Berlin Wall: E. Germany replies

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 10

Berlin Wall: E. Germany replies

NZPA-Reuter East Berlin

East Germany yesterday used the twenty-third anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall to defend Erich Honecker’s bid for better ties with the West in the face of mounting Soviet criticism.

The Communist Party daily newspaper “Neues described construction of the wall on August 13, 1961, as vital to block a plan by the West to stir up trouble in East Germany with the aim of sending in the West German Armed Forces “to restore ‘order 1 ”.

But charges of previous schemes were tempered with moderate comment on present East-West ties, and Western diplomats emphasised that the article limited attacks on Bonn

to the historical context and pointedly avoided direct criticism of the present West German Government. The article bore the signature of an East Berlin industrial worker, Alfred Schroeder, but its positioning in a section normally reserved for commentary indicated high-level approval. It praised the peace policy which, it said, Mr Honecker was personally conducting and pledged firm backing for all efforts to restore international dialogue. This contrasted starkly with a deluge of recent Soviet and Czechoslovak attacks on Bonn, regarded as a warning to Mr Honecker to show caution in developing relations with the West.

The widely-read “Berliner Zeitung” newspaper, which has no formal links with Government or party but closely mirrors official policy, also backed Mr Honecker’s bid to maintain dialogue despite silence between Moscow and Washington over arms control.

“Together with the Soviet Union and other States of the Warsaw Pact and in line with official declarations, we are working for concrete steps towards disarmament and continuation of political dialogue,” it said. The commentary, headed “The German Democratic Republic — A Reliable Bastion of Peace,” appeared to emphasise unity of aim in the Soviet bloc despite the impression of disagreement given by Soviet and Czechoslovak press criticism.

“It is of the utmost importance for the preservation of peace that the process of relaxation is revived and relations between countries with different social structures proceed on the basis of peaceful co-exist-ence,” the “Berliner Zeitung” said. It said the building of the wall, which has isolated West Berlin within East Germany, was forced by reactionary and aggressive elements in West Germany. But, turning to presentday problems, it levelled explicit criticism only at the United States for deployment of new mediumrange nuclear missiles in Western Europe over the last seven months. It did not attack the West German Chancellor’s Government for sanctioning deployment of the missiles, in

contrast with bitter accusations in the Soviet press in recent weeks.

In West Germany, a leading member of the opposition Social Democrats (S.P.D.) created a furore in Right-wing circles when he said the so-called German question was no longer open.

Hans Apel, a former Finance and Defence Minister who now leads the S.P.D. in West Berlin, said in an interview that it was a fact that there are two German States, even if they did not regard each other as foreign countries.

He said this did not mean abandonment of basic West German law which sets out the eventual goal of German reunification. But this could only be achieved within a European framework.