Paris, Bonn Ask Lithuania to Slow Freedom Bid

Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis said Thursday that he will carefully study a proposal from France and West Germany that the Baltic republic temporarily suspend its independence drive.

The letter from French President Francois Mitterrand and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, delivered to Lithuanian representatives in Moscow, said such a suspension could lead to talks with the Kremlin “so that the current crisis ends in a solution acceptable to all parties.”

Also Thursday, Vilnius Radio reported Lithuania will begin food rationing May 1. The republic of 3.8 million people is struggling under an economic embargo imposed last week by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to break its campaign for independence.

Landsbergis described the letter from Mitterrand and Kohl as “a step forward toward the realization of Lithuanian independence,” said parliamentary spokesman Ed Tuskenis, speaking by telephone.

Lithuania wants an immediate dialogue, Landsbergis said, and “a termination of the Soviet economic blockade against Lithuania would be beneficial to the atmosphere of this dialogue.”

“The leadership of Lithuania, greatly appreciating this act of goodwill on the part of two noted leaders, will carefully study this letter’s proposition,” he added.

Tuskenis said Landsbergis viewed “as positive” the fact that the letter from Kohl and Mitterrand did not mention revoking Lithuania’s March 11 declaration of independence. The letter discussed temporary suspension of some decisions by the Lithuanian Parliament.

Lithuania has increased its efforts to circumvent the sanctions imposed last week by Gorbachev.

A Lithuanian delegation is due in Leningrad today to talk with officials about a direct exchange of goods either for hard currency or barter, a Leningrad journalist said. Another group arrived in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, and met with local lawmakers, according to the grass-roots group Rukh.

Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene announced Wednesday that Lithuania had halted its usual shipments of meat, milk and other food to the rest of the Soviet Union. She instead urged Lithuania to settle its accounts with the republics “almost in marketplace conditions” by bartering for other goods.

The emergency committee of Lithuania’s leadership considering responses to Moscow’s embargo has decided to start rationing some food products beginning May 1, according to Vilnius Radio. No details were released.

Unlike most Soviet republics, Lithuania produces all the meat and dairy goods it needs, so the rationing presumably would be of those foodstuffs it does not produce, or of meat and milk products earmarked for export.

Gasoline already is being rationed in the republic since Gorbachev cut off its oil and curtailed natural gas deliveries by more than 80% last week. Individuals are limited to 7.8 gallons per month.