The Battalion
WORLD & NATION
Thursday, April 19,1990
Soviets deny reports of embargo
MOSCOW (AP) — The Soviet
Union shut off oil supplies to Lithu
ania’s only refinery Wednesday as
Moscow began to impose Mikhail S.
Gorbachev’s threatened economic
embargo on the breakaway Baltic re
public, Lithuanian officials said.
Lithuanian President Vytautas
Landsbergis said the move rep
resented “economic coercion and
economic warfare against a neigh
boring country.”
“Truly, this is recognition of the
independence of Lithuania,” he
said. “It is hard to imagine why the
people of Lithuania ... are being
punished. What was their crime?”
Lithuanian Premier Kazimiera
Prunskiene went to Olso, Norway,
on a three-day mission seeking alter
native oil supplies.
In Washington, Secretary of State
James A. Baker III said action by
Moscow against Lithuania could
doom commercial relations between
the Soviet Union and the United
States.
He said, “It’s very difficult to see
some of the commercial aspects of
our relationship surviving the use of
force or coercion” against Lithuania.
President Bush’s spokesman,
Marlin Fitzwater, said “we are
looking into” reports of the oil cut
off.
He also said Bush received a pri
vate letter from Landsbergis — “The
Lithuanians claim Moscow
imposed blockade of oil supply
ningrad region of Russia,” Land
sbergis was quoted as telling a news
conference.
president has not seen it yet but he
will. We won’t comment on the con
tent.”
The move came just hours after
Soviet Deputy Oil and Gas Minister
Aklim Mukhamedzyanov told the
Soviet news agency Tass that reports
of an energy cutoff to Lithuania “are
completely groundless.”
threat with panic-buying, but stocks
were adequate and no rationing was
anticipated, Lithuania’s energy min
ister, Leonas Asmantas, said before
the shutdown Wednesday.
The Supreme Council refused
Wednesday to bow to Gorbachev’s
ultimatum that it rescind indepen
dence-oriented laws, but offered to
But anticipating a possible Soviet
embargo, the Supreme Council
urged Lithuanian factories and con
sumers to “prepare themselves for
spiritual endurance and strict econ
omy on all consumption.” It did not
announce specific conservation mea
sures.
it
It is hard to imagine why the people of Lithuania ...
are being punished. What was their crime?”
At the end of two days of some
times heated debate, the Supreme
Council drafted a letter to Gorba
chev promising that if talks began
before May 1, it would not pass any
more measures to implement its
March 11 declaration of indepen
dence.
Vytautas Landsbergis,
Lithuanian president
He said the Soviet Council of Min
isters issued no instructions to stop
the flow.
Lithuania is entirely dependent
on the Soviet Union for all oil and
gas, and petroleum products are the
Soviet Union’s most profitable ex
port.
Sales of gasoline to Lithuanian
motorists have tripled this week as
residents reacted to Gorbachev’s
pass no more such measures if the
Kremlin starts immediate talks.
After the Supreme Council legis
lature approved an official response
to Gorbachev, Lithuanian President
Vytautas Landsbergis warned Gor
bachev that an embargo of such sup
plies would hurt other republics as
well as Lithuania.
“An economic blockade would in
fluence Latvia, Estonia and the Kali-
That offer represented an effort
to compromise with Moscow, but
was unlikely to be accepted by the
Soviet leadership.
In their resolution — titled “On
the Expansion of Relations Between
the Republic of Lithuania and the
U.S.S.R.” — members of the Su
preme Council reaffirmed their dec
laration of independence, and also
appealed to Gorbachev not to use vi
olence against Lithuanians or im
pose the economic sanctions he
threatened on Friday.
Grenade explosion
kills children on bus
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — A
rifle-fired grenade slammed into
a schoolbus and exploded during
Christian factional fighting
Wednesday, killing 11 schoolchil
dren and at least four other peo
ple.
“The driver was burning as the
bus hit the sidewalk,” mumbled
one dazed witness.
of firing at the bus.
“Geagea is taking pleasure to
day at the sight of the burned
corpses of innocent children,"the
broadcast said.
Geagea’s command could not
be reached by telephone. But the
pro-Geagoa Voice of Lebanon ra
dio station called the hit “mvs-
“Many of the pupils yelled for
help as we tried to extinguish the
fire,” a soldier said. “At least one
teacher also was among the dead
along with the driver.”
A police spokesman said the
bus was hit while crossing into
Christian east Beirut in the af
ternoon. It was bringing children
back from school in south Beirut.
The grenade ignited the fuel
tank.
tenous.
ByCHRIi
Nothin
“It couldn’t be determined who
fired the rifle grenade,” said the
spokesman, who cannot be
named in line with regulations.
Gen. Michel Aouns radio sta
tion accused gunmen of Samir
Geagea’s Lebanese Forces militia
Aoun and Geagea have been
involved in a bloody power strug- : QfThe Be
glc lor control of the 310-squate-
mile Christian enclave for more
than two months. The showdown
has killed 892 people and
wounded 2,388 since it started
Jan. 30. Most victims have been
civilians.
The police spokesman said the
bus belonged to the Mraijeh El
ementary School, a new private
school in south Beirut.
It was not immediately clear
why students from predomi
nantly Christian east Beirut were
attending school in south Beirut,
a Shiite Moslem stronghold.
U. S. recorded smallest
trade deficit in six years
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
United States in February re
corded its smallest trade deficit in
more than six years, a $6.49 bil
lion imbalance that reflected a
sharp drop in oil imports, the
government reported Wednes
day.
The Bush administration,
which is counting on strong ex
port growth this year to boost a
sluggish domestic economy,
hailed the dramatic narrowing of
the deficit.
But some private economists
cautioned that the improvement
could be short-lived.
The Commerce Department
said February’s trade gap was
down 30 percent from a $9.32 bil
lion January deficit. It was the
best trade snowing since Decem
ber 1983, when the deficit was
$5.68 billion.
Imports fell by 7.6 percent, to
$38.12 billion, while U.S. exports
totaled $31.63 billion, a modest 1
percent decline from an all-time
high for exports set in January.
Michael Boskin, President
Bush’s chief economic adviser,
called the trade figure “very good
news indeed” while cautioning
that “we can’t tell yet the extent to
which it is a temporary or perma
nent phenomenon.”
Some private economists re
mained pessimistic, contending
that February’s good showing
came primarily from a huge 20
percent drop in oil imports that’s
not likely to be sustained.
With U.S. domestic oil produc
tion at 25-year lows, many econo
mists look for America’s depen
dence on foreign oil to continue
rising, thus holding back im
provements in the trade deficit.
A stronger dollar makes U.S.
•goods less competitive in overseas
markets.
Anniversary of 1906 earthquake brings
more aftershocks to Northern California
WATSONVILLE, Calif. (AP) — About 75
earthquakes jolted Northern California on
Wednesday, the anniversary of the catastrophic
Great Quake of 1906. The temblors were af
tershocks of the October quake that killed 67, ge
ologists said.
There were no reports of injuries or major
damage from Wednesday morning’s quakes, the
largest measuring up to 5.4 on the Richter scale.
Eight others registered at least 3.3.
The temblors on the San Andreas Fault were
felt from San Francisco to King City, 150 miles
south. The San Andreas also caused the 1906
and Oct. 17 quakes.
“All the memories came back to the kids — this
one especially,” Darrell Daniels said with his 4-
year-old daughter, Eleth, on his lap.
“She won’t let me go.”
The family is living in a mobile home because
their home in downtown Watsonville was con
demned after the October quake.
Wednesday’s aftershocks were centered about
four miles east of Watsonville, 60 miles south of
San Francisco. October’s 7.1-magnitude quake
caused major damage to the farming community.
The temblors began at 8:38 a.m. (CDT),
shortly after a group of Great Quake suriyors
gathered in San Francisco to commemorate the
1906 disaster. The strongest quake Wednesday
struck at 8:54 a.m. (CDT). In all, about 75 were
recorded, according to Pat Jorgenson, a
spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey in
Menlo Park.
Nine quakes of 3.3 or larger were recorded,
the USGS said.
Including the latest temblors, the number of
aftershocks from the October quake registering
3.0 or more grew to 115. Of those, 38 had magni
tudes of 4.0 or larger.
The University of California-Berkeley Seismo-
graphic Station said the strongest quake Wednes
day had a preliminary reading of 5.4 on the Rich
ter scale. Allen Lindh of the USGS also issued a
preliminary report of 5.4.
The Richter scale is a gauge of energy released
by an earthquake, as measured by the ground
motion recorded on a seismograph. Every in
crease of one number, for example from magni
tude 5.5 to magnitude 6.5, means that the
ground motion is 10 times greater.
from a magnitude-7.1
“We are considering them aftershocks,” said
David Oppenheimer, a Geological Survey seis
mologist. “They occurred in the same locationol
other aftershocks of Loma Prieta.” Loma Prieta
was the name given to October’s quake.
He said aftershocks
quake can continue for two years.
“We figured it was all over,” said Robert Holle
son, a former Watsonville resident who was visit
ing Wednesday. “But the power’s off, the
[ rhone’s dead, helicopters are fl
ike it’s starting all over again.’
Early damage reports from the Watsonvilt
area were light, with some dishes broken and
small rockslides on Highway 152 into Watson
ville. San Francisco police said many worried res
idents called, but no damage was reported.
Ron Rutkowski, spokesman for Pacific Gasi
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Electric Co., said about 11,000 customers in the same,
Watsonville and Santa Cruz area lost power. Al
service was restored by noon.
Wednesday marked the 84th anniversar) of
the 1906 quake, which struck at 5:13 a.m
April 18.
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