Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 19, 1990 TAG: 9003222351
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
In the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, President Vytautus Landsbergis said Soviet military maneuvers in the breakaway Baltic republic were increasing tensions in the region.
On Sunday, Soviet military jets buzzed Vilnius in what many Lithuanians considered an intimidation tactic, and Soviet troops held maneuvers in the countryside.
"The military exercises of Soviet troops in Lithuania now underway are intensifying tensions," Landsbergis told Lithuania's legislature, according to Lithuanian television editor Eduardas Potashinkis, who monitored the meeting.
The Lithuanian leader said he was told in a meeting with high-ranking Soviet officers on Sunday that the maneuvers had been planned long in advance.
Landsbergis asked if he would be notified in advance of future maneuvers, one of the officers replied that he could not make any guarantees.
The six-member delegation that arrived in Moscow was headed by Egidius Bickauskas, a lawyer who recently resigned from the Lithuanian Communist Party.
It was empowered by Lithuania's parliament to meet with Gorbachev and propose a start of negotiations on independence, said a spokesman for the Lithuanian nationalist movement Sajudis.
The Soviet Congress of People's Deputies on Thursday declared Lithuania's Feb. 11 declaration of independence illegal and directed Gorbachev to defend Soviet interests and citizens in the Baltic republic of 3.8 million.
On Friday, the Soviet leader sent a cable to Landsbergis, giving him three days to respond to the decree.
However, Gorbachev struck a conciliatory tone Sunday, saying he still planned to talk with Lithuanians about returning to the Soviet fold. He said no ultimatums had been issued and that he also wanted negotiations on the question of independence.
"I think we shall receive a reply from the authorities of present-day Lithuania and, depending on what it is, everything will become clear. The character and content of the answer will define our next steps," he said.
Gorbachev said earlier this month that before allowing independence he would demand $34 billion in hard currency - money Lithuania would be hard-pressed to obtain - in compensation for Soviet investments in the republic.
If it wishes to exert economic pressure, the Kremlin also has the option of cutting off supplies of cheap energy and raw materials.
Landsbergis drafted a reply to Gorbachev's message over the weekend and a Sajudis spokesman, Andreas Ajubalis, said it declared that Lithuania's parliament "has the mandate to enter negotiations with the U.S.S.R. government."
"The main thing now is to reach an agreement in principle in starting the negotiating process," he said.
Lithuania, along with the other Baltic republics of Latvia and Estonia, was forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940.
by CNB