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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 29, 1990                   TAG: 9005290280
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Medium

LITHUANIANS BEAR SHORTAGES WITH RESOLVE

Lithuanian authorities say the Soviet economic embargo has forced sharp cutbacks in electric power to industries and idled 40,000 workers, but a new poll shows the hardships have not weakened support for the republic's independence drive.

In neighboring Latvia on Monday, the Parliament approved a resolution rejecting President Mikhail Gorbachev's May 14 decree declaring independence moves by Latvia and Estonia to be illegal and unconstitutional.

After sharp debate, Latvian legislators approved a resolution on Monday that called Gorbachev's decree "illegal interference" in the republic's affairs, the Soviet TV news program "Vremya" reported.

Anti-independence legislators did not participate in the vote, it reported.

The three Baltic republics, forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, are seeking to restore independence. While Latvia and Estonia have adopted a more gradual approach, Lithuania declared its independence on March 11.

Gorbachev cut off all oil and most natural gas supplies to Lithuania on April 18 for its refusal to rescind pro-independence laws.

Electricity is being generated at only two power plants in Lithuania - a nuclear plant at Ignalina and the oil-burning Elektrenai station, and neither is operating at full capacity, according to Radio Vilnius reporter Audrius Braukyla.

According to a government communique reported Monday by Radio Vilnius, "power supply to industrial enterprises is being severely limited," affecting nearly 200,000 workers at those plants.

The Lithuanian news agency ELTA said the power cutback would affect 300 factories and enterprises.

The communique said 40,000 workers have become jobless since the Soviet economic embargo was imposed.

Nearly 2,000 people have registered at the republic's unemployment office, and 500 have been given new jobs, mostly in farming, Braukyla quoted the communique as saying.

Despite the hardships, the Lithuanian radio station said a public opinion poll conducted this month of almost 1,000 people in Vilnius, the republic's capital, indicated a strengthening of support for the declaration of independence.

by CNB