MOSCOW -- President Mikhail Gorbachev appealed to Lithuanian lawmakers Saturday to immediately annul the republic's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union and warned of 'grave consequences if the voice of reason is not heeded now.'
Urging talks on the republic's future within the framework of the Soviet Constitition, Gorbachev reiterated that the independence act by Lithuania's Parliament on March 11 was ruled illegal four days later by a resolution of the Congress of People's Deputies, the supreme legislative organ in the land.
He said the Lithuanian leadership's 'attempts to break the republic's ties with the Soviet Union and and its tactics of unilateral and ultimatum-like actions endanger the normal life and security of all people in the republic, Lithuanians and non-Lithuanians, and are a cause of grave concern in the country.'
'I would like to state once again that this path is ruinous and will lead only to a dead end,' Gorbachev said in an appeal carried by the Tass news agency designated 'urgent' and then read to the entire nation on the TV evening news show 'Vremya.'
In a seperate appeal to the people of Lithuania, he said: 'I am addressing you at a difficult time for our country. The March 11 decisions of the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet have brought us to a difficult point.'
'If the voice of reason is not heeeded now, developments can have grave consequences for all of us,' he said without elaborating. 'We must be united in striving to prevent this.'
'I have appealed to the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet, proposing that it immediately annul the illegal acts it has adopted,' he said. 'This will open a possibilty for discussing the entire range of problems on the solely acceptable basis -- within the framework of the U.S.S.R. Constitution.'
The statement was the first definitive outline of Gorbachev's basis for a dialogue with the Lithuanians about their desire to separate from the Soviet Union to which they were annexed in 1940 along with Estonia and Latvia.
Since the declaration by the republican legislature, Gorbachev has refused to negotiate with Lithuania, saying Moscow negotiates only with foreign states and leaving the Lithuanians in growing isolation. Not one nation has recognized Lithuania's uniltateral declaration of sovereignty.
In his statements Saturday, Gorbachev escalated the pressure on embattled Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis, who as the head of the Sajudis nationalist movement spearheaded the independence movement.
Gorbachev, who has been under intense international pressure not to use force or intimidate the Lithuanians, put the blame for the crisis squarely on the Lithuanian legislators of the Sajudis movement.
He asked why the Lithuanians chose to challenge the Soviet Union when they knew that a law on secession for any republic was about to be debated in Parliament. It comes up for renewed discussion on Tuesday.
The Soviet leader also ridiculed the assurances of the Sajudis nationalists that going it alone immediately would not hurt the republic economically or risk their losing any territory to other republics.
Gorbachev said that the Byelorussian republic was already demanding Lithuanian territory it considers Byelorussian.
The Tass news agency said Byelorussia will demand the return of large tracts of the territory of present-day Lithuania if that republic secedes from the Soviet Union.
'If Lithuania secedes from the Soviet Union, Byelorussia will not consider itself bound by all laws, decrees and acts dealing with the turnover of part of Byelorussian lands to Lithuania,' Tass said citing a statement by the Byelorussian Supreme Soviet, or parliament.
Parts of Byelorussia were ceded to Lithuania under 1940 acts which followed the annexation of the Baltic republic by the Soviet Union.
The Byelorussian statement appered to tighten the noose around Lithuania's unilateral declaration of independence.
Throughout last week, Soviet authorities have forcibly and increasingly reimposed central Soviet control over the life in the rebel republic.
Paratroopers entered hospitals to forcibly apprehend young Lithuanian deserters from the Soviet army who thought they were protected by Lithuania's new independent status.
The Soviet army took over the offices of the independent Lithuanian Communist Party, returning parts of the building to loyal Moscow communists.
On Friday, Moscow reimposed control over Lithuania's judicial system. Soviet troops occupied the Lithuianian prosecutor-general's office after sacking theprosecutor-general for 'violations of the Soviet constitution' and appointing its own man to the job.
The legal system in the Soviet Union's 15 republics has always been the jealously guarded prerogative of central authorities.
The prosecutor-general office takeover came despite appeals and a hand-delivered letter from President Bush to Gorbachev expressing support for Lithuania's drive for independence and urging the Soviet president to solve Soviet-Lithuanian differences through peaceful means.
Within hours of the latest use of force by Moscow, parliament in Lithuania's sister Baltic republic, Estonia, voted for a transition to independence.
