Posted on 12/03/2003 2:06:19 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Lithuanian deputies moved to open impeachment proceedings against President Rolandas Paksas, after the assembly approved a damning report finding he had links with organised crime.
Eligijus Masiulis, the head of the Liberal centrist group in the parliament, told AFP a group had been established to collect the necessary signatures for impeachment to be launched, after parliament adopted the report by a vote of 70 to 16.
Ten members of the 141-seat assembly abstained, while others were apparently absent.
"They are going to create a text for impeachment first and only then will they start to collect signatures," Masiulis told AFP, saying the group included members from four parties, including the two ruling coalition parties.
As the noose tightened around Paksas, the former stunt pilot-cum-president dug in his heels, dismissing the report submitted by the parliamentary committee of inquiry as an attempt to "annihilate" him.
"The parliamentary committee, during the investigation and with its conclusions, confirmed that it has only one goal -- to remove me by any means," he said in a statement broadcast on national television and radio as the parliament met.
In a 10-page report lodged on Monday, a parliamentary committee of inquiry listed six areas in which Paksas or his office had shady links.
The committee's head Aloyazas Sakalas, presenting the report to parliament, said the body he headed was the first of its kind in Lithuania.
"National security is threatened not only by tanks today. It could be threatened by influence on the government, economy and other areas of the state," he said.
"The threat to national security exists," he said, adding "our position is that the president is responsible for everything that happens in his office."
All the signs were that Paksas was politically isolated, with few doubting impeachment proceedings would be approved.
Newspapers said the report on the shady links with Paksas' office had rung the death knell for the political career of the former stunt pilot who won a surprise victory against his predecessor Valdas Adamkus in a January run-off.
"A political death warrant has already been signed," ran the headline of the front page of the largest Lithuanian daily Lietuvos Rytas on Tuesday.
"There is no more time left for hesitation. Impeachment has become unavoidable," it said in an editorial, urging Paksas to resign rather than to wait for impeachment proceedings to go through.
On Tuesday Paksas got some sympathy from the second largest newspaper Respublika, which said in an editorial that the committee of inquiry report "left many questions unanswered and did not remain unbiased".
"First of all the committee failed to prove that it is non-politicized and that its decisions are based only on undisputed evidence. The committee overvalued documents, based on guesswork, assumptions, thoughts," it said.
Impeachment proceedings can be launched with only 36 votes in the 141-seat assembly. It would however require the vote of 85 lawmakers to oust Paksas from office.
The committee of inquiry was set up one month ago to investigate a possible threat to state security after a security services report alleged the president's office had links to the Russian mafia.
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