Lithuanians Square Off With Soviet Troops

MOSCOW â€”  Armed Kremlin troops surrounded Lithuania’s legislative buildings, television tower and main printing plant today, witnesses said. The government of the secessionist Baltic republic called on citizens for protection.

Hundreds of people responded, massing in the central square in Vilnius, capital of the republic, the pro-independence news agency ELTA said. The report could not immediately be verified.

The developments were a sharp escalation of the Kremlin’s actions in the republic, where tensions were already high because of an order sending Red Army troops to enforce conscription in the three Baltic republics and four other secessionist republics.

Lithuanian officials said in a statement that five military vehicles with Interior Ministry troops were posted near the republic’s library adjacent to legislative buildings.

Another armored personnel carrier was seen at the republic’s main printing plant in Vilnius, ELTA reported.

Armored personnel carriers were surrounding Lithuania’s main television station and soldiers were standing guard, said Pyatras Viskoshkas, a station employee who was reached by telephone from Moscow.

In Washington, the State Department reported broadcasts had been cut off and telephone and telex service were being disrupted. However, Viskoshkas said troops have not entered the building and broadcasts were uninterrupted.

The Lithuanian government’s Bureau of Information said a Soviet military plane landed at Vilnius airport carrying 50 army paratroopers. It said about 50 military trucks were reported heading toward the capital.

Viskoshkas said 50 more paratroopers arrived later in the afternoon.

Baltic officials have expressed fears for weeks that force would be used against their republics, and said the Red Army troops--which the Kremlin said were dispatched to enforce the draft--would be used to quash secession drives.