Children of ‘the age of terrorism’ 

I had just come home to our apartment here in Vilnius after having taken my then 4-year-old daughter home from kindergarten. She was playing on the floor beside me while I sat down to watch the latest world news on CNN. What I saw on the screen in front of me was so unreal that I first could not believe that this was real news. My first thought was that CNN was showing fragments of a new film or the like. But it soon dawned on me that what I was seeing was the beginning of an unimaginable attack and a tragedy that would forever change our world's history and development.

11 September 2001 was the day when America was attacked on its own soil. The unthinkable had happened. 

The nine years that have followed have brought enormous changes, not only in the U.S., but for the entire world community. The war against terrorism, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq and countless suicide attacks across virtually the entire world have all become tragic symbols of the scourge of our time -- in a way few of us could have imagined when the new millennium had barely started.

Lithuania has been little influenced by the 'war on terror'. Admittedly, the country is participating with troops in Afghanistan and it also became an almost-scandal when it became known that the CIA had two prisons for suspected terrorists here since 2005.

But even if Lithuania is not so much directly affected by what has happened around the world after the attack on the twin towers in New York on 11 September 2001, this country is also a part of a global society that is both physically and mentally experiencing enormous repercussions.

I often ask myself: "What kind of world is it our children have to grow up in post-9/11? The daily traumas inflicted to the children in the two countries that have been hardest hit, Iraq and Afghanistan, are naturally the worst and most long-term harmful, but our children in the so-called free world have undoubtedly also been influenced by what happened and they will for many years have to experience the consequences in many different ways.

I was not aware that my little daughter saw what took place on the TV screen this September day nine years ago, so I must admit I was slightly shocked and shaken when she suddenly, a month later, came to give me a drawing she had made. The image of 'a plane flying into the tall tower' had been instilled in the child brain, and here she came to me with her visualisation of what she had seen and experienced in her thoughts when I thought she was quietly playing, occupied in her own childish world.

into the twin towers in New York on 11 September 2001.

It goes without saying that we, the adults, need to help children feel as safe as possible at a time when the world has become a more dangerous place.  Parents and teachers in particular should help youngsters understand current events factually, how events do or do not impact their lives, and how to handle their emotional reactions. All children are likely to be affected in some way by ‘the age of terrorism’. 

For many of our children, the guidance of caring adults will make the difference between being overwhelmed and developing life-long emotional and psychological coping skills. It is crucial to provide opportunity for children to discuss their concerns and to help them separate real from imagined fears.

The lessons of 11 September 2001 are many. Some ‘contribute’ by burning the Quran. Others work for reconciliation and understanding between the people of our fragile little planet.

Aage Myhre

Editor

Two Lithuanian ‘terrorism cases’

This former riding school allegedly

served as a CIA detention centre. 

The CIA set up at least two secret detention centres in Lithuania after the 11 September 2001 terror attacks on the US, a Lithuanian inquiry found in 2009. A parliamentary committee report says in 2005 and 2006, CIA chartered planes were allowed to land in Lithuania. It says that no Lithuanian officials were allowed near the aircraft, nor were they told who was on board.

Poland and Romania hosted similar CIA "black sites", say reports by ABC News in the US. In Lithuania, one centre on the outskirts of the capital Vilnius had room for eight terror suspects at a time, according to ABC News. It was formerly a riding school and suspects were reportedly held there between 2004 and 2005.

But the parliamentary report appears to absolve Lithuania's political leaders of responsibility for any human rights violations that may have been committed by the CIA. It says even the president (Valdas Adamkus) was unaware of exactly what the US intelligence service was doing.

In January 2010 Lithuania's foreign minister resigned his post following a sharp disagreement between him and President Dalia Grybauskaite over whether the country had held detainees at a secret CIA prison. President Grybauskaite believes it likely that Lithuania held such prisoners, something the foreign minister had denied.

Mr Usackas has continued to insist that no prisoners had been held for interrogations, while the president said this was likely and called for prosecutors to open their own enquiry into a possible abuse of office by three top security officials.

The ‘terrorist’ from Klaipeda

Another controversial ‘terrorism case’ in Lithuania has been the case of Egle Kusaite (21). The young woman from Klaipeda was arrested in October 2009 by the Lithuanian State Security Department on suspicions that she was ready to travel to some military facility in Chechnya as a suicide bomber. In August 2010 she was finally released in a court hall under the ruling of the Court of Appeal of Lithuania. The ruling of the Court of appeal of Lithuania was determined final and not subject to any appeal.

Egle Kusaite on her way out of the

appeal court, finally free again.

According to prosecutors, Kusaite, had constant internet and phone contacts with Islamists in Russia, though an unnamed former employee of Klaipeda's State Security Department told Lithuanian public TV that he did not believe in the terrorist intentions of Kusaite. When Kusaite was 17 years old she left for Germany where she lived for a year in a small town with Chechens. Later, according to the LNK TV Paskutine Instancija programme, Kusaite returned to Klaipeda where she lived in a flat rented with taxpayers' money by the Lithuanian State Security Department and was closely observed by Lithuanian security agents. The Web site of the North Caucasus' Islamists (www.kavkazcenter.com) cries about the torture against Kusaite in Lukiskes Prison. 

On 11 June 2010, Virginija Kusiene, Kusaite's mother, and Irena Jeleniauskaite, Kusaite's aunt, held a press conference in the Lithuanian parliament stating that all Kusaite's confessions about her intention to become a suicide bomber were obtained using physical and psychological pressure. "Egle's confession was forced through violence and threats," Kusiene said, adding that her daughter has been observed by the Lithuanian State Security Department since she was 14 years old because of her friendship with a young Chechen refugee and, according to Kusiene, "all the Chechens are observed by the security in Lithuania." Jeleniauskaite said that the Lithuanian and Russian security services made up the case of her niece and, during one of the interrogations only Russian agents took part. "Only the Russians were present and they were smashing her head into the wall," Jeleniauskaite said. 

On 11 June, Algimantas Kliunka, chief prosecutor of the Prosecutor General's Office Organized Crime and Corruption Prevention Department, also held his press conference in the parliament. He denied accusations made by Kusaite's mother and aunt, stating that Kusaite was ready to perform a suicide bombing in a public space in Chechnya. Kliunka said that the representatives from Russia participated in the interrogations as observers and no physical violence was used. 

"Kusaite is suspected of making contact in June-October of 2009 with the Islamist groups based in Russia. From them she received an invitation to come to Russia, received 500 U.S. dollars (410 euros) for the trip, took out a Lithuanian passport and got a Russian visa. We asked the Russian embassy not to issue the visa, but they gave her their visa. “Then we were forced to arrest her, preventing her from travelling to Russia," Kliunka said.