Although the Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anušauskas said he would support the idea in principle, he insisted that the draft would not need to be corrected, but rewritten.
“When we organize our defense, we often talk about NATO’s collective security guarantees, about the presence of allies here, about strengthening the readiness and combat power of our military. We do this quite successfully. But there is a third pillar, which is public involvement in defense, the creation of commandant offices, their regulation”, Laurynas Kasčiūnas, chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee (NSGK), one of its initiators, said when presenting the project in the Seimas this week.
According to him, the proposed legalization of the commandant’s offices would form a rear for the defenders of the country in case of war.
“Now, a couple of weeks ago I was in Kharkiv, which is, of course, a heroic city, a city that defended itself. (…) And here, in that Kharkiv, we drive across the bridge, across the river, and you know what I see: an elderly man with a machine gun is basically patrolling, well, looking after the bridge. This is a typical commandant function, which does not require the army, a special soldier, it can be performed by a person with certain skills, but he can simply support the army,” said the member of the Seimas.
According to the project, the military commandant’s office would be a state institution with an approved structure that would support the military commandant by making suggestions to him, administering the change of human resources in the commandant’s unit and ensuring the execution of other tasks assigned to the military commandant by the commander of the armed forces.
Commandant’s offices should have units subordinated to military commandants, consisting of reserve soldiers, commandant riflemen, and other trained people.
According to L. Kasčiūnas, in addition to reserve soldiers and commandant shooters, hunters and other gun owners could contribute to the commandant units.
“Now Justinas Urbanavičius, a member of the Seimas, a soldier of the prepared reserve, does not know what to do with him. (…) Maybe after this law he will already know that he could be in the commandant’s office. Kęstutis Vilkauskas must also know his place. Andrius Palionis is a hunter, but maybe he also wants to become part of the commandant’s office. There will be an inspection, training, an oath – and you already know your place,” explained the head of NSGK.
He said that with these amendments, he aims to create a system so that every person who wants to contribute to the country’s defense in the commandant’s office knows who to call in their municipality and inform them of their wishes in order to be included in the training and the defense structure itself.
The commandant’s office should be equipped with premises, communication and information systems and weapons, special means for territorial protection – the army.
Military command posts would activate their activities after the introduction of martial law.
“Commandatories are the fight against diverse groups, which will always be a huge challenge during a state of war, it is the protection of infrastructure, the protection of critical infrastructure, especially in some municipalities, it is the management of evacuation processes, it is the support of vital functions, because the state and during the state of martial law have to exist, must function. Therefore, in this draft law, we propose to regulate the activity of commandant offices very precisely”, said L. Kasčiūnas.
The amendments to the law would legalize combat units of armed resistance and partisans. In the event of martial law, they would be classified as armed forces.
The amendments regulate the procedure for their formation, selection, verification, training, interaction with the armed forces and provision.
Armed resistance and partisan units would be formed on a voluntary basis from adult citizens who have the right to purchase and own a weapon, do not serve in the Lithuanian army, there are no officers or members of institutions that become part of the armed forces upon the introduction of martial law, are not included in the civilian mobilization personnel reserve, performing task of armed defense or territorial protection.
According to the project, upon the introduction of martial law, the reserves of the State Border Guard Service, the Public Security Service, and the Command Protection Service would also be included in the armed forces, as well as the commandant armed resistance units of the Lithuanian Rifle Union would be assigned to the armed forces.
During the project submission procedure in the Seimas, Minister of National Defense A. Anušauskas spoke against the project, but supported it when voting.
He insisted that he was not against the proposed ideas, but, according to him, the draft would need to be rewritten.
“The idea itself is good, but I repeat, we cannot lower the bar for drafting legislation too low.” In order to implement the ideas, you still need to use lawyers, so I suggest that you also use the lawyers of the Ministry of National Defense. (…) In any case, I once again call for a responsible approach to such legislation, because they must, as rightly mentioned, strengthen the defense, but not disrupt the leadership of the defense,” he asserted.
These amendments were approved by 93 members of the Seimas, three MPs abstained.
It is planned to return to consideration of this issue in the Seimas session in November.
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2024-09-25 19:02:13
