As Mikhail Gorbachev was flying to Washington Monday, about 200 Chicagoans gathered outside the Daley Center to urge the Soviet leader to loosen the reins on citizens of the world`s ”captive nations.”
”Death to Russian tyranny!” the rally leaders shouted as they burned, ripped and stomped on a Soviet flag.
The so-called ”captive nations” under Soviet control include not only most of Eastern Europe but also several countries in Africa, Asia and Central America.
”Our message is that we don`t just want peace-we want peace with freedom,” said Casey Oksas, president of the Captive Nations Council of Illinois.
Others at the rally also said they were not opposed to this week`s summit meeting but rather to Soviet human rights violations and expansionist tendencies.
”To Gorbachev we send a challenge,” said Orest Baranyk of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. ”Prove that glasnost and democratization are not a sham. Stop Soviet imperialistic adventurism. Allow the non-Russian republics within the Soviet Union the right of self-determination. Release your hold on the Soviet-bloc nations.”
Some of the demonstrators carried signs that read: ”Soviets out of Afghanistan,” ”Stop terror in Latvia,” ”The Kremlin goal: Soviet Central America” and ”We support Lt. Col. Oliver North.”
