& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Baltic Bloodshed Raises Fear of Bad Old Days

Charles Quist Adade writes from Leningrad
ORDINARY Soviets and pro-perestroika democrats in Leningrad are unequivocal in their condemnation of the Soviet military’s move into Lithuania.
The Vilnius nightmare, which invoked macabre memories of the Romanian Sccuritate's crackdown on antl-Ceaucescu demonstrators in December 1989, left in its trail at least 14 dead and 160 wounded.
Protesters tn Leningrad call the act criminal, label its perpetrators as killers and have dubbed the event "Bloody Sunday".
They compare it with the Bloody Sunday of January 22, 1905, when Tsarist police fired on a crowd led by a priest as it marched to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to present a petition.
Eighty-six years later demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Leningrad carry banners saying : "Murderers Get Out" The army — Are You The Shield of The Motherland or the First of The Mafia?" and "God Save ■ Us From A Peace Nobel Prize Laureate." But the public ignored the two-hour protest strike called by the Democratia Rossia movement following the clashes in Vilnius.
Many see the Lithuanian bloodbath as a confirmation of what former foreign minister Eduard Shcrvadnadze said in his resignation speech on December 20 about an imminent surge of neoStalinism.
Said one member of Democratic Rossia "Democrats, you may as well go to bed and sleep. Perestroika-is dead and buried. Red fascism and nco-Stalin-ism have won the battle.
Gleb Lebedev, Leningrad's City Council Deputy said : Today is Lithuania. Tomorrow it will be the turn of Riga. The day after tomorrow it may be here in Leningrad. We arc sliding towards an authoritarian-regime."
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, together with his Army and Interior Ministry chiefs, Dmitry Yazov ana Doris Pugo, have absolved themselves of any blame.
The authorities have instead blamed the Sujudis-lcd government of Vytautas Landsbergis for "flagrant violation' of the constitutions of the Soviet Union and Lithuanian Socialist Republic. Landsbergis and his supporters are also accused of waging an anti-Soviet and anti-Russlan campaign, plus what hard-liners call "restoring bourgeois order and crude capitalism" in Lithuania.
Leningrad University lecturer Vladimir Vydrin says Gorbachev seems to be taking cover behind the Soviet Constitution when it comes to the Baltic Republics. Vydrin Fears Gorbachev is leaning on the constitution and has lost his political acumen.
The spark that ignited the keg was price rises announced by Premier Prun-skienc early in January. Demonstrators, mainly ethnic Russians, picketed the local parliament building on January 8 and demanded the resignation of the government.
Sajudis followers then staged a parallel demonstration in support of the government. As tensions mounled. Gorbachev addressed to the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian Socialist Republic, which by the new Lithuanian Consitution no longer exists.
On January 1 1 a Save Lithuania Committee apparently set up by the ethnic Russian group Yedlnstvo (Unity) appealed to the Kremlin to Introduce direct presidential rule in Lithuania. After this the scenario Infolded at reckless spbed.
The main printing house was occupied by Interior Ministry troops on orders of the break away prq-Moscow Communist Party of Lithuania.
Then, came the fateful January 13. when the Army surrounded the Central Post and Telecommunications Centre, the railway terminal and airport, effectively cutting the Baltic Republic from the rest of the country and outside world.
At I am. airborne forces stormed the republican television and broadcasting buildings, firing Indiscriminately. At the same time a column of armoured tanks moved to the parliament building where in response to a Landsbergis call thousands of people had gathered to prevent the army from taking II over.
In neighbouring Latvia and Estonia, where Gorbachev has ordered troops to "bring back" servicemen who had deserted and hunt out hiding draftees, human shields around local parliament buildings where Immediately formed by thousands of loyalists in case the Lithuanian scenario snowballed into their republics.
The simmering brew In the Baltic's cauldron points to an imminent civil war as the state-controlled mass media, particularly Central Television, and the republican media engage in an acrimonious war of words in which anti-Baltic and anti-Russtan sentiments arc promoted.
In Lithuania, dual power between Sajudis Lithuania and the Communist Committee of Lithuania Salvation has led to chaos and near anarchy.
A Supreme Soviet delegation sent to Lithuania for on-the-spot investigation returned to report of "an explosive situation which could lead to large-scale blood shed."
The Lithuanians have no alternative. Neither government nor parliament exercises any real power. It is a David versus Goliath situation. — GEMINI NEWS
CHARLES QUIST ADADE is a Ghanian Journalist reading for a doctorate in sociology at l^ningrad University.