Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990                   TAG: 9003133367
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

U.S. CAUTIOUSLY BACKS LITHUANIAN INDEPENDENCE

Weaving a delicate balance betweeen the national aspirations of the Lithuanian people and the shaky political posture of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, administration officials stopped short of official recognition of Lithuania's new move toward independent government.

"We believe this is the right measure of support," said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. "It reflects our policy of many years of not recognizing their incorporation [into the Soviet Union] in the first place."

Fitzwater and Margaret Tutwiler, spokeswoman for the State Department, made clear that Lithuania's declaration of independence is only a first step. There is much to be done before the Baltic state becomes independent in fact and formal U.S. ties are established, they said.

Tutwiler said, however, that prompted by the unanimous declaration of independence voted Sunday by the Lithuanian parliament, the United States "will expand the range of our contacts with freely elected representatives and officials of the Baltic States as appropriate."

But she and Fitzwater also made clear that does not yet extend to an exchange of ambassadors or the extension of full diplomatic recognition.

The administration's policy, Fitzwater said, "reflects the fact that they still have negotiations to carry out that we want to be successful. . . . But we aren't going to try to dictate the eventual outcome."

Fitzwater said: " . . . We would want any recognition to take into account a final government that was in control of their own destiny, and much of that has yet to be negotiated with the Soviet Union."

The United States recognized the independence of a Lithuanian state in 1922. It has never recognized its forced incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1940.

Nonetheless, Tutwiler said that over the years it has been U.S. practice "to establish formal relations with the lawful government of any state once that government is in effective control of its territory and capable of entering into and fulfilling international obligations."

"When we are satisfied that the Lithuanian government can meet these requirements, we will establish formal diplomatic relations with the new government," she said.

She said such questions as the removal of some 200,000 Soviet troops from Lithuanian soil is a matter for negotiations between the Soviets and representatives of Lithuania.

And Tutwiler said she would not spell out precisely what specific steps would have to be taken before the United States would recognize Lithuania's full sovereignty.

Gorbachev, opening a congress of Communist Party deputies in Moscow on Monday, called Lithuania's declaration of independence "alarming."

But he gave no sign that action will be taken to prevent Lithuania and the other Baltic republics from seceding.

Gorbachev had previously placed a $34 billion pricetag on Lithuanian independence, saying an independent Lithuania would have to pay for the factories, roads and other physical improvements made during a half-century of Soviet rule.

But Lithuanians say they have a much larger bill to present for five decades of Soviet repression - including mass deportations to Siberia under Joseph Stalin.