Kremlin accused of lying

Press, 5 September 1983, Page 10

Kremlin accused of lying

NZPA New York The United States, addressing an urgent session of the United Nations Security Council at the week-end, accused the Soviet Union of wanton, calculated, deliberate murder in an attack on a South Korean airliner and of brazenly lying about it. The United States representative, Charles Lichenstein, joined the South Korean envoy in demanding a credible investigation into the downing of the Korean Air Lines jumbo jet, with the loss of 269 lives, and punishment of those responsible. The Soviet Ambassador, Mr Richard Ovinnikov, declined to concede Soviet responsibility and countered by assailing the council meeting as a propaganda display calculated to present the U.S.S.R. in a false light and obtain another pretext for their militaristic policy in the United States. The debate had been requested by the United States, South Korea, Japan, Canada and Australia.

Mr Ovinnikov called the harsh American criticism part of a United States crusade against Communism and he then read a statement carried by the official Soviet news agency, Tass. It said that Soviet jet fighters had fired tracer shots at an intruding plane and the Soviet Union regretted the loss of life. The Tass statement asserted that the South Korean airliner had been on a spying mission under civilian cover. Mr Lichenstein dismissed the Tass statement, saying that the Soviet Union was lying openly, brazenly, and knowingly. A normal, reasonably civilised Government would admit its responsibility and express its regret at the loss of life, Mr Lichenstein said. “Let us call this crime for what clearly it is — wanton, calculated, deliberate murder.”

The South Korean Ambassador, Mr Kyung Won Kim, told the council that the Soviet action had posed a threat to the safety of all civil airliners of all nations. The very future of international civil aviation was now at stake. Hundreds of South

Koreans and Americans marched in protest in the plaza outside United Nations headquarters and burned a Soviet flag. They cheered when New York’s Mayor, Mr Edward Koch, told them that every free nation should tell the Soviets: “You are an outlaw nation and we will make you pay.” Mr Lichenstein, speaking to reporters before the debate, expressed little, hope that the council would take concrete action against the Soviet Union, which as one of the five permanent members, holds the veto power. He said that the chance of

the council’s mustering nine votes to pass a resolution, even without a Soviet veto, were, “I would think, nil.” The other permanent council members are the United States, China, Britain, and France, but the Third World membership is split between pro-West and proEast countries. He compared the Soviet conduct with that of the United States to what he said were 75 incidents in which Soviet airliners had violated United States airspace by flying outside prescribed routes. In November, he said, a

Soviet Aeroflot airliner had left its flight path and overflown Pease Air Force base in New Hampshire and the naval base at Groton, Connecticut, en route to Washington.

The United States had suspended Aeroflot landing rights at Washington’s Dulles Airport for two subsequent flights, Mr Lichenstein said, but did not authorise the use of heatseeking missiles. South Korea,. which has only observer status in the world body, opened the debate.

Mr Kim listed these de-

mands on the Soviet Union: © A detailed account of what happened.

® A full apology and complete compensation for the loss of the aircraft, as well as to the families of the . passengers and crew members who were killed.

© Adequate punishment for all those who are directly responsible “for this most reprehensible and inhuman violence against completely defenceless victims.”

® Access to the crash site by investigators and a return of bodies and debris.