Vilnius plans square to honour Medininkai massacre victims

Vilnius plans to honour the victims of the Medininkai massacre with a square in the Žirmūnai district, LRT reported, citing the Baltic News Service. The proposal was approved in early July by the Vilnius City Council’s Historical Memory Commission.

The proposal will be discussed with the local community before being finalised. The city council will make the final decision.

“The commission and the municipal administration are looking for a suitable location to name the square after the Medininkai heroes. We have several alternatives and have now settled on one location in Žirmūnai,” commission chair Kamilė Gogelienė told BNS.

She said the proposed location is being renovated and includes a children’s playground, so the authorities will consult residents about the proposed name and memorial space.

The square is currently planned near the Angelų Sargų Square, which commemorates police and Interior Ministry officials who died in service.

The name has not yet been finalised. Relatives of the victims have expressed support for naming the space Medininkai Heroes Square, but Gogelienė said the wording would also be discussed with the community. She said the council plans to make a final decision this autumn.

Šarūnas Orlavičius, whose father Stanislovas Orlavičius was killed in the massacre, said the victims’ relatives had approached the municipality about creating a memorial.

He said the city council had decided several years ago to commemorate the victims by naming streets after them. However, 14 years later, the streets have not been built, and some of the designated locations are difficult to access, he told BNS.

“These were officials who protected the border and defenders of freedom. We would like their memory to be honoured properly and respectfully in the capital,” Orlavičius said.

He said further discussions were needed about the appearance of the space, but welcomed the commission’s decision. He also suggested that the police and customs authorities could contribute ideas on how the memorial could reflect the massacre and honour its victims.

July 31 marked 35 years since OMON troops from the Riga Soviet special-purpose militia unit attacked border officials at the Medininkai border post on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border in 1991.

Mindaugas Balavakas, Algimantas Juozakas, Juozas Janonis, Algirdas Kazlauskas, Antanas Musteikis, Stanislovas Orlavičius and Ričardas Rabavičius were killed. The life of customs officer Tomas Šernas, the only person who survived the attack with serious injuries, was saved.

Former OMON officer Konstantin Mikhailov was convicted over the massacre and is serving a life sentence. Three other OMON officers, Andrei Laktionov, Cheslav Mlynik and Alexander Ryzhov, were sentenced in absentia by Lithuanian courts because Russia has refused to extradite them.