RFE/RL DAILY REPORT No. 169 September 5, 1991 USSR--ALL-UNION TOPICS AND RSFSR CONGRESS CLOSES. The USSR Congress of People's Deputies ended its session today with tacit recognition of the body's inefficiency. Having adopted amendments on the organs of state power during the transitional period (see below), the Congress approved in principle the Declaration of Human Rights and Liberties, leaving its final adoption to the new Supreme Soviet. The Congress refused to discuss the role of USSR State Prosecutor Nikolai Trubin in creating the psychological climate for the August 19 coup. Gorbachev also declined to discuss a proposal by Leningrad Mayor Anatolii Sobchak to bury Vladinmir Lenin in accordance with appropriate religious customs. (Julia Wishnevsky and Elisabeth Teague) CONGRESS APPROVES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. At its morning session on September 5 the USSR Congress of People's Deputies approved the constitutional amendments on the organs of state power during the transitional period until a new Union treaty is signed and a new constitution adopted. The only clause that was not approved was the one that would have done away with the annual sessions of the congress (see below). The final vote was 1682 in favor with 43against and 63 abstentions. The Supreme Soviet is retained, in a revamped form, but in general major concessions are made to the republics. The new Council of the Republics will be able to veto laws passed by the Council of the Union, republics will be able to suspend USSR laws in conflict with their constitutions, and any constitutional amendments will have to be approved by the republican Supreme Soviets. The post of Vice-President is abolished. (Ann Sheehy) CONGRESS ALSO APPROVES RESOLUTION ON DECLARATION BY USSR PRESIDENT AND LEADERS OF TEN REPUBLICS. The congress also approved a resolution on the declaration by the USSR and ten republics on the future of the state. The voting was 1699 in favor, 24 against, with 29 abstentions. The resolution recognizes the republican declarations of independence and sovereignty, guarantees the territorial integrity of republics that remain in the Union, and makes provision for secession. The Ukrainian delegation objected to single armed forces, proposing instead united armed forces under joint command, but it was explained that the armed forces would have to break up before they could unite, which was not acceptable at this time. (Ann Sheehy) CONGRESS SAVES ITSELF. At its September 5 session, the USSR Congress of People's Deputies rejected the clause of the draft law on the USSR organs of power which specified that regular sessions of the Congress would not been convened during "the transitional period." Despite a clarification that the clause did not rule out holding extraordinary sessions, the deputies rejected it. Thus it appears that the Congress will continue to hold regular sessions during "the transitional period." (Dawn Mann) POPOV ATTACKS USSR SUPREME SOVIET. TASS reported on September 4 that Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov said he, Eduard Shevardnadze and Aleksandr Yakovlev had refused to join Gorbachev's new Security Council because the council was created under the old constitution. Popov also argued that the USSR Supreme Soviet has no moral right to deal with such issues but should be held to account for its earlier actions. When Popov declined Gorbachev's offer in name of all three reformers, there was speculation that the president's closest associates were deserting him. (Julia Wishnevsky) YAKOVLEV DOES NOT EXPECT ANOTHER COUP. "I do not believe in the possibility of another coup," Aleksandr Yakovlev told TASS September3. On August 16, three days before the GKChP junta declared a "state of emergency" in the Soviet Union, Yakovlev had warned that the Stalinist leadership of the Communist Party was preparing a coup. Following its collapse, on August 24, Yakovlev told the RSFSR television that cleverer people who had secretly inspired the GKChP members might stage another, more successful, coup in the near future. Since then, Yakovlev has apparently changed his mind. (Julia Wishnevsky) END OF THE KOMSOMOL? A plenum of the All-Union Komsomol Central Committee on September4 in effect disbanded the 73-year-old organization, according "TSN." The fate of Komsomol is to be decided officially at an extraordinary congress to be held next month. Unlike the CPSU, the Komsomol Central Committee condemned the coup the day after it was announced. Reformist Komsomol leaders have long argued that the concept of a single Communist youth league has outlived itself. (Julia Wishnevsky) SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA RETURNS TO NEWSSTANDS. Sovetskaya Rossiya, the former daily of the Russian Communist Party, resumed publication after an 11-day break. Sovetskaya Rossiya returned as an "independent people's newspaper" with no further connection to the CPSU CC (its former official founder). But, in a front-page announcement, the daily's journalists said the changes do not mean Sovetskaya Rossiya will abandon "the noble aims avowed by the honest Communists of the Russian Federation." The journalists said they were now operating Sovetskaya Rossiya in partnership with a private company. (Vera Tolz) PARTY MEMBERS AND KGB STAFF FLEEING TO CHINA. TASS, citing the Japanese national newspapers Nihon Keizai Shibun and Sankei Shibun of September 4, reported that several thousand CPSU members and KGB staffers have fled to China since the attempted coup failed. With one exception--that of a highly-placed Soviet official serving in the Soviet embassy in Peking, the Chinese Communist Party will provide asylum and support to the defectors. The Chinese government does not plan to release any information concerning the asylum seekers. (Dawn Mann) ANDREEVA EXPELS GORBACHEV FROM CPSU. The "CPSU Bolshevik Platform" has expelled Mikhail Gorbachev from the Party, Radio Rossii reported--tongue-in-cheek--on Sep-tember4. The Bolshevik Platform was set up earlier this year by the notorious Leningrad Stalinist Nina Andreeva. Andreeva's statement on Gorbachev's expulsion from the CPSU contained a long list of accusations used by Stalin against the opposition, such as "double dealing," "betrayal of Leninism," etc. (Julia Wishnevsky) SUPPORT FOR COUP IN FAR EAST. The Commander of the Far Eastern Military District told Le Monde on September 4 that half of all military personnel in the Far East favored the August 19 coup. Colonel General Viktor Novozhilov said that on the first two days of the coup those opposed to the putsch and those supporting it were about equal. "The elements favorable to the junta," he said, "were drawn essentially from the army's political organizations." Novozhilov said that the had received orders from Defense Minister Yazov to "shut down news organs and deploy troops at strategic locations," but that he had ignored the instructions. His comments were reported by AFP on September 4. (Stephen Foye) KGB CHIEF GIVES SWEDISH EMBASSY DOCUMENTS ON WALLENBERG. KGB chief Vadim Bakatin presented previously undisclosed documents on Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg to Sweden's embassy in Moscow, TASS reported September 4. (Wallenberg was arrested by Soviet forces in Budapest in 1945, and the Soviet Union says he died in jail in 1947.) TASS quoted Bakatin as saying the material gives no new details although the search for more information will continue. Wallenberg's case is politically very sensitive. There are strong grounds to believe that Wallenberg was shot, although in 1947 the death penalty was officially abolished in the USSR. Wallenberg's case constitutes an unprecedented violation of international law, given that he was a diplomat of a country with which the USSR had diplomatic relations. (Vera Tolz) RE-ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT'S GUARD ADMINISTRATION. The reformed Government Guard Administration (formerly the KGB's Ninth Administration for Government Protection) will be administratively independent of the KGB and will be responsible for the security of the presidents of the USSR and the RSFSR, according to the new chief of the service, Colonel Vladimir Redkoborody, as reported by TASS on September 4. Redkoborody, formerly in the KGB's foreign intelligence section, replaces Lieutenant General Yurii Plekhanov, who was arrested for his involvement in the coup. Gorbachev's former bodyguard, Valerii Pestov, was appointed chief of the USSR President's Security Service. (Victor Yasmann) YELTSIN UPGRADES ROLE OF COURTS. According to Radio Rossii on September 5, RSFSR president Boris Yeltsin has signed a decree raising the status of the judiciary in the Russian Federation. With a few notable exceptions, the "third power" has always played the role of an obedient servant to the Soviet autocracy; the significance of the proposed change in its status should not be underestimated. Yeltsin's decree states that buildings confiscated from the CPSU after the abortive coup of August 19-21 should be handed over to the RSFSR courts. (Julia Wishnevsky) RUSSIAN KGB MOVES TO LUBYANKA. KGB officer Oleg Tsarev told The New York Times on September 5 that the Russian KGB has taken over parts of the central KGB headquarters on the Lubyanka and has recruited its operational staff from the central KGB administrations. The RSFSR KGB has already taken over all USSR government communications--a task which was previously performed by the USSR KGB. Tsarev hinted that USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev wants to nominate "political appointees" to head the KGB, as is the case with Western security services. He also disclosed that numerous high-level KGB officers have been sacked. (Alexander Rahr) STAVROPOL' DEPUTIES HUNGER STRIKE ENDS. Four People's Deputies and a group of "Democratic Russia" supporters ended a 10-day hunger strike on September 4, TASS reported the same day. The hunger strikers were demanding the resignation of the presidium of the Stavropol' Krai soviet, whose members, the strikers said, acted like "temporizing traitors" during the putsch, as well as the "elimination of the consequences of the suppression of local democratic forces" during that time. The krai soviet, a majority of whose deputies are (former) Party functionaries, voted against a change of leadership. The battle continues: more than 10,000 signatures have been collected on a petition calling for urgent changes in local organs. (Dawn Mann) PANKIN STRESSES OPENNESS. Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin stressed that the USSR will pursue a more open foreign policy with its neighbors in Europe and will also "ask [them] for advice now and again." In an interview with Neue presse published September 4, Pankin added, "the principle of noninterference, which we used to adopt at all times and under which we simply buried ourselves in order to prevent democratic changes in our country, must not be allowed to be something absolute, a purpose in itself." Pankin also said that the USSR supported the creation of a CSCE institution which would send monitors into a country at the suggestion of other states. (Suzanne Crow) DERYABIN STRESSES OPENNESS. Recently appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Yurii Deryabin told Interfax September 4 that the Soviet Union's European policy will be marked by greater openness toward its partners and further progress in the Helsinki process. He also said that the USSR must recognize the reality of Baltic independence. (Suzanne Crow) HONECKER EXTRADITION ON HOLD. ADN reported September 4 that Bonn had been told by Moscow that former GDR leader Erich Honecker will not be returned to German authorities any time soon. Chairman of the RSFSR SupSov Foreign Affairs committee Vladimir Lukin repudiated press reports quoting him as saying Honecker would be extradited soon. (See Daily Report, August 27.) In a September 4 TASS interview, Lukin said the SupSov had not dealt with this question. (Suzanne Crow) KOHL ON SOVIET UNITY. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl told the Bundestag on September 4 that he does not see "very good prospects for economic aid to a Soviet Union which is dissolving into separate, isolated republics," DPA reported. Kohl also stressed that Germany cannot assume a disproportionate burden of aid to the USSR. (Suzanne Crow) DUBININ RECALLED. Soviet ambassador to France Yurii Dubinin went back to Moscow for consultations on September 4, Western agencies reported. The question of his return reportedly "remains open." (Suzanne Crow) USSR--OTHER REPUBLICS BAN ON COMMUNISTS IN UKRAINE CONFIRMED. An attempt by 90 Communist Party deputies in the Ukrainian parliament to overturn the ban on their party failed yesterday, Western news agencies reported September 4. An overwhelming majority of deputies voted against even discussing the issues. Also yesterday, the leader of the Communist-backed majority in the parliament, Oleksandr Moroz, announced that the group will be dissolved and blamed "traitors" in the Party hierarchy. (Roman Solchanyk) NATIONAL FLAG FLIES OVER UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT. The Ukrainian Supreme Soviet yesterday adopted a resolution recognizing the blue and yellow Ukrainian national flag along with the blue and red Soviet Ukrainian flag, Radio Kiev reported September 4. The resolution was adopted only after Supreme Soviet Chairman Leonid Kravchuk threatened to resign if it were not approved. Both flags were briefly hoisted atop the Supreme Soviet building in Kiev, but angry demonstrators outside succeeded in having the Soviet flag removed. (Roman Solchanyk) UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE PURGED. The Ukrainian Supreme Soviet yesterday suspended the activities of the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, Radio Kiev reported September4. It named people's deputy Viktor Shishkin the new prosecutor general. The Ukrainian parliament also reinstated parliamentary immunity to radical deputy Stepan Khmara, who was arrested in the Supreme Soviet building last November after deputies voted to lift his immunity. (Roman Solchanyk) GEIDAR ALIEV ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF NAKHICHEVAN SUPSOV. Former Politburo member Geidar Aliev was elected chairman of the Supreme Medzhlis of Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, a Baku journalist informed RFE-RL September 4. Aliev resigned from the CPSU last July, arguing that the Party was trying to suppress the democratic movement in Azerbaijan. (Liz Fuller) SHEVARDNADZE CALLS ON GAMSKAHURDIA TO HOLD TALKS WITH DEMONSTRATORS. Speaking on Soviet television September 4, former foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze said that Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia and the Georgian government should begin talks immediately with the opposition groups which have been demonstrating to call for his resignation for the past three days. Interfax reported September4 that the Popular Front, the Christian-Democratic Party and the Union of Free Democrats have joined the protest demonstrations initiated by the National-Democratic Party September 2. This is the first such instance of coordinated action by the moderate and radical opposition parties. (Liz Fuller) AKAEV PROMISES NOT TO PERSECUTE COMMUNISTS. On September 4, Kirgiz president Askar Akaev promised that he would not allow CPSU members to be persecuted, according to a TASS report. Akaev said that most Party members bear no responsibility for the policies of the leadership of the republican CP and the CPSU, and every citizen of the republic must be guaranteed his rights, regardless of party affiliation. (Bess Brown) MAKHKAMOV RESIGNS AS PARTY CHIEF. TASS reported on September 4 that Kakhar Makhkamov, who resigned from the post of president of Tajikistan on August 31 after a vote of no confidence in the republican Supreme Soviet, has also resigned as chief of the republican Communist Party. The Central Committee plenum at which Makhkamov submitted his resignation called an extraordinary Party congress for September 21. (Bess Brown) BALTIC STATES GORBACHEV AGREES TO BALTIC INDE-PENDENCE. In meetings on September 4 with Baltic representatives Soviet Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to issue a decree recognizing the independence of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, The Los Angeles Times reported September 5. The wording of the decree has not yet been finalized, but is expected to note the illegal occupation of the Baltic republics in 1940 and recognize the current territorial borders. When the Baltic parliaments accept its terms and ratify the CSCE Paris Charter, the USSR will restore formal diplomatic relations with them. Gorbachev will issue the decree, probably jointly with the State Council, after the end of the emergency session of the USSR Congress of People's Deputies. (Saulius Girnius) HOGG IN LITHUANIA. On September 4 after talks with parliament chairman Vytautas Landsbergis, British Deputy Foreign Minister Douglas Hogg joined Foreign Minister Algirdas Saudargas in signing a memorandum restoring diplomatic relations, Radio Independen Lithuania reported that day. At a press conference Hogg said that he hoped to establish a British embassy by the end of the year, but would send its representatives probably in a few weeks as well as specialists to study possible technical aid. He invited Lithuania to send a technical team to London to discuss the return of the gold, held by the Bank of England before World War II. Hogg flew to Riga later that day and will continue to Tallinn to sign similar dip-lomatic recognition agreements. (Saulius Girnius) RETURN OF NATIONALIZED FOREIGN PROPERTY. On September 4 the Latvian parliament passed a bill that promises to return foreigners' property seized after the Soviet occupation in 1940, Western agencies reported that day. The details of the return will be settled in later legislature. Companies whose factories had been seized will be offered stocks in them with the hope that the former owners would invest in their modernization. The law calls for the return of foreign embassies in Latvia in exchange for similar Latvian embassies abroad and should help Latvia to reclaim tons of gold that had been held in foreign banks. (Saulius Girnius) ISRAEL RECOGNIZES BALTIC INDEPENDENCE. On September 4 Israeli Foreign Minister David Levi announced that in response to requests by the Baltic governments after consulations with the Prime Minister decided to inform them that "the Israeli Government recognizes the independence of the Baltic republics," Tel Aviv Radio reported that day. He hopes that "with time we will also be able to form diplomatic relations with them." (Saulius Girnius) LITHUANIAN SUPREME COUNCIL SESSION. Landsbergis opened the extraordinary session of the Lithuanian parliament on September 4 with a 35-minute speech on the political situation in the republic, Radio Independent Lithuania reported that day. He noted that the USSR is in a transition period with which Lithuania should not get involved and said that the Soviet army should begin withdrawing its troops this year. The session passed a law on immigration and on the legal status of foreigners in the republic. It also approved a document congratulating the people of Moldovia on the occasion of its declared independence, expressing "the solidarity of the Lithuanian people in the fight of the Moldavians for freedom from the Soviet occupation, yoke, and terror." (Saulius Girnius) ESTONIAN-KGB PACT. New KGB Chairman Vadim Bakatin and Estonia's Prime Minister Edgar Savisaar signed an agreement on September4 to end all KGB activities in the republic, Baltfax reported that day. The agreement, signed in Moscow, sets up a commission of experts who will present a plan later in the month to liquidate all USSR KGB assets in Estonia. Until then, the agreement requires all KGB officials to respect the republic's laws and to refrain from activities "prejudicial to the interests of Estonia." (Riina Kionka) CSCE AND THE BALTS. Soviet First Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Petrovsky says that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia may be allowed to attend the CSCE conference on human rights opening next week in Moscow, TASS reported on September 4. Petrovsky reportedly said that the USSR has invited the Baltic states along with all Soviet republics, but that the member states must vote on separate status for the Baltic states. In other CSCE news, the US Helsinki Commission arrives in the Baltics today (September 5) on a stopover on the way to Moscow. Delegation leaders have said that their Baltic stopover is aimed at showing support for democracy. (Riina Kionka) NATO AND THE BALTS. British Deputy Foreign Minister Douglas Hogg told the BBC on September3 that NATO cannot provide security guarantees for the Baltic states. Hogg suggested that Baltic security would be better served by developing relations with Moscow and the Soviet republics while protecting the rights of ethnic minorities. Hogg said: "I do not think that NATO at the moment would in any sense guarantee the frontiers of the Baltic states."