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[Rainer Eppelmann] said the violence "came from our side. East Germans threw bottles and stones at Soviet soldiers." Soviet officers disarmed their troops to prevent them from retaliating. "We have Soviet officers to thank that there was no retaliation," Eppelmann, a Protestant pastor, said.
SOVIET TROOPS HALT ESTONIA RALLY MOSCOW (Reuter) - Soviet troops have been sent into a small Estonian town to stop what military leaders said was a rally of former Estonian officers in Hitler's elite SS fighting force.
The spokesman said there would be a meeting of the Estonian government which is expected to issue a protest over the action of the Soviet army on the territory of Estonia." Organizers of the veterans' rally said it was open to people who fought on ""both the Soviet and German sides, against fascist and against Stalinist dictatorship."
HAVEL ELECTED CZECH LEADER PRAGUE (Reuter) - Former dissident Vaclav Havel became Czechoslovakia's first freely elected president in 55 years on Thursday, marking the end of the first phase in the country's move toward democracy.
"I promise that within the limits of my prerogatives and to the best of my ability . . . I will do everything to help lead this country to a better future," he told thousands of well-wishers thronging the courtyard of Prague's Hradcany Castle, the president's official residence.
Havel, 53, was elected for a two-year term by a secret ballot of parliamentary deputies, winning the necessary three-fifths majority. He was the only candidate. Of the 284 deputies attending out of the 300-member parliament, 234 voted for Havel and 50 against.
POLISH CABINET MINISTER QUITS WARSAW - Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Janicki resigned from the Polish cabinet Thursday after failing to secure special protection for farmers from a harsh economic austerity program.
His resignation came at a time of growing protests by farmers, who have threatened to blockade the country's main roads Monday if their demands for subsidies are not met. Newspapers buzzed with speculation that Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki had planned to dismiss Janicki, a member of the Polish Peasants Party, in a cabinet shuffle scheduled for today.
Polish farmers have staged two major protests - a blockade of the country's main highway, and occupation of the agriculture ministry's building in Warsaw - in the past three weeks to press demands for price subsidies and import barriers. They argue that prices now paid by government procurement agencies are below the cost of production, and that they have been hurt by imports of cheaper meat and produce.
EAST GERMANS ATTACK TROOPS EAST BERLIN (Reuter) - Tension is rising between Soviet troops based in East Germany and increasingly resentful local people, the country's defence minister said Thursday.
Defence Minister Rainer Eppelmann told parliament there has already been one violent incident in which East Germans threw bottles and stones at Soviet troops during a demonstration outside an air base. "We are facing a very big problem of great political dimensions," he said.
Eppelmann said the violence "came from our side. East Germans threw bottles and stones at Soviet soldiers." Soviet officers disarmed their troops to prevent them from retaliating. "We have Soviet officers to thank that there was no retaliation," Eppelmann, a Protestant pastor, said.
SERBIA CRACKING DOWN PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (Reuter) - Yugoslavia's biggest republic, Serbia, dissolved Kosovo's parliament and government Thursday and Albanian-language radio and television went off the air in the predominantly ethnic Albanian province.
Serbia cracked down on Kosovo after rebel Albanian parliamentary deputies declared the province's political independence from Serbia Monday. Belgrade television showed police and paramilitary units, some in full riot gear with automatic rifles, forcing their way into the Pristina Television offices and confiscating tapes.
Witnesses said a cameraman who refused to hand over tapes was beaten up. Belgrade television reported that several people were detained. Police also entered the offices of the daily Albanian-language newspaper Rilindja and it was unclear whether the paper would appear today.
TEENAGER HIJACKS SOVIET AIRLINER STOCKHOLM - A teenager claiming to have a bomb bluffed the crew of a Soviet Aeroflot airliner into switching course to Sweden on Thursday and landing at Stockholm's Arlanda airport.
Also Thursday, a Soviet newspaper reported a woman threatened to blow up another Soviet plane unless it was diverted to Turkey. That hijacking was foiled.
The teenage hijacker who arrived in Stockholm said he had been refused permission to leave the Soviet Union. The youth surrendered soon after landing in what was the ninth attempted or actual hijacking of an Aeroflot flight within a month.
SOVIET TROOPS HALT ESTONIA RALLY MOSCOW (Reuter) - Soviet troops have been sent into a small Estonian town to stop what military leaders said was a rally of former Estonian officers in Hitler's elite SS fighting force.
An Estonian government spokesman said Thursday 28 armored cars and 15 trucks carrying paratroopers rolled into the small township of Tori late Wednesday night. Local authorities had been given no warning of the army action.
The spokesman said there would be a meeting of the Estonian government which is expected to issue a protest over the action of the Soviet army on the territory of Estonia." Organizers of the veterans' rally said it was open to people who fought on ""both the Soviet and German sides, against fascist and against Stalinist dictatorship."
(Copyright The Calgary Herald)