Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990 TAG: 9003280058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In response to queries from Washington, Soviet officials said the medium-range missiles were sent to Bulgaria, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, said State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler.
The United States also has asked other members of the seven-nation Warsaw Pact whether they received such missiles, she said.
The United States asked the Soviets about the missiles after an East German news report about such weapons being deployed in East Germany.
Both East Germany and Czechoslovakia, which have shed their communist governments in recent months, have confirmed to the United States that they received Soviet missiles, Tutwiler said.
Another official said East Germany told the United States the missiles were transferred in 1985.
The Czech government told the United States that the Soviets transferred 72 missiles to their country, Tutwiler said.
The Czechs are cooperating "fully" with the United States which is trying to determine what kind of missiles and when they were transferred, she said.
The key question is whether the missiles were transfered before or after the signing of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces or INF treaty in December 1987.
If the weapons were transferred before the treaty was signed by former President Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev they are not covered by the pact.
If they were transferred after it was signed, the transfer would violate the treaty.
"We will be unable to comment further until we have received all responses and analyzed that information," she said.
U.S. officials were disconcerted by the discovery of the missiles, which they had not known about until now. Arms control officials are also concerned by East Germany's decision to destroy the missiles.
"We have to first determine whether these are covered by the treaty and should indeed be destroyed," said one official.
"It has to do with setting the record straight and giving credibility to verification procedures," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The question of verification is one of the stickiest in negotiations under way for halving the U.S. and Soviet arsenals of long-range intercontinental missiles. Gorbachev and Bush have both said they would like such a treaty completed in time for their June summit.
The INF treaty bans all U.S. and Soviet missiles with a range of between 300 and 3,400 miles.
by CNB