Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis said Friday that Western Europe was the only guarantor of independence for Lithuania.
"Either Europe helps Lithuania to rejoin Europe, or Europe rejects the Baltic states and forces them to remain in the Soviet Union," Landsbergis said.The Lithuanian president was in Copenhagen Friday on a two-day official working visit as the guest of Danish Prime Minister Poul Schluter.
"The time is coming when the European states will have to see the situation as it is and make their decisions accordingly," Landsbergis said.
"The West says it wants to support (Soviet President Mikhail) Gorbachev but does not seem to realize that to do this they must support the Baltic states. We are the ones who have given Gorbachev most assistance in bringing about real change in the Soviet Union," Landsbergis said.
The Lithuanian president added that Lithuania had the right to take its independence and sovereignty, "things which could never be a gift from Moscow. If we find an agreement whereby they think that they are giving us independence, but we know we are simply taking it - that will leave us no problems," Landsbergis added.
"We have no hate of the Russians, we know that they too have been victims of a cruel system. It is this system that must be destroyed, and we in Lithuania have destroyed quite a bit of it already," Landsbergis said.
The Lithuanian president went on to reject the notion that the Soviet Union could retain the Baltic port of Klaipeda as part of any agreement on full independence.