Lithuania Offer: Suspension of Secession Laws

Lithuania’s Parliament offered Wednesday to suspend laws it has enacted since declaring the republic’s independence if the Kremlin agrees to negotiate.

The resolution adopted by the Lithuanian Supreme Council is aimed at breaking Lithuania’s impasse with Moscow, but council spokeswoman Rita Dapkus said it does not involve rescinding the republic’s March 11 declaration of independence itself as the Kremlin has demanded. She said the offer will be delivered to President Mikhail S. Gorbachev today.

Dapkus said the proposal closely resembled the compromise suggested last month by French and German leaders but adds a transition period before full independence and concrete proposals on military cooperation, economic plans and other topics.

Gorbachev spokesman Arkady A. Maslennikov has said the proposal by West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Francois Mitterrand went “along the lines” of Gorbachev’s thinking.

Gorbachev pronounced Lithuania’s declaration of independence invalid in March and followed up with economic sanctions, including a partial blockade that officials say has left the republic of 3.8 million on the verge of running out of fuel.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene said Tuesday that she believes talks with Moscow could begin this week, and she is expected to be in Moscow today.

A leader of neighboring Latvia said Wednesday that talks on Baltic independence would start next week with mid-level Kremlin officials. Deputy Prime Minister Ilmars Bisers, just back from meetings in Moscow, said talks with Soviet officials would focus on “the gaining of independence on the basis of a treaty with the Soviet Union.”

All three Baltic republics were reported to be calm Wednesday, one day after thousands of anti-independence protesters converged on government buildings in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.