U.S. Backs New Bucharest Regime, Talks With Soviets

The United States on Saturday called on all Romanians to lay down their arms and back that country’s new provisional government, saying it “has pledged a transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

The State Department also said the United States is consulting with the Soviet Union as well as allied governments “on the evolving situation” created by the ouster of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

This was the first time that the superpowers have acknowledged being in consultation about the fall of an East European regime this year. Although the other political upheavals in the East Bloc have been peaceful, the overthrow of Ceausescu has been violent.

The U.S.-Soviet consultations, between U.S. Ambassador Jack F. Matlock Jr. and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze in Moscow, followed initial reports that the Warsaw Pact was preparing to meet in emergency session today to discuss “rendering support” to the people of Romania.

“We were wondering what was going on,” a U.S. official said.

Following the consultations, the session was canceled. Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn, who announced the cancellation Saturday, said conditions in Romania appeared to be “stabilizing” following reports of the arrest of Ceausescu and his wife, Elena.

The Hungarian government, which apparently had called for the pact meeting, has been most anxious about the near civil war in neighboring Romania. About 2 million ethnic Hungarians live within Romania and have been subject to considerable repression by Ceausescu.

Attempts to expel a Hungarian minister who championed the cause of the Hungarian minority triggered the violence that led to Ceausescu’s downfall. Hungarian officials expressed fear that any return to power by Ceausescu could lead to a slaughter of the ethnic Hungarians by security forces.

Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov said Saturday that it would be “unacceptable” to send Soviet or other pact forces into Romania. But the Soviets announced their support for the Romanian provisional government.

The U.S. statement said the new government, formed Friday in Bucharest, remains “besieged by outlaw members” of Ceausescu’s security forces “who are prolonging the bloodshed that has already caused thousands of deaths.”

It highlighted the provisional government’s promised commitment to democracy and its proclaimed “action program of democratic reforms (to be instituted) by March, 1990.”

While not recognizing the provisional government as such, it declared that “we consider the Front of National Salvation to be the manifestation of the democratic will of the Romanian people, and we urge all Romanians to support that government.”

It said the United States is seeking ways to supply emergency medical assistance in addition to the humanitarian aid already pledged.

President Bush, who is at Camp David, Md., for the weekend, was being given updates on events in Romania as part of his intelligence briefings, White House spokesman Sean Walsh said.