European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 13, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 8 a the stars and stripes Friday december 13,1991the fall of the soviet Union Ukraine says Gorbachev aided chernobyl cover up Lack of fuel forces soviet airports to cancel most flights Moscow apr a critical fuel shortage forced More than half of All soviet airports to close thursday and led to the cancellation of most Domestic flights of the state Aeroflot airline Tass reported. The soviet news Agency said 92 airports were closed and 38 were on the Brink of closing. It said there were no flights from the Ukraine the caucasus mountains the far East or the Republic of Kazakhstan. A no information is yet available As to when any form of Normal services can be resumed Quot Tass said in a Brief dispatch. The navigation officer on duty at the soviet unions Central air traffic control Center told the associated press a a lot Quot of airports were closed. He had no further information. The soviet Union is suffering a severe fuel crisis. There Are Long lines of cars outside almost every Gas station and Many soviets fear widespread fuel shortages and possibly Power outages this Winter. Kiev Ukraine apr ukrainian lawmakers demanded wednesday that soviet president Mikhail s. Gorbachev be prosecuted for allegedly helping cover up damage from the 1986 chernobyl nuclear Plant disaster. Lawmakers made the demand after a special parliamentary commission concluded that 18 ukrainian and soviet leaders including top ministers under Gorbachev personally covered up the extent of radiation leakage. A fall the leadership from Gorbachev Down to the decipher ers of coded telegrams were aware of the level of Active radioactive contamination Quot commission chairman Volodymyr Yavorovsky told the parliament. It was unknown How the Ukraine intended to prosecute or punish the soviet leaders if formal charges Are made. The Republic on dec. 1 voted to break away from the soviet Union. It has since joined in a new Commonwealth of states that considers the soviet Union dissolved. Yavorovsky condemned the leaders for foiling to protect or warn the Public about the damage from the explosion and fire which spread a radioactive Cloud around the world and contaminated thousands of people. Among those named in the commission report were former soviet prime minister Nikolai Ryzhkova former defense minister Dmitri Yazoo and the head of the Kab at the time of the Accident Viktor Chubrikov. Yavorovsky initially did not mention the soviet president in the list of officials to be investigated. But lawmakers shouted a Gorbachev Quot to ensure his name was added. A we would like to Start life in Independent Ukraine with forgiveness but our whole history is one of forgiveness and the result has been poverty and misery a Yavorovsky said. A Attiat is Why we Are giving the results of our inquiry to the prosecutors office with a request to investigate the roles of these High ranking officials Quot he said. At the time the first indication of a major Accident came from Scandinavia As scientists there detected unusually High Levels of atmospheric radiation. Soviet officials later admitted the Accident three Days after it occurred and admitted that 32 people had died. A huge International Relief Effort was mounted and Western and some soviet scientists now claim that the actual death toll is at least 250 and could Rise to As Many As 10,000. Tie soviets still insist on 32. Last month ukrainian lawmakers voted to close the entire chernobyl facility by 1993. Simmering anger Over the Accident was a major Factor in ukrainian Ana byelorussian drives to break from Kremlin of soviet change has Cia shifting gears by John m. Broder los Angeles times Washington the Central intelligence Agency admittedly ineffective in forecasting Many recent soviet events has begun what officials Call a a a feverish Effort to expand its sources and analytical depth in the fragmenting republics and to get a grasp on the crumbling superpowers future. As one of his first acts in. Response to the dismantling of the soviet Union new Cia director Robert m. Gates last week abolished the Agency a soviet foreign policy group and has ordered its analysts to concentrate on monitoring foreign pol icy leaders in the newly Independent republics particularly in Boris n. Yeltsin a russian federation. A with the weakening of the Union there a been much less need for analysis of soviet foreign policy a an Agency official said. A but in terms of russian foreign policy there a great interest among american the Agency also is scrambling to produce at least 10 new intelligence estimates on the breakup of the soviet Union and the evolving Power Structure. Reports Are being prepared on the dissolution of the armed forces control Over nuclear weapons and technology ethnic approach of Winter spurs chilling soviet predictions Moscow a for now the streets arc Calm. But leading soviet thinkers predict banditry in the Countryside and mobs in the cities this Winter As a divided military and Downtrodden citizenry lose patience with their leaders. Under a perpetual Gray sky russians silently slog through a Brown Mush of Snow and mud ignoring what seem to be a thousand daily incitements to riot shoving in line to buy shoes paying a Days wages for a few tomatoes watching limousines race Down special lanes reserved for the Kremlin elite. How much longer will they take it a riots disorder chaos Are always possible Here especially this Winter a said Len Karpinsky editor in chief of the influential Moscow news. A they Are a spontaneous thing that can to be precisely forecast and can to be ruled out. Everyone is worried a Karpinsky said. A we live under a constant threat of some kind of local political analysts said in interviews that the danger of a split in the military is real. A i think that on the whole the officers and the Field Conr Nanders will support the Commonwealth agreement signed sunday by Russia byelorussian and the Ukraine said Alexei Arbatova a defense specialist at Moscow a Institute of the world Economy and International relations. A but in a not sure about the top ranks of the ministry of defense. A for All the advantages of the agreement it creates great uncertainty about. The Chain of command. There Are those who might feel endangered and nervous about the change and want to prevent Arbatova said he doubted the military would oppose the pact with Force. But a leading soviet sociologist Tatyana Kosyagina contended that a violent blow up within the military was possible. A the army is a destabilizing Factor precisely because it is torn by the same problems As civil society a she said. A there is great dissatisfaction of Junior officers with High ranking officers and of High ranking officers with mid level officers and of mid level officers with the russians Are fond of apocalyptic visions. Weeks of speculation in the soviet press about another military coup cold and hunger have been greeted with concern but without panic. None of the analysts interviewed is worried enough to flee the country or advise others to do so. Both Arbatova and Karpinsky View the Commonwealth agreement As a step toward political stability. But Kosyagina said economic frustration and animosity toward president Mikhail s. Gorbachev could spawn a popular revolt like the one led by Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev against Catherine the great in 1773. Kosyagina added that she foresaw a aimless riots accompanied by the creation of bandits Semi guerrilla formations which will join tensions in the republics food and fuel shortages economic stagnation and the potential for civil disorder. The estimates were the basis of Gates extraordinarily gloomy assessment before Congress on tuesday that the disintegrating soviet Union could face unprecedented civil disorder this Winter growing from pervasive shortages a breakdown in authority and deep ethnic tensions. Some of the studies Gates ordered known As a National intelligence estimates a Are now being revised because their findings have been overtaken by events. The Cia and the state department also Are attempting to strengthen the corps of analysts assigned to the . Embassy in Moscow where the Pace of events has left the staff breathless. . Ambassador to Moscow Robert s. Strauss complained tuesday the embassy was hobbled by the remnants of cold War Security procedures and a shortage of intelligence officers. A we have a terribly inefficient embassy operation Over there a Strauss told a group of american experts on the soviet Union in Washington. A a we re Short on economic Talent and we re Short on political Talent and we re Long on Security the foot of the Law this member of the ukrainian special militia took special Steps this week to subdue a suspect in Dnepropetrovsk. The suspect was kicked after the officers arrested him for allegedly frying to control the flow of goods into the local marketplace. The militia stage spot raids on the markets to Stop such racketeering
