Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Baltics decry Yeltsin's halt to withdrawal of troops Date: Sat, 31 Oct 92 14:00:15 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Baltics decry Yeltsin's halt to withdrawal of troops \BY Wendy Sloane \CR ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT MOSCOW MOSCOW - The three Baltic states, struggling with the legacy of Soviet domination, yesterday condemned Russian President Boris Yeltsin's decision to stop withdrawing troops from their countries. They called it a move to appease his hard-line critics. Mr. Yeltsin said Thursday he was suspending the withdrawal because of "deep concern" for the rights of the Russian-speaking minorities in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. His Russian nationalist critics in parliament accuse the Baltic governments of discriminating against those minorities. Critics in the military say the troops have nowhere to go because of a housing shortage and should be kept in place for now. But the three Baltic states view Mr. Yeltsin's decision as a setback to their decades-long campaign to get rid of the troops, whom they consider an occupying force threatening their independence and security. The Red Army occupied the Baltics in 1940 under a secret pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. In Washington, the Bush administration urged Russia to resume the troop withdrawal and said a delay could jeopardize U.S. assistance to Moscow. It was a rare instance of criticism, but Joseph Snyder, a State Department spokesman, said Mr. Yeltsin's order to suspend the withdrawal was "disappointing." The United States has "indicated our concern" to authorities in Moscow, Mr. Snyder said. There were more than 58,000 former Soviet troops in the three Baltic states when Mr. Yeltsin called a halt. Of these, about 24,500 were in Lithuania, about the same number in Latvia and 9,000 in Estonia. It is not known how many troops have already withdrawn. Ethnic Russians make up about 1.67 million of the 8 million residents in the Baltics. Most are concentrated in Latvia, where they are about one-third of the population of 2.7 million. Mr. Yeltsin's order "contradicts the obligations Russia has taken," said President Lennart Meri of Estonia by telephone from the Estonian capital, Tallinn. Mr. Meri said the order violates the 1992 Helsinki Final Act, which calls for withdrawal of foreign forces from the Baltics. He plans to ask foreign ministers in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe to discuss the matter in December. Russia took control of the former Soviet army troops after the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 and had agreed to remove them by the end of 1994. Moscow had agreed with Lithuania on a timetable and was holding talks with Estonia and Latvia, which have demanded a faster pullout. The Latvian Foreign Ministry expressed "surprise and bewilderment" at the order. "Latvia has repeatedly stressed that the withdrawal of the Russian forces from it should not be linked with any of its other internal or international problems," it said. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM