East celebrates Wall

Press, 15 August 1981, Page 9

East celebrates Wall

NZPA-Reuter Berlin Armoured cars, steelaelmeted troops and uniformed children paraded in East Berlin yesterday to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Berlin Wall. But in the city centre of West Berlin, streams of cars from all over West Germany drove past to protest against what West Berliners call ‘the Wall of Shame."

Seventy-two East Germans have been killed trying to flee across the wall to the west.

In the east, 10,000 militiamen marched with goosestepping units of the National People’s Army past the Communist Party chief, Erich Honecker, through Karl-Marx-Allee, which was adorned with red flags and national banners.

Mr Honecker, flanked by East German and Soviet generals. described August 13. 1961. as the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Europe. The building of the wall had prevented a third world war. which United States arms policies were threatening again now, he said.

West Berliners laid wreaths yesterday at memorials to those who died trying to cross the drab wall.

In East Berlin wreaths were also laid for border guards “killed defending the frontiers of the State." Many were shot by escapers, though the official press did not mention this.

Immediately after the parade in East Berlin, France, Britain, and the United States protested officially

about it to the Soviet Union

"The military parade which took place in the Soviet sector of Berlin today constitutes a violation of the demilitarised status of the city. This event is ail the more deplorable in that it is intended to commemorate the illegal and inhuman construction of the Berlin Wall in defiance of fundamental human rights." it said. Berlin has officially been occupied by the three Western allies' and the Soviet Union since the end of the Second World War. and the Western powers do not recognise East Berlin as part of East Germany.

Moscow has withdrawn its military government from the city, but Western protests are still addressed to the Kremlin.

Thousands of East Berliners and tourists watched yesterday’s parade in hot sunshine. Some carried placards bearing pictures of Mr Honecker, or the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev. Some of the demonstrations in the West were unusual. About 300 of the city’s thriving punk and hippie population held a sound and light show at Potsdam Place, once the centre of Berlin, now waste land with the Wall in the middle.

Spectators from viewing platforms overlooking the Wall could see puzzled East German border guards listening to electronic music from the other side, but unable to see the pornographic films projected alongside pictures of Mr Honecker on the Western side of the Wall.