Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 1991)
Wednesday, August 28, 1991 The Battalion Page 11 Gorbachev promises elections; gl Kremlin authority already dead If always (i t" 1 H' decree laingo;. totalitj gestionv ' : er or la:; someoni issian E~: an lead® the coc* t reput; Russian m the Ruiil ;es ar - 'gnord •emerge MOSCOW (AP) - President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised new elections and pledged Mon day to preserve his national gov ernment, but leaders of Soviet re publics told him Kremlin central authority already is dead. "The w'hole of the center has completely outlived itself. It is dead. It committed suicide," Ar menian President Levon Ter-Pet- rosian told the Supreme Soviet legislature. A key Gorbachev ally in his ef forts to preserve the union — Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev — reversed himself and told lawmakers that the re publics should have their own armies and foreign policy. Addressing the legislature for the first time since the bungled hard-line takeover that briefly top pled him, Gorbachev promised new national elections six months after the signing of the Union Treaty — his proposal to hold the country together. But there ap peared to be little support for the treaty now. The Soviet president also told lawmakers he blamed himself for not heeding the signs that the coup was coming, calling it a "les son of the first order." In seeking autonomy or out right independence, the republic leaders were taking their cue from Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin, who has greatly ex panded his authority in the wake of the failed coup. Nazarbayev proposed that "independence be granted at once" to the Baltics and other re publics seeking to secede. Gor bachev, while not endorsing Baltic independence outright in his speech, did not repeat his earlier demands that republics follow a lengthy secession process. Many Western nations, mean while, were establishing diplomat ic relations with the Baltic re publics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, or moving to do so. Among them was the United States. In other developments Mon day, one week after the coup: — Lithuania took control of its border posts and began issuing visas, and the president of Uzbek istan told the republic's parlia ment to prepare a declaration of independence. The Moldavian parliament scheduled a session for Tuesday to decide on a similar question, and LTzbek President Is lam Karimov ordered his parlia ment to draft independence legis lation, the Tass news agency re ported. — Nikolai Kruchina, the Com munist Party official responsible for administering its enormous wealth, committed suicide Mon day by jumping out the window of his seventh-floor apartment, the KGB said. His was the third re ported suicide since the coup failed. — The Izvestia newspaper and the Tass news agency moved to drop their role as official organs of the Soviet government and be come independent. In his address to lawmakers, Gorbachev spoke of the profound changes that have swept the coun try since his brief ouster. "They say that I came back to a different country. I agree with that. To that I can add that to this different country, a person has come who sincerely looks at ev erything — at the past, at today and the possibilities — with differ ent eyes," Gorbachev said. He proposed strong civilian control of the military and the KGB, pledged to continue his eco nomic reforms and called for new elections. Lawmakers voted to convene an extraordinary session of the legislature's parent body, the 2,250-member Congress, of Peo ple's Deputies, next Monday. Minutes before the legislature opened, its speaker, Anatoly Lukyanov, said he had resigned in the face of accusations that he was the chief ideologist of the coup. eeks a;fe ra( elec ? )r thiski opposi: formir: broke d: U.S. nears recognition of breakaway Baltics t tot; nday a: cap;: crowd onstrat: thousa: 0 rael las j ards I iportaiil all thi v'ith a'| :et wilt* Geneva ught to focuseo ges tot | Israel, ericans. say m a bit : tim Jii* vear-oi year-oi bbed 1 eve th holo .arting KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) — President Bush, responding cautiously to the unraveling of the Soviet Union, said Monday the Unit ed States is close — but not yet read}' — to joining other nations in ex tending diplomatic recognition to the breakaway Baltic states. "I'd just like to see a little bit more — a few more cards on the table before we take another step," Bush said, adding that the United States has a special responsibility as a superpower to act prudently. While proclaiming "the death knell for the communist movement around the world," the president also said the the United States would not rush in with money for the Soviet Union. And Bush made clear that he was willing to conduct business with whomever emerges with the most power in the Soviet Union — Boris Yeltsin or Mikhail Gorbachev. "We'll deal with who's there," Bush said. "It's not for the United States to say whom we're dealing with." Faced with fast-moving, extraordinary changes in the Soviet Union, Bush made clear that the United States will move tentatively and avoid bold moves on the diplomatic, economic and political front. "I don't want to be part of making a mistake that might contribute to some kind of anarchy in the Soviet Union," said Bush, joining Canada's Brian Mulroney at the conclusion of the prime minister's overnight visit here. Bush summoned senior aides to a meeting at his oceanside vacation home on Tuesday to assess the changes in the Soviet Union. The group will include Ambassador Robert Strauss, who just returned from Moscow, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, Acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, his deputy, Robert Gates, and chief of staff John Sununu. Bush announced the United States was speeding up $315 million in agricultural credits for the Soviet Union to buy American grain. The money is part of $500 million in credits that were to become available Oct. 1 in the second of three installments of $1.5 billion of U.S. aid. White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the Soviets could have the full $500 million now if they want it. Standing alongside Bush outside his summer home, Mulroney an nounced that Canada was joining a growing list of nations to extend full diplomatic recognition to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. For his part. Bush said the United States is "moving very, very close" to recognition but will remain on the sidelines for a time. Administration officials say the United States will quickly extend recognition, once the Soviet Union grants independence to the Baltics. Bush had expected the Soviet parliament to take that step on Monday. Bush said he and Mulroney discussed the issue of Western economic assistance to the Soviet Union but said he foresaw no major new U.S. of fers. Deputy finance ministers of the seven largest industrialized nations will gather in London on Thursday to assess how to help the Soviet Union. South Africans condemn plan for new constitution JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — Conservative whites and anti-apartheid blacks on Monday attacked a blueprint for a new constitution proposed by the governing National Party. President F.W. de Klerk's Na tional Party has not formally re leased the plan. But the guidelines, leaked to a local newspaper, call for full black voting rights and re placement of the presidency with an executive council of three to five members. Andries Treurnicht, leader of the pro-apartheid Conservative Party, called that "totally unac ceptable." The plan "paves the way for black majority rule," his Conservatives complained in a statement. The African National Congress, or ANC, opposed the blueprint on the ground that cru cial clauses could be used to pre serve white privilege. Inmates continue talks with officials TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) - Rebellious Cuban inmates holding 10 hostages for a sixth day at a fed eral prison continued talking with officials and received medicine from the outside Monday, the warden said. It appeared that seven men and three women held hostage were unhurt, said Roger F. Scott, warden at the Talladega Federal Correctional Institution. Scott and other federal prison officials wouldn't comment about any progress or specifics in negoti ations with the Cuban inmates who took over a maximum-securi ty unit Wednesday. There were 121 Cubans and 18 non-Cuban in mates in the unit. Scott said Monday there had been "additional dialogue ... as well as some contacts between medical staff and the Cuban in mates." He described the medical treatment as routine. It was at least the third time that medical personnel delivered medication through a grille to the detainees and got a look at some of the hostages. Dan Dunne, a federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman, said the medical workers saw six of the hostages. The Cuban inmates have told prison officials the four other hostages haven't been harmed. "From what we are being told, they appear to be well, consider ing the situation, and are in fact able to be walking in the unit," Dunne said. Dunne said no food had been sent to the unit since the uprising began. Buy Used Books at sFLOUPOT'S® and Save • « ENGINEERING STUDENT FINDS MISSING LINK it was right in the palm of my hand... Pocket Professional SOFTWARE FOR THE HP 48SX Mathematics General Chemistry Electrical Engineering Mechanical Engineering Personal Information Manager Available Now PROFESSIONAL C0MPUI1NG GRE LSAT study skills ; '■SS’iyi 1 . v - ’ > t ' ** » S s -■-! EDUCATIONAL GROUP v ■ > j We complete the puzzle. COLLEGE STATION - 764-8303 Sprint Because You Have Better Things lb DoThan Worry About Long Distance SH Sales Pitch maming: Reading the following could cause seuere eye cramps and nausea: Sprint has operators, 24-hour customer seruice and international calling. See what we mean- 1 If you can still function semi-normally. call the following number to get connected to Sprint. Sign up for Sprint Select' or Sprint PLUS 'and well giue you 100 minutes free* 'The 1M frM KiMta effer is for a crkit egual tt 111 mutes ef iilmlate S|h*t BUR calling per accent a! the Sprint 3tH mil rnght/veefciitf rate Credit mil appear in the ttmd Mith imeica This effet nay net be tsed in cnjenctien urifh any ether prunttitn Iffer vabtf inly for Spriaf PUS and Spriet Select sirrcts aid e« in-state calls •ben aetbenad Mm cesteners eely teed tbreeyh 12/31/ft. 0 Iffl IS Sprint Cranmnicitrons Company Lrmted Partnership