Gorbachev Puts More Pressure on Lithuania

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and the country’s new Presidential Council decided Monday to apply even greater political and economic pressure on Lithuania to force an end to the Baltic republic’s efforts to secede from the Soviet Union.

The council, reviewing the month-old Lithuanian crisis, accused the republic’s nationalist leaders of prolonging the dispute by refusing to go back on their unilateral declaration of independence and thus thwarting negotiations.

The tough stand by Soviet authorities came as they were confronted by a renewed challenge from another republic--Soviet Georgia, in the south of the country. There, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered to mourn the 20 people, most of them women and old people, killed a year ago when troops broke up a nationalist protest rally.

The Presidential Council’s decision, announced by the official Soviet news agency Tass, made clear that tensions over Lithuania have not diminished and could escalate significantly, that Gorbachev remains intent on preserving the unity of the Soviet Union and that negotiations and a political resolution are still far away.

“The present Lithuanian leadership is blocking any exit from the crisis with its anti-constitutional actions and the escalation of illegal measures,” the council said. “It is aggravating the situation in the republic, for which it bears full responsibility.”

The council, which Gorbachev heads, told the central government that “additional economic, political and other measures should be taken to protect the Soviet constitution and the interests of citizens living in the republic and the Soviet Union as a whole.”

Vytautas Landsbergis, the Lithuanian president, immediately condemned the decision, saying that this was not Moscow’s first threat against Lithuania.

“Maybe the West will now see that Gorbachev does not fit the image that he likes to put across,” Landsbergis told a late-night press conference in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. But Lithuania would now take special care, he added, to prevent “provocations” that would give the Kremlin an excuse to take tougher measures.

Although the council did not elaborate on the new steps, Moscow could impose severe economic sanctions on Lithuania, cutting off such vital supplies as gasoline or transport or communications links, demonstrating its extensive power over the republic but not damaging its own interests much.

Moscow could also order more officials from the central government into Lithuania to take over functions of the recalcitrant republic’s administration there. Already, a deputy Soviet prosecutor general is overseeing the work of the Lithuanian prosecutor’s office after occupying its quarters with troops.

A third pressure point would be the seizure of more offices and buildings by the Soviet paratroopers who have been deployed in substantial numbers in Vilnius and elsewhere in the republic. The Communist Party headquarters, several other party buildings and the republic’s main printing plant are among the facilities now occupied by troops and police sent by Moscow.

A conservative group of deputies, members of the Soyuz (Union) caucus in the Congress of People’s Deputies, the Soviet Parliament, called Monday for the annulment of the republic’s elections that brought the nationalist movement Sajudis to power in Lithuania and the establishment of presidential rule there under Gorbachev’s sweeping emergency powers.

The elections should be voided, the group said, because of what it said were extensive violations of election laws. Sajudis and its leaders should then be prosecuted for illegal and unconstitutional activities.

In its statement, the Presidential Council rejected Lithuania’s reply, intended to be conciliatory, to Gorbachev’s appeal last week for a political resolution of the crisis.

“The reply by the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet was not constructive and did not open an avenue toward settling problems,” the council said. “In fact, it leads matters into a dead end.”

The Lithuanian Parliament had declared the republic’s willingness to discuss “the essence and the letter” of its actions “on the basis of international law and the Soviet constitution,” but made clear that its declaration of independence was non-negotiable.

But Kazimiera Prunskiene, the Lithuanian prime minister, complained in an interview shown on Soviet television Monday that it was the Kremlin that was responsible for the lack of progress, that it rejected her government’s overtures.

“We have made repeated appeals to President Gorbachev and Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov to begin negotiations or at least open consultations on starting negotiations,” she said. “Until now, we have not received any concrete answers.”

Earlier Monday, in Georgia, nearly 200,000 people participated in three separate rallies in Tbilisi, the capital, in a massive show of strength by the republic’s pro-independence movement.

Early Monday, about 100,000 gathered in a candlelight commemoration of the dead on Rustavelli Boulevard, where the pre-dawn clash occurred a year ago when soldiers attempted to clear the square in front of the government headquarters using a gas that turned out to be lethal in some cases. They also beat some protesters to death with shovels.

Later, more than 10,000 demonstrated outside a military barracks, shouting at the soldiers inside to quit the army. And Monday evening, a rally of 70,000 was held in Tbilisi’s main sports stadium.

Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a pro-independence activist of long standing, described the anniversary of the April 9 killings as “a day of great sorrow, but also a day of victory” for Georgians.

“On this day, the Georgian soul was revived,” Gamsakhurdia said. “April 9 was the beginning of the national, democratic revolution of Georgia, which is continuing.”

Although only a small proportion of Georgians favored complete independence from the Soviet Union a year ago, now the vast majority do, he contended.

The way to independence is hotly debated in Georgia. Some groups contend that the best way is through elections and parliamentary action, the way that Lithuania and the other Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia are pursuing.

But Irakly Tsereteli, leader of the radical National Independence Party, called Monday for a campaign of civil disobedience, including refusal to serve in the Soviet armed forces, to press for independence.

“We do not need Lithuania as an example of independence,” he said. “We want our own kind of independence. We have no legitimate reason to work within the Soviet system. The Soviet system was imposed on Georgia. We must band together to oust the occupiers.”

In Estonia, the republic’s leaders decided Monday to send a draft response to Gorbachev’s criticism of their bid for independence to legislative committees for debate. Estonia declared Soviet rule to be the illegal occupation of their country and voted to re-establish their republic’s independence after an undefined transition period.

In neighboring Latvia, the new Communist Party leader, Alfreds Rubiks, asked delegates to the party congress who walked out over the weekend not to establish an independent party, as Lithuanian and Estonian Communists did, but reconsider their action before a conference they plan this weekend to make the break formal.

However, Anatolijs Gorbunovs, president of the Latvian Parliament, said that he is certain that the break will be made and that Latvian legislators will vote to secede from the Soviet Union when they convene in May.