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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 6, 1990                   TAG: 9003061722
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                 LENGTH: Short

SOVIETS BLAME U.S.-TIED RADIO

At the height of the recent anti-Armenian riots in the southern Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, two radio stations financed by the U.S. government were broadcasting a virtual call to arms by Azerbaijani nationalists, the Soviet Union has complained to the U.S. State Department.

In a series of interviews with Radio Liberty, Azerbaijani nationalists had called for resistance to Soviet forces sent to quell the violence, in which 72 people were killed in mid-January, according to transcripts provided by Soviet officials.

Radio Liberty carried dozens of other interviews with Azerbaijani activists that senior Soviet officials believe, in the words of one, "set one nationality against another . . . provoking internal strife and escalating conflicts, and we believe deliberately so."

by CNB