Clash In East Berlin

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32114, 9 October 1969, Page 17

Clash In East Berlin

(N.Z. P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

EAST BERLIN, October 8.

About 2000 East German youths clashed with police in East Berlin last night as the Communist State celebrated its 20th anniversary.

According to one of the youths, they had assembled near the Berlin wall to hear a show by the British Rolling Stones pop group on top of the giant building of the West German publisher. Axel Springer, which stands on the limits of West Berlin.

As they waited for the performance, which never came, about 200 police arrived and waded into the crowd with truncheons flailing.

Pursued by police, the crowd of pop fans made off towards the new city centre at Alexander Platz where 250,000 members of the East German Communist youth organisation were preparing to celebrate the last day of a three day anniversary meeting.

The group from the wall were informally dressed, the boys wearing their hair long —in stark contrast to the uniformly royal blue shirts of the Free German Youth organisation.

At the end of the square they began to split up as the police rushed in and hustled some into waiting vans. According to the youths, about 50 young people were detained.

Another Pop Incident The last known, incident of this kind happened in 1964, also during a meeting of the Free German Youth from all over East Germany and also involving pop music. Thousands of young people marched down Karl-Marx-Allee in protest after organisers told a Swedish pop group playing in an outdoor concert to make way for an East German band against the wishes of the crowd.

Earlier yesterday East Germany held a massive military and civilian parade to mark its twentieth anniversary, and

drew a rebuke from the Western Allies in Berlin. The parade of military hardware was reckoned by experienced observers as the largest they had seen in the city for years. They also noticed one piece of equipment not seen in East Berlin before, a

giant triple-rocket launcher, several of which lumbered past on huge half-track vehicles. The Allied commanders in West Berlin immediately published a communique expressing regret at the parade, the military character of which they said was accentuated by the equipment on display. They regretted that it was once more necessary to point out "that such demonstrations are in violation of the special demilitarised status of the city and are difficult to reconcile with Soviet claims regarding the peaceful nature of the East German regime.”

Tunisian Disaster The equivalent of 10 years rain has fallen in the last 10 days in the central and southern areas of Tunisia, leaving hundreds of people dead and much of the country’s road system swept away. Government officials, who put the death toll at 425, say that about 50,000 homes have been destroyed and 40 bridges damaged.—Tunis, Oct 8.