WORLD : Byelorussia Joins Reform Tide
The Byelorussian Parliament today passed a declaration of sovereignty, joining a string of Soviet republics demanding looser ties to Moscow.
A spokesman for the Byelorussian news agency Belta said by telephone from Minsk that the vote was unanimous but that only 230 of the 350 deputies were in the chamber.
In the last two months the Ukraine and the Russian Federation have passed similar declarations, and Moldavia and Uzbekistan have declared that their republican laws take precedence over Soviet laws.
President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has generally ignored these declarations, the result of increased national awareness growing from his perestroika reforms.
But he has angrily denounced the three Baltic states--Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia--for declaring full independence.
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