Monument unlawfully put up in Lihula to be removed

On Thursday, September 2, the Rescue Board and the police are removing the monument that had been erected in Lihula on state-owned land without the owner´s permission.

On September 2, the Government ordered the Minister of Regional Affairs and the Minister of Internal Affairs to remove from the Lihula cemetery the monument, which was unlawfully erected on state-owned land without the owner's permission and is damaging to Estonia´s reputation. The Government also requested that the Minister of Regional Affairs should inform those responsible for putting up the monument of the removal and underlying reasons.

The Government is of the opinion that, irrespective of the goals of the initiators, the monument in the Lihula cemetery erected without the owner's permission on state-owned land is detrimental to Estonia´s reputation. The Estonian government does not consider it appropriate that such monuments that have been viewed as an attempt to glorify totalitarian regimes that once occupied Estonia should be erected in Estonia.

The Government highly values the courage of the people who fought for Estonian independence at the time when Estonia was occupied by different regimes and considers it important to record the memory of these people. The Government, however, believes that the monument in Lihula, in its current form, is inappropriate and does not meet its main objective - to record the memory of the people who fought for Estonia´s freedom. Instead, it casts a shadow on this memory by associating their fight with a totalitarian regime that occupied Estonia.

The Government's view is that the memory of those who fought for Estonia´s liberty should be recorded with dignity while respecting the real aims and motives of these people, not the uniform forced upon them.
The Government is willing to cooperate with the local authorities to erect a monument in memory of the fighters for Estonian freedom.

Government Communication Office