European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 25, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes William  suffering can shame world to help them when an individual becomes a dissident he or she is seen by the outside world As a hero a Sakharov or Mandela stirs the conscience of the world. But when a captive nation becomes a dissident its resistance to oppression becomes an inconvenience to Mankind. It is accused of being an impediment to the big picture a threat to worshippers of the idol of stability. That is Why european industrialists who insisted that the Kremlin would never use its natural Gas pipeline As a weapon Are now so silent at the cutoff to Lithuania. No mask can be worn to protect civilians against the cutoff of natural Gas that is Why polls say american Public opinion treats the reach for Independence by the dissident nation to be an annoyance preferring 2 to 1 that our president continue his policy of paying lip service to the lithuanian assertion of longstanding Independence a while supporting Gorbachev and protecting the Summit meeting. We have been sold a Bill of goods. We Are told that we have a great stake in the personal Success of Gorbachev that his Success depends on his absolute control of the Kremlin and that he would lose control to some Neo stalinist faction if his freeing of Central european nations extended to the three Baltic republics which were grabbed a few years earlier. The opposite is True. Our interest in Gorbachev is limited to his ability to withdraw troops from illegally seized nations and to Speed the transition to political and economic Freedom. His motive to make these reforms is rooted in the fear of the failed systems impending collapse. And by not putting a Price on his reversion to command control we remove a Central impetus for the growth of democracy. Does pressing Gorbachev to acknowledge the Independence of the Baltic states really jeopardize As White House backgrounders argue our greater objective of troop withdrawal and missile reduction a minority think not. We believe that the West a toleration of his decision to make economic War on a conquered nation that now dares to assert its Freedom is not merely morally wrong but Geo politically unsound. It Breaks the democratic momentum. Our failure to denounce the threat of a presidential rules a the euphemism for dictatorship a bolsters the imperious inclinations of the soviet strongman and undermines sensibly Radical reformers. But Bush following isolationist Public opinion in the u.s., and under the cloak of a a consultation with european leaders eager to abandon the idea of collective Security is Tempo izing. The great symbolic dish of the Bush White House Flora Lewis Kitchen has become the Waffle. In Light of this tepid support what should besieged lithuanians do negotiating in a vacuum is a non starter. Offering concessions when the other Side answers Only with a blockade is taken As weakness rather than reasonableness. The Cap of Independence has been tossed Over the Wall. The declaration cannot be undeclared without abject surrender. Counting on the West for help at the Start is another mistake. Our nervous doves worried about nuclear shakiness of a disintegrating soviet Union Combine with our Ultra pragmatists worried about a future charge of a who lost Gorbachev a to say America has other fish to Fry. Armed revolt is not an option As one balt told me a there Are no Hills Here a we cannot do an  what a left suffering and lamentation. Sustained resistance and dramatically expressed resentment. Refusal to be starved into submission. Public suffering can be a powerful Force As individual dissidents have demonstrated. Freedom never comes easily and rarely does it come from outside. To prick the conscience of the world lithuanians will have to do More than line up cars at Gas stations. They will have to Parade their jobless show the ravages of Gorbachev a blockade on their children passively torment their oppressors and become the grim example of the failure of glasnost. Moscow a no Gas attack is effective As is occupiers brutality the takeover of printing plants and the imposition of a Quisling prosecutor. But relentless resistance in the cause of Long denied Independence begets the shame of bystanders. Growing shame changes Public opinion. And rising outrage could Force politicians to offer recognition a sea lift serious countervailing economic pressure. Gorbachev will set the Baltic nations free Only if he must. The balts by their courage and willingness to suffer can shame the world into making sure he must. New York time africans fear being obscured by world events Paris a attenuated to be sure Little More than Ripples the tide of impulse to democracy is spreading from Europe to reach Africa. In a sense Africa is becoming the dark continent again out of sight and almost out of mind. Asi week Magazine recently pointed out that with attention focused on Eastern Europe and the soviet Union occasional headlines from latin America and China Africa has disappeared and a no Effort has been made to find  that is the fear of Many africans now after More than a generation of receiving Lively International concern. A group gathered Here by the former nigerian chief of state Olusegun Oba Sanjo to discuss a the Impact of change in Eastern Europe on Africa took for granted that widespread Aid for the East would leave their countries All but forgotten. But there a a new tone among the representatives of the african elite from some 20 nations no longer the reproach and indignation at being left behind that used to characterize such gatherings. There was a surprising unanimity on the theme of democracy As essential to development no longer a a people a democracy or a guided democracy but a Plain democracy without mysteries a in the words of Olaru a. Of Tunny former foreign minister of Uganda. They Are aware of the new Eastern european Maxim that a the third Way Between communism and capitalism leads Only to the third world a and what they want is out of it. They Are groping for ways to better develop their countries. Oba Sanjo did no to mince words. He spoke of the a ridiculously Large number of often economically enviable states that should look to a Western european style of integration to Pool capacities. He urged a conference in Africa to take up human rights and defense As the Helsinki process did in Europe. A North North peace must not degenerate into South South violence a he said and he decried the a perennial dependence fuelled by massive external support for undemocratic regimes a largely As a result of the cold War. But it want Only the cold War. The pernicious idea that new african states and old african cultures  be expected to strive for standards of civil and political Freedom really came from the West. Liberals attacked critics of dictators and one party states As a ethnocentric racists a and conservatives preferred to Deal with autocrats in Power. Naturally african regimes happily took up the theme claiming the right not to be judged by what both sides called a Western values a but what must be seen As Universal values. One official from one of the nastier extant dictatorships confided a a we be been trying to say that too for a Long time. But you did no to hear us. You just listened to the regimes and of course they called any Domestic critics a lackeys of  a a senior european Aid official explained that dealing with governments was unavoidable Ana asked what the africans wanted outsiders to do. He left unmentioned the charges of interference and Lack of respect for sovereignty when the worst regimes were ticked off. But Oba Sanjo had noted that a Safe political conditionality was being applied for Western Aid to the East requiring Rule of Law human rights free elections multiparty systems and a Market Economy. And he expects the same for Africa. A we have squandered almost 30 years with ineffective nation building efforts a he said and a it is High time to cast solid foundations for the legitimacy of our political  changes in South Africa will help. If apartheid can be negotiated into the Dustbin tyrants will find it harder to divert protest from their misdeeds. Meanwhile the a Ceausescu Factor a As one participant said reminds leaders clinging to Power that those who dont Bend risk being broken. The men around the meeting table were by no Means dissidents but neither can they turn their countries around on their own. Of course the vast problems of Africa cannot be solved by african policies alone. Poverty Breeds poverty by Geometric progression. A population growth will slow either because birth rates come Down or death rates go up a Lester r. Brown wrote recently in world watch. A these Are the Only options.�?�. But these leaders have seen that to Gei the help they need their countries must put it to productive use. A europeans Aren i planning to help europeans first for ethnic reasons but because they have commo values a said one. A we must build them. The changes in the world a1-6-00" a pious. Much More than Eastern Turon is at stake. New York times