Ombudsperson tells Kaunas commission to review cemetery memorial request

Lithuania’s parliamentary ombudsperson has told a Kaunas mayor-appointed commission to thoroughly review a woman’s request for permission to erect a memorial at Eiguliai Cemetery, LRT reported Tuesday.

Ombudsperson Jolita Miliuvienė found that the city failed to follow rules for identifying graves and breached principles of good public administration. The municipality had asked the woman for additional documents and declined to reconsider her request, although some of the information needed to identify the grave should have been held by the city’s cemetery maintenance company.

The ombudsperson said the commission should have assessed the information provided and inspected the grave, but the woman’s requests were never referred to it. The municipality’s replies also failed to explain how she could appeal, as required by law.

Miliuvienė recommended that the mayor ensure the commission considers the documents, inspects the grave and seeks further information from other sources, including people who maintain neighbouring graves. It should issue a reasoned decision and, because historical archive records are missing, assess what is likely rather than demand conclusive proof. The ombudsperson also urged the municipality to follow the required procedure in future and clearly inform applicants about decisions and appeal options.

The woman’s father was buried at Eiguliai Cemetery in 1958. After the wooden marker bearing his details rotted and was discarded, she sought to renovate the grave but learned that official burial records had been lost in an archive fire. She contacted a church, state archives and the municipality and provided documents proving their relationship, but the grave’s identity remained unresolved. Miliuvienė said people should not be left to solve problems caused by institutions’ failure to preserve records, and cited European Court of Human Rights case law on resolving state errors in favour of those affected.