver official reports on the impact on her academic freedom, research methodology.
Photo by Lukas Balandus / 15min / Adas Jakubauskas
The historian claimed that he did not understand the motives of the LGGRTC director for which he was fired.
“I think those decisions should really be appealed and not abandoned. I plan to do that,” M. Jurkutė told BNS.
He called the proposal of the parliamentary working group to resolve the fate of A. Jakubauskas al Seimas a “logical decision.” In his opinion, A. Jakubauskas lacked “specific thematic competencies to lead this complex field”, and the managerial qualities and the culture of communication with the employees “were disappointing”.
She herself said she faced restrictions on working remotely with the center’s files during the quarantine, though other colleagues were given permission in a simplified way, without the need to obtain physical signatures from managers.
“I am satisfied with this campaign and with the support, both from the community, the historians and the wider circle of society. I am glad that we live much more in my Lithuania, in the kind that we would like more than in the full of such practices, more likely represents the other side, ”he said.
The LGGRTC investigates all manifestations of genocide and crimes against humanity and the persecution of the Lithuanian population during the years of occupation, as well as the processes of armed and unarmed resistance to the occupations, initiates the legal evaluation of the organizers and perpetrators of the genocide , commemorates freedom fighters and victims of the genocide.
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