DATE=11/9/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=LITHUANIA LOOKS AHEAD
NUMBER=5-44734
BYLINE=ED WARNER
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:


INTRO:  Since gaining its independence from the Soviet 
Union, Lithuania has enjoyed its freedom and worried 
about its economy.  Situated precariously between East 
and West, it is tilting decidedly westward under the 
leadership of one of the founders of independence, 
Vytautus Landsbergis, who recently visited Washington.  
V-O-A's Ed Warner spoke to him at the Lithuanian 
embassy and also interviewed another close observer of 
the Baltic nation.

TEXT:  Ascending the gracefully curving staircase in 
the Lithuanian embassy, a visitor hears the soft 
strains of a piano.  There, playing in the reception 
room is Lithuania's most famous musician, Vytautus 
Landsbergis, doing perhaps what he likes best.

But in Lithuania and abroad, Mr. Landsbergis is better 
known for other accomplishments: above all, leading 
the movement for his country's independence from the 
Soviet Union - and in a famous moment in 1991, 
refusing to give in when Soviet tanks surrounded the 
parliament in the capital, Vilnius, and started 
shooting at civilians.

He is proud that Lithuania led the way for other 
captive nations of the Soviet Union:

            /// LANDSBERGIS ACT ///

      It was not only national liberation for 
      Lithuania.  We worked on democracy in the Soviet 
      Union, which had to mean freedom of choice for 
      each nation.  It became an example for others in 
      the Caucasus, in Ukraine, in Moldova, to follow: 
      How liberation and the establishment of 
      independent statehood may be achieved in a 
      peaceful, non-violent way.

            /// END ACT ///

Thomas Remeikis, a scholar in the United States who 
writes on Lithuania, says Mr. Landsbergis' role was 
crucial as the Soviet Union neared collapse:

            /// REMEIKIS ACT ///

      He was a truly forceful leader and mobilized not 
      only the political elite but also the masses to 
      declare the re-establishment of independence of 
      Lithuania.  Subsequently, when he entered the 
      political arena of self-government, his role 
      became kind of controversial.

            /// END ACT ///

As in the case of so many leading dissidents of the 
Soviet era, Mr. Landsbergis' transition to every day 
politics has been a stormy one. As president of 
parliament and leader of the Conservative Party - the 
nation's largest - he has come under attack, among 
other things, for a faltering economy.

Mr. Remeikis says Mr. Landsbergis' aim is to tie 
Lithuania closely to the West.

That is where our future lies, says Mr. Landsbergis, 
who came to Washington, in part, to urge his country`s 
admission to NATO.  He is emphatic on that point:

            /// LANDSBERGIS ACT ///

      If Lithuania would not be permitted to enter 
      NATO, it would mean that Lithuania is not free, 
      that the Russian striving to dominate the 
      Baltics is accepted in Western democracies.  You 
      would see us sold again, as we have been sold by 
      the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (1939 Nazi-Soviet 
      agreement delivering the Baltics to the Soviet 
      Union) and later in Yalta (1945 allied 
      conference that confirmed the Baltics as part of 
      the Soviet Union).

            /// END ACT ///

Mr. Landsbergis says Russia must realize that its era 
of expansionism is over.  Lithuania's joining NATO 
would help make that clear.

The U-S and Lithuanian militaries are in close touch 
and conduct joint maneuvers.  There is considerable 
support in Lithuania for joining NATO as well as the 
European Union.  But Mr. Remeikis says there is also 
some Euro-skepticism.

            /// REMEIKIS ACT ///

      The population is quite split.  Some people seem 
      to perceive that Lithuania, after all, is a 
      transit country between East and West.  And to 
      put all your eggs in the same basket - namely, 
      Western Europe and NATO - is perceived as 
      somewhat extreme: moving from Moscow to 
      Brussels.

            /// END ACT ///

Mr. Remeikis says Lithuania, as a member of the 
European Union, would have a hard time competing with 
the more developed economies of Western Europe.

Lithuania expected more help from the West than it has 
received.  Foreign investment has lagged, and the sale 
of the major state-owned oil concern to a U-S group 
has aroused great controversy.

But if Lithuania's relations with more distant powers 
remain ambiguous, it is having some success with an 
immediate neighbor, Kaliningrad, a province of Russia 
isolated from the body of the nation and wedged 
between Lithuania and Poland.  With an army larger 
than the combined forces of the three Baltic states, 
Kaliningrad is, in Mr. Landsbergis' words, "an iron 
fist in the heart of Europe."

Lithuania has been trying to relax that clenched fist 
with supplies and investments.  Mr. Landsbergis thinks 
that in time, Kaliningrad could be demilitarized and 
become an integral part of Europe.  Others even 
conceive of it emerging as a fourth Baltic Republic, 
along with Latvia and Estonia.

Mr. Landsbergis says much, of course, depends on 
developments in Russia.  The sooner democracy takes 
hold there, the better for Kaliningrad, Lithuania and 
the world in general. (Signed)

NEB/EW/TVM/JP




09-Nov-1999 16:52 PM EDT (09-Nov-1999 2152 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.