Shooting leads to talks

Press, 1 April 1985, Page 6

Shooting leads to talks

NZPA-AFP-AP Washington

Soviet and American Army commanders in Europe will meet in order to avoid “incidents,” the two nations decided at the weekend.

The agreement was recorded at a meeting between the Soviet Ambassador, to the United States. Mr Anatoly Dobrynin, and the American Secretary of State, Mr George Shultz. Mr Dobrynin described himself as "very pleased” with the agreement. The meeting between Mr Dobrynin and Mr Shultz

coincided with the funeral of Major Arthur Nicholson, aged 37, a United States military liaison officer who was shot and killed in East Germany by a Soviet guard last Sunday. The United States said the shooting was unprovoked but the Soviet Union said Major Nicholson was fleeing from a military installation he had been illegally photographing. He was buried with military honours at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.

American officials have called Nicholson’s death a murder, contending he was on authorised duties as a member of the small Army liaison mission based in East Germany. According to the official United States account, Nicholson was photographing a military installation near Ludwigslust, about 48km inside East Germany, when a Soviet guard discovered him and opened fire. The Soviets contend that Nicholson was in an area that has been ruled off limits to American observers.