Democracy meeting in Lithuania to focus on North Africa, Middle East, diplomats say

A high-level democracy meeting in Vilnius beginning June 29 will have a special focus on supporting democratic transition and consolidation worldwide, but especially on North Africa and the Middle East, and on helping bridge the gap between the principles of democracy and universal human rights, Egidijus Meilunas, Lithuania's vice minister of foreign affairs, and Dr. Tomicah Tillemann, senior advisor to Secretary of State Clinton for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies, said at a Newsmaker press conference May 26.

Egidijus said the meeting will seek to achieve these goals by "strengthening a global network of government representatives, members of legislative bodies, civil society and others" committed to these ends.

Tillemann said the democracy meeting "could not have come at a better time," given the "ongoing wave of democracy spreading across the Middle East and North Africa."

Emanuelis Zingeris, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, and president of the Parliamentary Forum of the Community of Democracies, said it is especially fitting that the democracy meeting will be held in the shadow of the Vilnius TV tower, which in January 1991--when Lithuania was still part of the Soviet Union--was attacked by Soviet troops because it was broadcasting pro-independence programming.

Faced with popular pressure, the troops eventually withdrew, which led to a series of events resulting in Lithuania's independence from the Soviet Union and return to a democratic state.