Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990 TAG: 9005170238
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RIGA, U.S.S.R. LENGTH: Medium
The resolution adopted by the Lithuanian Supreme Council aimed at breaking Lithuania's impasse with Moscow, but parliament spokeswoman Rita Dapkus said it did not involve rescinding the republic's March 11 declaration of independence as the Kremlin has demanded.
The offer will be delivered to President Mikhail Gorbachev today, she said.
Dapkus said the proposal closely resembled the compromise suggested last month by French and German leaders, but adds a transition period before full independence and concrete proposals on military cooperation, economic plans and other topics.
Gorbachev spokesman Arkady Maslennikov has said the proposal by West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Francois Mitterrand went "along the lines" of Gorbachev's thinking, but stopped short of calling it acceptable.
Gorbachev pronounced Lithuania's declaration of independence invalid in March and followed up with economic sanctions, including a partial blockade that officials say has left the republic of 3.8 million on the verge of running out of fuel.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene said Tuesday she believed talks with Moscow could begin as early as this week.
A leader of neighboring Latvia said Wednesday that talks on Baltic independence would start next week with midlevel Kremlin officials. Estonia's Premier Edgar Savisaar appealed Wednesday for U.S. help to smooth the way.
Latvian Deputy Prime Minister Ilmars Bisers, just back from meetings in Moscow, said talks with Soviet officials would focus on "the gaining of independence on the basis of a treaty with the Soviet Union."
Savisaar also appealed to U.S. Secretary of State James Baker to discuss the Baltic republics' drive for independence in his meetings this week with Soviet leaders in Moscow, the Estonian news agency ETA said.
In Moscow, Baker said he would press Soviet leaders to explain why they have not begun talks with Baltic leaders.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were independent states before they were forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. Their open defiance of Moscow has stirred activists in other republics - including Russia - to begin talking about starting their own open campaigns for independence from the Soviet Union, a federation of 15 republics.
by CNB