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Lithuanian president calls for enhancing border security

Xinhua, September 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Lithuania's border protection must be enhanced and modernized, the country's president Dalia Grybauskaite said on Monday during a meeting with minister of interior Saulius Skvernelis.

The minister was summoned to the presidency after last week's incident when an 18-year-old suspect smuggler died in hospital, after being gunned down by a border guard.

"In the opinion of the president, border protection must be enhanced and modernized, as the tragedy of a young man who just embarked on his path requires corresponding measures," Daiva Ulbinaite, spokeswoman of the head of the state, told reporters after the meeting.

The issue of border security is also important due to migrant crisis within the EU, Ulbinaite added.

Immediately after the incident, Grybauskaite said that the use of weapon was "redundant."

During the incident last Thursday, a young resident of Alytus, southern Lithuania, was shot down by a border guard during the pursuit of two cars of suspected smugglers on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. After one of the cars was later pulled up in Leipalingis, the injured teenager was discovered on the back seat and later died in hospital, BNS news agency reported.

Grybauskaite also suggested revising the laws regarding regulating the use of service firearms in order to avoid future similar tragedies.

Last week Skvernelis announced a public letter to the officers of internal affairs, encouraging them not to abstain from active response, if necessary, to smugglers and other criminals, in order to defend the state's and its residents' interests.

"Never turn your back to a criminal," the minister wrote.

"I wrote this letter because officers were in doubts how to act in the future; I made sure that necessary decisions will be made," the minister explained after meeting with the president on Monday. Endit