Russians keep exercise secret

Press, 5 July 1978, Page 8

Russians keep exercise secret

NZPA-Reuter East Berlin < Soviet Toops in East Germany are believed to have begun their biggest manoeuvres in Central Europe since the 1975 Helsinki security agreement, but there has been no -official confirmation they had started. Western observers have no*' been invited to attend the exercises. The Soviet Defence Ministry announced last month f it 30,000 troops and air- • >n would stage five-day manoeuvres within a 200kmlong area passing just south of Berlin, aimed at testing co-ordination between units. But both Soviet and East German media have been silent on the manoeuvres this week, and Western experts said they could only be assumed to have started. Travellers who have passed through the area said there appeared to be no unusual military movements, although military police were posted at key intersections. The Western experts added that the main manoeuvres may possibly come in the middle of the week, i

Under the terms of the Helsinki accords signatory States are required to give advance notice of manoeuvres involving more than 25,000 men. It has also become customary for each side to invite observers from the other side, but there is no compulsion. Since Helsinki, Soviet generals have been invited to | North Atlantic Treaty Organisation manoeuvres in West Germany, and the West has been able to send observers to watch Soviet war games in the Ukraine and the Caucasus. Moscow has given no explanation of why it did not invite observers this time, but Western experts link it with the extreme military sensitivity of the manoeuvre area — ' likely theatre for first fighting in any armed East-West conflict in Europe. The experts said it was possible that the Russians would begin the manoeuvres in the area just south-east of Berlin, where they have extensive training grounds around the towns of Jueteborg and Lieberose. Altogether, 400.000 Soviet soldiers are stationed in East Germany.