EC Suspends Its Aid for Moscow : Western Europe: Twelve nations call new regime illegitimate and demand Gorbachev’s reinstatement.

Casting the new Soviet ruling committee as an illegitimate government, European Community countries Tuesday demanded the reinstatement of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and suspended more than $1 billion in economic assistance to the Soviet Union until “constitutional order” is restored.

British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd called the tough stance taken by the 12 European nations a “clear rejection of those who still pretend to be reformers while they are closing newspapers, appointing military commanders to cities, forbidding strikes and banning public demonstrations.” French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas called the action “a firm signal to democratic forces.”

Specifically, the European representatives ordered a halt to $600 million in credit guarantees to the Soviet Union and suspended another $500 million in technical assistance that was to begin next month. However, they agreed to continue delivery of $400 million in emergency food aid as long as they can be certain the food is delivered to needy areas already established by the 1990 Agreement on Trade and Commercial and Economic Cooperation.

Gorbachev’s dramatic removal from power also jeopardizes billions of dollars of aid and credits promised individually by Western industrialized countries and Japan. Japan is withholding assistance, including a $350 million loan to refinance trade debts, the Associated Press reported.

Aids, grants and trade credits pledged from Germany alone total more than $34 billion.

In addition to direct aid, much of the $60 billion in external Soviet debt is carried by European banks, mainly in Germany and France.

Meeting in emergency session, the foreign ministers encouraged individual countries to cut bilateral aid and trade agreements with the Soviet Union to demonstrate universal international rejection of the new regime. Even stronger sanctions than Tuesday’s action against the new Soviet regime are expected when European heads of state meet in an emergency summit later this week, probably on Friday here in the Dutch capital.

“The European Community and its member states are deeply concerned at the coup d’etat in the Soviet Union,” said a communique issued by the EC members after Tuesday’s meeting. “They strongly condemn the removal of President Gorbachev from office and the seizure of all power (by a new ruling committee) as a clearly unconstitutional act and a flagrant violation of the Soviet Union’s obligations under the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter.”

The Paris Charter, signed by the Soviet Union and the 34 other members of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Paris last November, endorsed “democratic governments based on the will of the people, expressed regularly through free and fair elections.” It is this agreement that the European leaders used as the basis for their claim that the emergency Soviet regime is an illegitimate government, since it replaced freely elected representatives, including Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.

The foreign ministers also demanded proof of the well-being of Gorbachev and elected public officials in the Soviet Union whose lives may be in danger under the “emergency” regime established after the Monday coup. However, they rejected a French proposal that a special European delegation be dispatched to meet with Gorbachev because it might give the impression of de facto recognition of the regime.

Meanwhile in Paris, French President Francois Mitterrand said he had tried unsuccessfully since Monday afternoon to reach Gorbachev by telephone. Mitterrand said he told Soviet authorities that he wanted to reach the deposed Soviet leader to “thank him for his contributions to world peace.”

After warning that France placed a “high price” on the freedom and safety of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, Mitterrand declared that continuation of French and European Community aid depends on “what happens with democratic reforms.”

“This is not interference in the internal affairs of the Soviet Union,” Mitterrand said on television Monday night. “It is the application of the international agreements of Helsinki and Paris.”

A cutoff in aid was probably anticipated by those who removed Gorbachev from power. The statement from the Emergency Committee broadcast Monday by Radio Moscow contained the following paragraph:

“Only irresponsible people can put their hope in some sort of help from abroad. No handout will solve our problems. Our salvation is in our own hands.”