LITHUANIA:Lithuania's interior minister and the country's police chief both resigned yesterday over a drunk police officer who drove his car into three 10-year-old boys, killing them last week.
The accident, in a western region of Skuodas, prompted a public outcry and calls for resignations.
Interior Minister Raimondas Sukys had demanded the resignation of the police's commissioner general Vytautas Grigaravicius, and said that if Mr Grigaravicius refused to go, he would himself stand down. In the event, both men left office.
"Today I met with the interior minister and the police general commissar and I accepted their resignations," President Valdas Adamkus told a news conference yesterday.
He said it was a difficult decision as Mr Sukys had worked hard to get Lithuania into the EU's Schengen common travel area zone while the long-standing police chief had cracked down on organised crime.
The children who were killed had been returning from school. Two boys died at the scene while a third died later in hospital. Public outrage over the crash was heightened after the 27-year-old police office fled the scene. The following day, he was escorted to the police station by his older brother, also a police officer.
Lithuania leads the European Union in terms of fatal traffic accidents per capita. A total of 759 people were killed on its roads in 2006.
Neighbouring Baltic states Latvia and Estonia also have a high number of road deaths. - (Reuters/The Baltic Times)