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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990                   TAG: 9003280578
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VILNIUS, U.S.S.R.                                LENGTH: Medium

LITHUANIAN POLICE TODAY DEFIED KREMLIN ORDERS

In a continuing show of force, Soviet paratroopers today guarded the republic's Communist Party headquarters.

Soviet troops seized the headquarters and apprehended deserters in raids Tuesday on two hospitals in the first Soviet use of force of the confrontation, which began when Lithuania declared itself independent 17 days ago.

The official Tass news agency said Soviet soldiers seized 23 Lithuanian deserters in the predawn raids. Witnesses said some deserters were beaten as they were taken from a psychiatric hospital in Vilnius. A trail of blood led down the steps and out the front door of the hospital.

Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis condemned the actions and again urged Western nations to Is the West willing to sell Lithuania to the Soviet Union again? Vytautas Landsbergis President of Lithuania speak out against Moscow. "Is the West willing to sell Lithuania to the Soviet Union again?" he said Tuesday.

In Washington, Bush administration officials refused to criticize the Soviet military's use of force on Tuesday. "We simply don't feel inflammatory language is helpful," White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.

Police Capt. Jonas Dervinis said he did not know if Interior Ministry officials from Moscow would attempt to enforce President Mikhail Gorbachev's order for confiscation of any weapons not turned in voluntarily in seven days.

In Moscow, the Defense Ministry issued a statement saying the orders issued by Gorbachev and the Soviet Parliament remain in effect. "No one should have any doubt that law and order will be restored on Lithuanian territory."

At a news conference Tuesday in Warsaw, Poland, senior Soviet diplomats said Lithuania's independence drive could lead to destabilization of Europe and the rest of the world, but did not elaborate.

A declaration read at the briefing said "the aspirations of the Lithuanian leadership to speedily separate from the other nations appear unjustified and let's say frankly dangerous."

Landsbergis in a letter to Gorbachev, said "Lithuania is an unarmed, peaceful state and the only way it can resist the aggressor is by moral strength and by not using armed resistance to violence."

Gorbachev has called Lithuania's independence declaration invalid and last week ordered Lithuanians to turn in their weapons and stop signing up with a volunteer militia. But the Lithuanians have not backed down.

The Soviets on Tuesday announced the expulsion of foreign journalists, businessmen and diplomats from Lithuania, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri Gremitskikh told a Moscow briefing.