Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990 TAG: 9003290435
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: VILNIUS, LITHUANIA LENGTH: Medium
The Lithuanian Council of Ministers drafted a resolution, expected to be approved today by the republic's Parliament, urging citizens to turn over their weapons to the interior ministry and not to defy Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's decree requiring the surrender of all civilians' arms.
The Lithuanian government also put off as too confrontational its plans to establish its own border controls, customs service and frontier guards.
Together, the two Lithuanian actions "definitely mean we are moving into a compromise situation, and that is good," said Deputy Premier Romualdas Ozolas, who disclosed the planned resolution on the weapons surrender.
Premier Kazimiera Prunskiene is discussing with Gorbachev's assistants the possibility of talks to resolve the crisis over Lithuania's March 11 declaration of independence, officials here said, and she is expected to speak with Gorbachev shortly.
"We are ready to talk rationally, upholding our rights and abiding by our laws, but we do not want to withdraw the main issue of independence," Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis told a news conference Wednesday evening.
Landsbergis, who is also chairman of Sajudis, the nationalist grass-roots movement that has campaigned for independence, said, "I do not think the Lithuanian people would be happy with this if it meant rejoining the Soviet Union."
He indicated flexibility on holding a referendum on the secession question, as demanded by the central government. Moscow contends the republic's Russian and Polish minorities, and even many Sajudis supporters, want to remain in the Soviet Union.
"I am ready to exchange opinions on any question, including the question of a referendum," Landsbergis told reporters. "If the people will agree to a referendum, how could I not agree?"
Under a law passed last year with secession in mind, a referendum on any question may be demanded by 300,000 citizens in a petition.
In Moscow, Vadim Bakatin, the Soviet interior minister and a member of the new Presidential Council that acts as Gorbachev's Cabinet, signaled the central government's willingness to back away from the confrontation and negotiate.
"Nobody will deprive any republic of the constitutional right to secede from the Soviet Union," Bakatin told diplomats. "But the method chosen and the haste provoke doubts.
"The Lithuanian government and the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet [Parliament] should now do some thinking - is there any need for continuing the confrontation?"
Tensions that were so high here Tuesday after armed Soviet paratroopers burst into two psychiatric hospitals to arrest 23 military deserters and then occupied the headquarters of the independent Lithuanian Communist Party, eased significantly Wednesday.
Not only were no new incidents reported, but Soviet troops, who had been around Vilnius in increasing numbers, were much less evident in the city. The army refrained from further attempts to round up military deserters, who are believed to number as many as 800.
Landsbergis, who just a day earlier had appealed to the West to rally to the defense of his small republic, said Wednesday evening, "We have a very normal, stable and peaceful situation now."
Landsbergis advised Lithuanians not to resist if Soviet troops came to seize their hunting guns, apparently fearing that this could lead to many clashes and possible casualties across the republic.
Only about 1,000 of the 30,000 guns registered in Lithuania have been turned in to local police, Yaroslav Prokopovich, an official of the republic's Interior Ministry, said Wednesday. Local police, moreover, were refusing to hand them over to the Soviet army as Gorbachev ordered, according to Prokopovich.
by CNB