In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the defense of restored Lithuanian Independence, on Wednesday, January 13, Seimas invites you to watch the video broadcast of the Freedom Defenders Day commemoration and the Freedom Prize awarding ceremony.
From the Chamber of the Seimas on March 11, you will hear the speeches of the President of the Republic Gitanas Nausėda, Speaker of the Seimas Viktorijas Čmilytė-Nielsen, Speaker of the Supreme Council-Restorative Seimas Vytautas Landsbergis, in 1991. son of Vytautas Vaitkaus, the defender of Lithuanian Freedom who died on January 13, 13st degree Knight of the Order of the Vytis Cross, the chairman of the "Bičiulystė" association of the relatives of those who died on January 1, Robert Vaitkaus, a doctor, the doctor of the former 13st Clinical Hospital of the city of Vilnius (St. Jokūbos) the speeches of Dalia Steiblienė, the anesthesiologist, reanimatologist who was on duty on the night of January XNUMX, and Julias Sasnauskas, a priest and monk, a Soviet-era dissident.
At the end of the commemoration, the chairwoman of the Seimas Freedom Prize Commission, Paulė Kuzmickienė, and the leader of democratic Belarus, Sviatlana Cichanouskaja, will also speak, who will be awarded the 2020 Freedom Prize for the Belarusian Democratic Opposition. This Seimas award aims to evaluate the achievements and contributions of individuals and organizations in protecting human rights, developing democracy, promoting cross-border cooperation in the fight for the free self-determination and sovereignty of the peoples of Eastern and Central Europe.
For the first time since 1991, the Seimas does not organize the traditional solemn commemoration of this day and invites all Lithuanian people to honor the defenders of freedom by staying at home and lighting candles in their memory.
The video broadcast of the 30th anniversary commemoration of the Defenders of Freedom Day and the awarding ceremony of the Freedom Prize will be available on the Seimas website, the Seimas - live TV program, the Seimas accounts on Facebook and YouTube, and on LRT television and radio.
On the night of January 1991, 13, Loreta Asanavičiūtė, Virginijus Druskis, Darius Gerbutavičius, Rolandas Jankauskas, Rimantas Juknevičius, Alvydas Kanapinskas, Algimantas Petras Kavoliukas, Vidas Maciulevičius, Titas Masiulis, Alvydas Matulka, Apolinars were killed near the Television Tower, the building of the Lithuanian Radio and Television Committee. Juozas Povilaitis, Ignas Šimulionis, Vytautas Vaitkus, later (in February) Vytautas Koncevičius died of injuries.
