Growing separation

The voting wasn’t official in the three Baltic republics of the Soviet Union, but the overwhelming support for independence removes the pretense that President Mikhail Gorbachev has a popular mandate to save the union. Military force hasn’t worked for the Soviet leader, leaving him few options but to negotiate with the republics or return the country to pre-glasnost days.

Unfortunately, President Gorbachev, or whoever is running the Kremlin these days, has chosen the latter.

With Latvia and Estonia adding their pro-independence votes this week to Lithuania’s, the call for autonomy cannot be attributed to a few dissidents. In early February, 91 percent of Lithuanians taking part in an unofficial ballot urged the continued fight for independence. On Sunday, 74 percent of the Latvians and 78 percent of Estonians approved a similar course.

President Gorbachev, who weeks ago foresaw the outcome of the balloting, has used scare tactics to try to keep the republics within the Soviet Union. Civil war, he warned, will be brought to the republics if the wrong type of thinking persists. Perestroika will end, he said, and the economy will decline. Citizens of the Baltic republics seem unimpressed by the threats.

Outside influences on the Soviet Union recently have gotten the Kremlin’s attention by attaching conditions to the aid being sent to Moscow. On Monday, European Community leaders considered restoring aid stopped after the crackdown in the republics, but made it clear that the Baltics were separate countries. Said Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Elleman-Jensen, “Now is the time to start serious negotiations with the Baltic countries in order to get them their full independence.”

The United States has properly encouraged the independence movement by considering direct aid to the Baltics and by meeting with Baltic representatives. President George Bush should have been more forceful in condemning the Lithuanian and Latvian crackdowns, but made his displeasure known in summarily dismissing President Gorbachev’s peace plan in the Middle East.

Independence for the Baltic republics is the inevitable result of the political changes in countries throughout Eastern Europe. The longer President Gorbachev ignores this, the more time he will waste trying to halt the breakup and the more he will imperil his presidency.