Lithuania Sends a Conciliatory Note to Moscow

The Lithuanian Parliament, in a conciliatory message to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, declared its readiness on Thursday to discuss its decision to secede from the Soviet Union within the context of the Soviet constitution.

“We propose to have as soon as possible preliminary, bilateral consultations with the goal of clarifying the positions of both sides on the problems of mutual interest,” the Lithuanian Supreme Council said in reply to an appeal by Gorbachev last weekend to annul its unilateral declaration of independence.

Lithuania, the resolution continued, “is ready to discuss through dialogue the essence and letter of the acts and resolutions adopted by the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania from the point of view of international law and the constitution of the Soviet Union.”

While the resolution did not back away from Lithuania’s March 11 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, the willingness to discuss the issue within the Soviet constitutional context was a major step toward meeting Moscow’s conditions for resolution of the secession crisis.

Almost as important was the Lithuanian proposal for “consultations,” rather than the “negotiations” that the breakaway republic had demanded previously, and the resolution stressed the desire for “dialogue” and a political solution.

Both issues--on what basis the talks would be held and how they might be described--are sensitive for they involve the fundamental question of Lithuania’s sovereignty, the constitutionality of its secession from the Soviet Union and Gorbachev’s determination to uphold the country’s integrity.

Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis told a press conference in Vilnius, the capital, that the declaration of independence itself remained non-negotiable. “We are ready to discuss everything but our independence,” Landsbergis asserted, as he has many times before.

The Supreme Council’s resolution, adopted after prolonged debate, also underscored Lithuania’s unwillingness to negotiate under what it regards as military pressure.

“Lithuania, as before, is prepared for honest dialogue, but this should not be accompanied by the willful actions of your armed forces,” the council said.

About 50 armed Soviet soldiers dressed as police officers took over the Lithuanian state prosecutor’s office earlier Thursday, expelling most of its employees and taking up positions on each floor, a Lithuanian government spokesman said.

Kazimieras Motieka, deputy head of the Lithuanian Parliament, said that the soldiers, carrying boxes of ammunition and other supplies, apparently were being deployed as a prelude to a complete takeover of the chief prosecutor’s office by the central government.

Moscow officials have tried to dismiss the prosecutor appointed by the Lithuanian Parliament and install their own nominee, contending that the post is a federal, not a republic, appointment. Lithuanian employees have refused to obey the Moscow appointee, and several soldiers were stationed in the building Friday.

The incident occurred one day after Lithuania’s secessionist government accused the Kremlin of backing forces bent on its overthrow and again heightened tensions in Vilnius. The Soviet Parliament ruled the Lithuanian declaration of independence invalid, and Gorbachev has used his new executive powers to put more and more pressure on Lithuania to rescind the action.

The Soviet president warned Lithuanians last weekend of “grave consequences for us all” unless they annulled their declaration of independence, and that was followed by a further military buildup in Vilnius and outlying areas.

This led to a sharp debate within the Supreme Council through much of the week over the wording of the resolution replying to Gorbachev. Hard-liners wanted to drop the conciliatory tone of the initial Lithuanian response; other deputies wanted to be even more forthcoming.

“We realize that Lithuania’s determination to rejoin the family of independent states creates concerns for the Soviet Union and for you personally,” the deputies told Gorbachev in the milder resolution that was eventually adopted, 91-0 with seven abstentions. “You correctly assess the situation as complex, demanding well-based discussions and acceptable decisions. . . .

“We believe that you, esteemed president, will prefer a political solution of the problem to all others. In view of this, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania once again affirms its readiness to enter a dialogue and discuss measures of establishing new relations between our states.”

In Moscow, the chief Lithuanian representative in the Soviet capital said that the republic’s leadership would agree to a referendum on independence as demanded by the central government as well as by Lithuania’s Russian and Polish minorities.

“If the people demand it, if someone wants a special confirmation of some sort, then the Supreme Council could take such a decision,” Egidius Bickauskas, the Lithuanian envoy, told reporters. “We would see this as a referendum on the decisions taken by the Supreme Council.”

Lithuania is prepared to “abandon or suspend any of its decisions” except the independence declaration, and the Kremlin should understand that it is impossible for the republic to go back on this question, Bickauskas said. What is negotiable here, he said, is the timetable and framework for its implementation.

“This is something for the Moscow leadership to think about,” Bickauskas said. “But the leadership will have to make the tiniest step forward toward our position.”

While Landsbergis continues to maintain that the overwhelming pro-independence vote in the republic’s parliamentary elections in February gave the leadership a full mandate for independence and amounted to a referendum, he said Thursday that a referendum would be acceptable to confirm or ratify the actions of the Supreme Council.

An opinion poll conducted in Lithuania showed that 91% of respondents backed the independence declaration, according to results released Thursday.

In London, Algimantas Cekoilis, a leading figure in the Lithuanian nationalist movement Sajudis, said the republic will offer further concessions to get formal talks started with Moscow as soon as possible, according to the Associated Press. In addition to a referendum, they include:

Recognition of Soviet interests, but not rights, in the Baltic states, “maybe including a military presence.”

Soviet access to the Soviet city of Kaliningrad, the former German city of Koenigsberg, from which it would lose direct land access.

Soviet use of the Baltic seaports, which are important to the Soviet navy.

Continuation of the present economic relations between Lithuania and the Soviet Union.

Cekoilis told a London news conference that Landsbergis had authorized him to publicize the proposed concessions in the West to gain greater international attention for them.

But Edward Tuskenis of the Lithuanian Parliament’s information office said that Cekoilis may have “overstepped his bounds” by setting out a position that had not been fully approved by the Lithuanian government.

Esther Schrader, a free-lance journalist, contributed to this story from Vilnius.