The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 190

A8 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1991 LOS ANGELES TIMES BREAKUP OF THE SOVIET UNION BAITICS: Bush Extends Official U.S. Recognition LA's Baltic Community Celebrates Festivities: U.S. recognition of the former Soviet republics sparks impromptu parties and memories of freedom fighters. instructions to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that Baltic independence becomes a "factual reality," Bush said. With U.S.

government experts now concerned that republics in Soviet Asia may well face severe food shortages this winter, Bush also ordered a top Agriculture Department official on a separate mission to assess what assistance may be required. Bush noted that the Soviet people may face "enormous challenges" in the months ahead. But his comments reflected a continuing refusal to make detailed U.S. commitments, pledging only that the Administration would seek solutions to the food problem "if we determine that one exists." That approach to aid, and the White House tack on Baltic recognition, both reflect a strategy that holds out the prospect of assistance as an inducement toward rapid reform while taking care not to undercut Gorbachev even when he moves too deliberately for White House tastes. JOSH AUflELIO llAlUlKftA Us Angeles Times Danute Mazeika and her family pay tribute to her grandfather, who fled to the United States and worked for Lithuanian independence, during a visit to Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.

In the Mid-Wilshire district, home to the city's lone Estonian community center, word was that the Estonian festivities had gone on the road. Rather than hang around town, a good chunk of the local Estonian-American population had gone on an annual fishing junket to Bass Lake, where, presumably, the official recognition of Estonia would be marked in the great outdoors. "It is a time of jubilation," said Jaak Treiman, a Canoga Park real estate lawyer and Estonia's honorary consul in Los Angeles. "But a lot of us will also remember the people who died and suffered during the past 50 years." Bush's decision Monday was viewed by local Baltic-Americans as a milestone for them as welt as for their relatives back home. The Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian communities are well-established in Los Angeles, which has for nearly 50 years been the only city in the-United States to have honorary consulates from all three Baltic states.

Activists estimate there are about 50,000 Baltic -Americans in Southern California, and until the past decade, ethnic activism within their ranks consisted mainly of church groups, folk dancing and Scouting groups. Small in numbers and factional-ized by nationality and history, the Baltics made few waves in Los Angeles' melting pot until 1984, when younger activists mobilized to keep the Soviets out of the 1984 Olympics. In the ensuing years, however, demonstrations and protests by Baltic-American groups gathered steam along with independence movements in trie three republics. By 1990, local Baltic -Americans had not only founded a Baltic American Freedom League but had named their own public relations agent to put a Baltic spin on the news. Mazeika and her husband, Anthony, were among the league's founders, in part because of her grandfather's activism in exile here.

A historian and scholar, Mykolas Birziska fled to the United States in 1949 as a political refugee, and "died with a pen in his hand," she said, cataloguing Lithuanian literature from the Middle Ages to modern times. "He was tried in absentia. All his works were pulled off the shelves," Mazeika said. "And now, they are naming a museum and a street in his honor." Because she wanted to tell him this, along with all she had heard over the Cable News Network in the past few days, Mazeika, her husband and their three children stopped off at his crypt at Calvary Cemetery on their way to the big party at St. Casimir's on Monday night.

In a wall sconce, they placed red and gold chrysanthemums and tiny Lithuanian flags, and prayed as the California sunshine poured in through the stained glass: Then Mazeika's family left her and she stood alone, "almost totally overwhelmed." "I told him: 'You've won: We have won. Our nation has she said. And then the 40-year-old mother of three added a bit of Hollywood. "I don't know where it- came from, but I thought of that little boy on 'Home and it was such a sweet moment And so she clenched a fist and shouted: Staff writer Lanle Jones in Orange County also contributed to this story. Continued from Al some believe could come, if the way to independence for the Baltics is not smoothed by formal negotiation, "If the Soyiet Union had done it first, it would have helped in so many areas," one weary White House aide said Monday after Bush announced his decision at a morning news conference on the lawn of his seaside here on the last day of his summejr vacation.

A further sign of that concern about the consequences of Soviet disintegration came as Bush for the first time made! explicit his hope that the race toward disunion did not leave the 'Soviet republics without some central harness. Althoughl Bush noted that the decision; by '10 of the 15 Soviet republics to seek independence and chart their own course was what he called 'democracy on the move," he insisted that on questions of ariris control and foreign policy, it wopld be vital that there be "some government" at the center with which the United States could The President cautioned against a "mood of' euphoria," which he blamed for a new round of calls for U.S. reductions in spending on security and'defense in light of the failed Sovietlcoup. And he voiced a flustered pique at those whp have questioned the American foreign policy approach that contends both with Gorbachev, who is regarded as sound but politically crippled, and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, who is thought to be hugely popular but has been described as demagogic by some U.S.

officials. "Ffolicy isn't based on Bush said. 'It's based on who you're dealing with." But Bushseemed more than at any moment since the coup failure to shed hip. veil of caution in declaring Without equivocation that the tumult since unleashed represents a. force for the good.

"I think history will write this month dowp as one of the most important turning points toward a genuine new world 'order, and certainly a turning point toward freedom and democracy," Bush said, addingi "It's been monumental." With Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia now officially regarded by his government as sovereign states, the President -immediately dispatched to the region the first U.S. envoy to visit the Baltics since the tiny slates; were annexed by the Soviet Union half a century ago. The diplomat, Curtis Kamman, a deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of Soviet affairs, carries Recognizing the Bjatltics The United States is the 37th state to recognize the Baltic territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as independent nations. The three had been forcibly absorbed into the Soviet-Union in 1940. Abu Administration official said iBush was so determined not to leave the Soviet leader isolated on the question of the Baltics that he last Tuesday postponed his own scheduled announcement and drafted a cable to Gorbachev in the hopes of enlisting him to take the public step first.

The delay left the United States, long the leading advocate of freedom for the Baltics, lagging behind some 40 other countries in recognizing their newly declared independence. When an aide to Gorbachev on Friday finally responded to a Bush deadline by asking for more time, the President relented. Only on Sunday, when the Soviet leader himself sent a bland cable to Bush that made no mention of the Baltics, did Bush conclude that he had no option but to go forward alone, the official said. But Bush steered far from criticizing Gorbachev in his public remarks Monday and appeared particularly buoyed by signs of progress in Moscow toward agreement on a new plan backed by the Soviet leader for reorganizing the Soviet government. The plan pro vides for a measure of central control Bush suggested would be helpful in a future U.S.-Soviet relationship.

The President said he is confident that the Soviet foreign policy apparatus is still sufficiently intact that the unraveling of ties between republics and the center should not adversely affect plans for a joint U.S.-Soviet peace conference on the Mideast. U.S. Move Creates a Joyful Mood By SHAWN HURLER TIMES STAFF WRITER Monday before the "champagne, before the pol ka bands, before the folk dancing and speeches and toasts Danute Mazeika went to a cemetery in East Los Angeles with an armful of chrysanthemums and two long-awaited words. "You won," the Lithuanian-American activist said silently to her grandfather's grave. One of the signers of Lithuania's 1918 declaration of independence, Mykolas Birziska had fled to the United States after the Soviets took over his homeland in 1940 and was still agitating for Lithuanian independence when he died in 1962.

"Now I know how David felt after he slew Goliath," Mazeika exulted as news spread that President Bush had finally decided to offer official U.S. recognition to the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. As word spread here that the three tiny nations were officially independent in the world's eyes, Mazeika and thousands of other Baltic-Americans jammed phone lines, fired off telegrams and cobbled together hasty celebrations from the living rooms of suburban homes throughout Southern California. In Glendale, Aivars L. Jeru-manis, a health insurance executive, dusted off the Latvian visa stamp given him four years ago when he took over as Los Angeles' honorary Latvian consul.

In Los Feliz, hundreds poured into the parish hall of St. Casi-mir's Roman Catholic Church for an impromptu Baltic festival, filling the air with champagne toasts and back-to-back accordion renditions of "America The Beautiful" and "Lietuva Brangi" (My Dear Lithuania). ESTONIA: Continued from Al Estonian President Arnold Ruutel said he greeted the news with "great happiness," not only because it showed America's support for the Baltic countries, but also because the United States is in a unique position to influence the Soviet Union to make a simitar declaration. "This will help the deputies at the Congress and the Soviet president to understand that they must recognize our statehood," Ruutel said in an interview. Ruutel made it clear that renewed diplomatic relations with the United States rank in a class of their own.

"The recognitions by big European governments are very important to us because we want to integrate with the economic and political life of Europe," he said. "But recognition by the United States is different because it plays the leading role in world politics." In neighboring Latvia, President Anatolijs Gorbunovs applauded Bush's decision. "We arc especially glad that the United States has now taken that step," he told reporters. "This makes our independence irreversible." Tens of thousands of Lithuanians had celebrated U.S. recognition in advance, pouring into the central square of their capital, Vilnius, late Sunday, after word reached the republic that Bush would make his announcement Monday.

"We have won! The victory is here!" Lithuanian Defense Minister Audrius Butkevicius told the roaring crowd. Each of the republics had already declared its independence and established, working nationalist governments. Although Ruutel predicted that "without a doubt" the United States' decision would hasten a positive Soviet response, some Estonians still worried that the Kremlin would use its troops stationed in the republic against the people. "We do not know what Moscow will do," said Leliti Kaup, 59, who has spent all but the first eight years of her life in a country dominated by its giant neighbor. "We are afraid.

How Moscow acts is most important. Only when Moscow lets us go can we live without worries." Juri Teras, a 23-year-old medi cal student who was lounging in the bright sun on a church lawn, agreed: "It makes us feel good to know that big countries care about little Estonia. But until the Soviet Union sanctions our independence and pulls out its Red Army we will not be free." A steady stream of nations have acknowledged the independence of the three Baltic republics since the failure of the Kremlin putsch two weeks ago. At last count, 50 countries had informed Estonia's Foreign Ministry of their intentions to establish diplomatic relations. Many people in all three Baltic republics had been disappointed that the United States had not taken an earlier stand.

Monday afternoon, a saleswomen in the Baltica men's store in Tallinn perked up as a radio reporter pronounced Bush's name, but there was nothing in the report about Bush's pronouncement on the Baltics. "It looks really strange that the rest of the world has acknowledged us and the United States the great defender of freedomdoes not seem to want to," said Lea Preimut, 44. An hour later, however, after hearing the news of U.S. recognition, Preimut said with a smile: "Now that is more like it. Maybe Bush will give us some economic assistance as well." Elmar Geine, 42, office manager for the Estonian Popular Front, the spearhead of the republic's independence movement, said he thought it was perfectly normal for the United States to set its own schedule.

"The United States plays such a dominant role in world politics that its decisions have global implications," Geine said. "It is not important who said what first. What is important is that the American government never recognized our occupiers as the legitimate government. This was a huge moral support for us and a stimulus for our independence drive." Estonia's economics minister, Jaak Leimann, saluted Bush's timing. "Maybe it is good that they came to the solution today, because it is a good way to influence the Moscow Congress," Leimann said, referring to the Congress of Peoples' Deputies meeting in the Soviet capital.

"Because they must decide on our j-'l FINLAND 2J0 Sl 4 muANliy BYELORUSSIA POLAND UKRAINE Countries tMliavo established diplomatic ties with the Baltic states: future." While Ruutel and many other Estonians praised America for its support during the intense drive for independence in the Baltics during the past three years, some people said they felt the United States had been too worried about harming its relations with Moscow to actively assist Baltic nationalist movements. "The United States always seemed to be more on Moscow's side," said Nummert, the art student, as she sat on the curb of a steep cobblestone road surrounded by Old World architecture. "During our decades under Soviet rule, the United States was passive," Rein Tiik, 35, a construction engineer said. "Only recently has it started to support us slightly." Tiik said that with or without the United States or the Soviet Union for that matter Estonia would stay the course. "It will be easier, of course, if we get confirmation from President Gorbachev on our independence, but nothing terrible will happen if we don't," he continued.

"We chose our path long ago." Associated Press it formally recognized the republic. JUAN THOMASStE Los Angeles Times Norway Sweden Switzerland United States Poland Portugal Romania South Africa Spain Turkey Uruguay Vatican The Russian Federation, most powerful of the 15 Soviet republics. LITHUANIA LEADER Vytautas Z. Landsbergis LAND 25,170 square miles POPULATION 3.7 million, mostly Lithuanians ECONOMY Building ships, Industry, and agriculture STATUS Declared independence from Soviet rule March 11, 1990. Source; Times Wire Services i Denmark Finland Hungary J- Iceland Japan Ready to establish ties: Argentina Australia 1 Austria Belgium Britain Bulgaria Canada i Chile Cyprus Czechoslovakia France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Luxembourg Malta Mongolia Netherlands New Zealand at.tho 1 ESTONIA LEADER Arnold F.

Ruutel LAND 17j4f3 square miles POPULATION- 1.5 million ECONOMY Timber, agriculture, dairy farming, natural gas. STATUS Declared Soviet Union an occupying power March 30,1990, a'nd'pledged to restore full LATVIA LEADER Anatolijs Gorbunovs LAND 24,595 miles POPULATION million, mostly and Russian ECONOMY timber, cattle and dairy farming STATUS Declared Independence 1990. V. square 2.7 Latvian Industry, breeding May 4, Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis rejoices in Hungary, after.