Lithuanians Conduct Criminal Probe of Pro-Kremlin Communist Leaders

Lithuanian authorities Sunday disclosed they are conducting a criminal probe of leaders of the republic’s pro-Kremlin Communist Party for trying to overthrow the separatist government.

The Lithuanian prosecutor is investigating Juozas Jarmalavicius, the ideology chief of the Lithuanian Communist Party faction loyal to Moscow, said Parliament spokesman Audrius Azubalis.

Jarmalavicius, 51, describes himself as a spokesman for the National Salvation Committee, which requested the Jan. 13 Soviet troop assault on the Vilnius broadcast center that killed 14 people.

The committee later proclaimed it had seized power in the republic, which declared independence in March. But the government led by Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis remained in control.

Although Jarmalavicius has spoken to reporters on behalf of the committee, he denies he is a member. The leadership of the committee is secret.

Azubalis did not say what charges Jarmalavicius might face.

But the official Tass news agency reported that Jarmalavicius was being investigated for making public calls to violate the sovereignty of Lithuania and violently overthrow the government.

Tass also quoted Parliament officials as saying an investigation has begun into whether members of the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party were members of the National Salvation Committee and took part in what it described as “unconstitutional” activities.

Officials said a month of Soviet troop action in Lithuania has caused $57.6 million in damage to equipment, roads, buildings and cars. Azubalis said several thousand people were thrown out of work because their offices were occupied by the troops.

Before seizing the broadcast center, troops stormed a police academy, the republic’s main publishing plant, a newsprint warehouse and other buildings held by pro-independence forces.

Lithuania is leading a campaign by the Baltic republics to regain the independence lost when Soviet troops took control in 1940. Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has said Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia must hold a referendum on independence if they want to leave the union.

Lithuanians are scheduled to conduct a “general poll” on independence Saturday, but it is not clear whether Gorbachev will accept the results because it is not a formal referendum.

In an unusually alarmist statement following last week’s one-day plenum, the Communist Party issued a sharp condemnation of separatist movements in the Soviet Union.

Soviet troops on Sunday continued to roam through Vilnius in newly formed joint patrols with Soviet Interior Ministry police.