European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 15, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday september 15, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary George ged Danow s the time to put pressure on Castro Fidel Castro appears to need soviet Oil much More than he needs the red army. With Cuba playing a More circumspect International role these Days . Officials and private experts agree that the phasing out of soviet cuban military ties will have More of a psychological than substantive Impact on the Caribbean Island nation. Gorbachev announced last week that soviet cuban ties in the future will be limited to the political and economic sphere. With Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii at his Side Gorbachev said thousands of soviet servicemen stationed in Cuba will be recalled. The key remaining element in soviet cuban relations is the provision of soviet Oil to Cuba. In return the soviets receive cuban sugar Citrus fruits and Nickel. Recent . Government estimates indicate a drop in soviet Aid to $3.5 billion last year from $5 billion in 1989. Even before Gorbachev s announcement. Cuban officials had been stressing the critical importance of soviet Oil. With foreign Exchange reserves in Short Supply Cuba would appear to have few options left if the soviets decide to sell their Oil elsewhere. To guard against that contingency Cuba has developed what it Calls a Quot Zero option Quot a plan that foresees a possible total cutoff of Oil shipments. It has been tested in some towns and experimental farms and envisions among other things communal kitchens and using charcoal As an Energy source. A 25 percent cutback in Oil deliveries from the soviets last year prompted Cuba to adopt draconian in e Rev a i n g m e As u i e s. A half million chinese bicycles have appeared on cuban streets. Cuba expects to have that Many More by the end of the year and 1.5 million by next summer. In the Countryside of carts gradually Are replacing Tarm machinery. The military now Burns Wood instead of Oil to Cook the troops food and the government is experimenting with windmills to generate electricity. The Bush administration meanwhile is showing Little interest in any action to hasten the demise of the regime through tightening the economic embargo imposed in 1960. Quot administration officials speaking Only on condition they not be identified by name said they prefer to see the revolution fall of its own weight. They also Are encouraged by recent statements by soviet leaders suggesting an additional loosening of soviet economic ties with Cuba. But rep. Robert Torricelli d-n.j., chairman of the House foreign affairs subcommittee on Western hemisphere affairs believes the United states should step up the pressure on Cuba. A a it a time to bring the Castro government to an end Quot Torricelli said in a Telephone interview. He said he will propose legislation this week that would bar ships visiting Cuba from Docking at . Ports. He also wants an indefinite suspension on the granting of . Visas to cubans in order to prevent Castro from being Able to Export disaffected cubans. Finally Torricelli will ask that american subsidiaries operating in third countries be prohibited from doing business with Cuba. A similar amendment introduced in the Senate by Connie Mack r-fla., is expected to be approved. Gillian Gunn a Cuba expert at the Carnegie endowment for International peace said even in the absence of additional . Pressure economic conditions on the Island a Are going to get dramatically worse fairly  she said a turning Point could occur at the cuban communist party Congress that is set to begin oct. 10. She believes reformers May push for some concessions to capitalism in such areas As farming and the service sector. The cuban Congress has the authority to implement sweeping changes but cuban officials Are cautioning against any such predictions. The commitment to socialism was reaffirmed two weeks ago in an editorial in the communist party Organ grandma which said Quot come what May in the .s.r., we will not stray from the path we  c Tho associated . Rosentha Lithuania still being haunted by fascist past All through the years i was speaking out or writing out for lithuanian Independence three decades now i received letters from around the world warning me that i was terribly unforgivable wrong. They were letters of indelible pain. They came from jews in America Europe and Israel who had been brutalized by lithuanian nazis before and during the German occupation of 1941-1944 or whose families had been wiped out. The letters told the retching truth about these lithuanian fascists. Serving in special terror battalions with the German army they murdered scores of thousands of jews in Lithuania. And As the germans moved these death squads about Eastern Europe and the soviet Union they slaughtered poles russians ukrainians. Gypsies a and More jews. The letters predicted that under Independence open anti semitism would Rise again in Lithuania murderers would become heroes and fascists move into office a i would see. I replied that if the world could stomach recognizing Germany and the soviet Empire it could acknowledge the Independent existence of three Small nations that had suffered under both. I still believe that. I also said that perhaps time the suffering under fascism and communism and the new generation of lithuanians involved in a Freedom movement would prevent the return or exoneration of local fascists. Now in the first Days of Independence it has become the obligation of the lithuanian government to show whether that Hope was realistic or delusional. The answer will be heard not Only in the West but everywhere in the Baltic Eastern Europe or the former soviet Union where fascists May try to rewrite history so they can crawl Back to Power. On May 2, 1990, a year before it achieved Freedom the lithuanian government ruled that All lithuanians convicted by a hit verite Germany or soviet courts were to be considered not guilty and their rights restored. But specifically excluded from exoneration were All lithuanians who took part in Quot crimes of genocide or in torture and murder of unarmed  this month Stephen Kinzer of the new York times reported from Vilnius that the government had begun Quot issuing certificates of exoneration to thousands of people who had been condemned As nazi War criminals by soviet  the Story reported among other things information turned up by the Simon Wiesenthal Center of los Angeles. It included details of three cases where exoneration was granted without investigation to lithuanians convicted by soviet courts of murder of jews. / political. Scup6& rabbi Marvin Hier Dean of the Center which tracks nazi War criminals says it has information on about 100 More such exoneration. The lithuanian information Center in Washington tried quickly to comply with my specific requests for More information. But responsibility on Quot rehabilitation Quot is divided among three lithuanian government departments and Vilnius seems to be reacting defensively instead of in full Candor. It is not yet possible to find out How Many cases of lithuanian nazis Are involved and whether the exoneration came from error or a Campaign to Rew rite history under the pretext of rehabilitating real victims of nazi and soviet courts. President vytautas Landsbergis has issued tart denials of Large scale exoneration. But he says it is possible that a among the individuals repressed by the soviets were also holocaust  but the Man he is asking to investigate is Antusas Paulauskas the prosecutor who issued the exoneration in the first place. Neither the . State department nor the department of Justice Are at All satisfied with the replies from Vilnius. Friends of lithuanian Freedom in Lithuania and abroad can help again now by urging Landsbergis to do two things give full Access to witnesses and documents to the office of special investigation of the department of Justice which has deep experience in Hunting War and holocaust criminals. Simultaneously Convene a special Board of inquiry including foreigners to investigate the charges and the whole exoneration process. Taken quickly those two Steps would be the Best Independence gifts Landsbergis could give to his own nation and a world that watches in both Hope and pain. C the new Lofto time