Gorbachev Steps In to Get Moldovan Rivals Talking

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, gathering envoys of Moldova’s feuding nationalities around him, intervened personally Saturday to try to settle his country’s latest ethnic quarrel, but reports from the scene indicated tensions were rising or unabated.

At least three people--some reports had said as many as six--were killed Friday when Moldovans clashed with Slavic separatists who had proclaimed independence in their region of the small southern Soviet republic, which lies on the border with Romania.

Gorbachev, who has seen ethnic disputes escalate into armed warfare in other regions, swiftly made public his concern about Moldova, formerly called Moldavia.

He met Saturday at the Kremlin with Moldovan President Mirca I. Snegur; I. N. Smirnov and other leaders of the local Russian-dominated Slavic population, and Stepan N. Topal, the recently elected leader of an Orthodox Christian minority--the Turkic-speaking Gagauzi--who also want independence.

In what could be a major step toward restoring calm, the participants agreed that the ethnic-based vigilante formations that have sprung up in the republic of 4.4 million people should be declared illegal and dissolved, the official Soviet news agency Tass reported.

Those present concurred, Tass added, that peace could be achieved by preserving an intact Moldova within the framework of the Soviet Union.

In Moldova itself, however, passions remained high, with Tass reporting an “explosive situation” in the self-styled “Dniester Republic” in the east, where most of the population consists of Russians, Ukrainians and other immigrants.

There, separatist leaders debated their next move and considered economic sanctions to punish the dominant nationality in the republic. They “discussed economic sanctions--cutting off electricity supplies and closing rail links to (Moldova’s capital) Kishinev,” Tass said.

Soviet television’s evening news program “Vremya” said that in the Dniester area self-defense units of as many as 4,000 members had assembled in cities, including Dubossary, site of Friday’s bloody clash. In Tiraspol, the breakaway state’s capital, 6,000 vigilante members were reported “on alert.”

Meanwhile, Moldovan students by the hundreds, waving their homeland’s blue, yellow and red flag, gathered outside the Parliament building in Kishinev to show support for Prime Minister Mirca Druc, who reportedly gave the order that resulted in units from Moldova’s fledgling national guard firing on the separatists.

Confusion remained over how many people were shot and whether they died in a clash between Moldovan troops and thousands of pro-independence demonstrators, or while trying to loot a Soviet army weapons depot, as Moldova’s interior minister, Gen. Ion Kostash, suggested to the Parliament.

Soviet TV said many people were wounded in the Dubossary clash, with some hospitalized for broken arms and legs. Kostash denied his troops shot at anyone, but Tass quoted a Dubossary official as saying many of those hurt had gunshot wounds.

Tass, quoting Soviet police officials, said six people were killed; Kostash said three died.

Although the Kishinev correspondent of the Soviet daily Izvestia expressed doubt in print that the Moldova belligerents could be made to talk out their differences, initial reports on Gorbachev’s meeting with the factions were markedly upbeat.

To defuse tensions, the Soviet prosecutor-general and Moldovan authorities will investigate the Dubossary killings and bring those responsible to account, the participants in the meeting agreed, according to Tass. Moldova’s Parliament also ordered an investigation.

“People must be punished, independently of their social position and their jobs. We have to make it clear: Who caused the conflict between these peoples?” Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov, who was at the meeting, said in a television interview.

The representatives of Moldova’s factions agreed to form a committee to seek a resolution to Moldova’s ethnic disputes.