Third Day In Moscow

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31767, 26 August 1968, Page 1

Third Day In Moscow

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) MOSCOW, August 25. Soviet and Czechoslovak leaders were holding their third successive day of secret talks in the Kremlin today trying to hammer out an agreement on the occupation crisis.

Rumours persisted that the leaders of the other four countries which sent their troops into Czechoslovakia last Wednesday had already or were about to arrive to join the talks.

1 But official Soviet and East European diplomatic spokesmen could not confirm the rumours about the arrival of the party leaders, Mr Walter Ulbricht, of East Germany, Mr Wladyslav Gomulka, of Poland, Mr Janos Kadar, of Hungary, and Mr Todor Zhivkov, of Bulgaria. The talks, in which reliable sources say the Czechoslovak Communist Party leader, Mr Alexander Dubcek, and his Prime Minister, Mr Oldricb Cernik, are taking part, together with President Ludvik Svoboda and six other Prague officials, had been expected to ertd early yesterday afternoon. The Soviet news agency, Tass, last night issued a strongly-worded Kremlin statement adamantly defending the occupation of Czechoslovakia by its own and allied troops, and saying they would leave only when they had given a rebuff to counterrevolution. The statement gave not the slightest hint of any softening

of the tough Soviet attitude towards the Prague reformists, and appeared to contradict reports by Prague clandestine radio stations that the Russians were giving in to Mr Dubcek. It accused counter-revolu-tionaries in Prague of trying to provoke armed clashes and bloodshed with the occupation troops. A report In the Government newspaper, “Izvestia” criticised the Rumanian President and party leader, Mr Nicolae Ceausescu, by name for the first time.

Other press articles denounced counter-revolutidn-aries and saboteurs in Czechoslovakia for firing machine-guns at Soviet troops, burning tanks and causing traffic jams. A “Pravda” commentator, Yuri Zhukov, said that seven Soviet soldiers had been wounded since the occupation. He also condemned anti-Soc-ialist forces and counterrevolutionaries.

Strong attacks have appeared against the liberal journalists and writers in Prague whose outspoken calls for freedom and closer ties with the West apparently were the main cause of the occupation.