MOSCOW COMMUNIQUE 14 Of 75 Parties Show Dissent

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32017, 18 June 1969, Page 17

MOSCOW COMMUNIQUE 14 Of 75 Parties Show Dissent

CN.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright)

MOSCOW, June 17.

The World Communist summit meeting will end in Moscow today, 14 parties shoiving varying degrees of dissent, but with enough apparent unity to satisfy the Kremlin, which had sought the summit meeting for six years.

The dissenting parties include the Italian, largest in Western Europe, which is signing only one section of the four-part main document.

But a Rumanian walk- f out, once regarded as a strong possibility, was avoided. Both the Rumanians and the French, also once considered to be a possible dissenting voice, will endorse the main document, though the Rumanians have some reservations. Three parties—the British, Norwegian and the party of Reunion, the French Indian Ocean colony—will consult with their central committees at home before deciding whether to sign. Of the other dissenting parties, the Australians and the tiny San Marino party will sign only one section of the document, the Spanish and Swiss parties will sign with reservations, and the Moroccan and Sudanese parties will sign with minor reservations about a passage on the Middle East conflict. 60 And Russians Cuba and Sweden sent only observer delegations and will not sign anything. This leaves the Russians with 60 parties apart from their own endorsing the docu-ment-enough for the Soviet press to refer to the decisions as having been taken by an overwhelming majority. Many of the pro-Soviet parties like Costa Rica, Nigeria and South Africa represent only a handful of members.

The Chinese party, the largest in the world, boycotted the 75-party conference, but it was not condemned in the document. Nor was the absent Jugoslav party condemned, as it was at the 1957 and 1960 conferences. The Rumanian leader, Mr Nicolae Ceausescu, bailed this lack of criticism last night by saying, in a statement: “This leaves the door open for Improving relations between parties." Mechanics Unclear The mechanics of today’s signing ceremony were still not clear early this morning. Some Communist sources said the full document would be signed by 61 parties, while the dissenters who had reservations would append their remarks and objections to the document or set them forth in a final communique. There was no immediate word when the document itself would be published, but it was not; expected to contain anything new in the way of Communist policies. All controversial issues, like the new Brezhnev doctrine on the limited sovereignty of Communist countries, were reliably reported to have been avoided.

. Earlier, the Czechoslovak Communist Party leader, Dr Gustav Husak, had said that the conference would end in virtually unanimous agreement. Husak’s Version Speaking at a press conference, Dr Husak said that the overwhelming majority of the parties fully approved of the conference's main document and that about 70 of the 75 delegations would sign it. Dr Husak admitted that some parties had approved only separate parts of the document, but said the dissenters could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Mr Sergei Lapin, director of the official Soviet news agency, Tass, who has been conference press spokesman, said the meeting had also unanimously adopted an “appeal for peace.” Sources said that Mr Boris Ponomarev, chairman of an editorial commission which has been discussing about 70 amendments to the document, made a long report to delegation leaders in which he said that about 30 of the amendments had been accepted. The appeal for peace, released last night, was a standard Communist document that contained no surprises. The 1000-word text condemned “imperialism, above all American imperialism” for stepping up the arms race and increasing International tension.

It condemned the United States for conducting a “barbaric war” in Vietnam, Israel for “aggression” against Arab States, and Germany for trying to revise the results of the Second World War.

It called on the world population to support the Communist stand on these and other world trouble areas and to fight for complete and general disarmament.

Invasion Questions During his press conference, Dr Husak parried nearly all questions on the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact intervention in his country last August.

He referred questioners to his long report to the conference, in which he criticised the Dubcek leadership for giving rein to Right-wing opportunist and anti-Socialist forces but stopped just short of justifying the intervention. Dr Husak said that his regime intended to end press censorship at some stage but he would set no date for this.

He agreed with a questioner that many of Czechoslovakia’s younger generation did not agree with his hardline policies, but said that he was sure they eventually would.

"Our new leadership has been installed for less than two months. Only Jesus Christ could work miracles, and that was a long time ago,” he said.