Corruption stirs E. German fury

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 11

Corruption stirs E. German fury

NZPA-Reuter East Berlin East Germans, incensed at the scale of corruption among former Communist Party leaders, occupied police buildings in two cities to stop evidence being shredded, as protesters elsewhere demanded the Party’s dissolution. The unprecedented occupation of the police offices yesterday spurred prominent intellectuals to issue an appeal against mob rule and demand the creation of citizens’ committees to monitor all government activity. The Communist Party-led Government put out an international

alert for a fugitive former trade official implicated in embezzlement and arms trafficking. In another mass vote of noconfidence, hundreds of thousands of people rallied in twelve cities to demand democratic reforms, the Party’s break-up and German reunification.

Demonstrators besieged security police buildings in Leipzig and Erfurt in an expression of public anger on disclosures that Communist leaders plundered the public purse to live like princes while ruining the economy. It was the most telling sign yet of

the crumbling authority of the Communist Party, omnipotent only two months ago. In Leipzig, democratic reform activists who organised the demonstration pushed their way into the building and leafed through its files, saying they were anxious to find evidence before it was shredded. Police officials did not resist. They and opposition representatives negotiated to check the files as part of a joint government-opposition investigation into official corruption. Intellectuals warned East Germans that taking the law into their

own hands could expose them to a state backlash that would set back efforts to put East Germany firmly on track to democratic reform. The intellectuals — some of whom belonged to the emergency working group that took command of the party after its ruling Politburo resigned on Monday — urged the setting up of citizens committees to scrutinise government activity. A spokesman, Konrad Weiss, said the idea, to be presented to the Prime Minister, Hans Modrow, today, would involve appointing opposition activists to shadow every

Government Minister and senior bureaucrat in their daily work. The citizens committees would work with state authorities to collect evidence on corruption, secure documents and help inquiries. Meanwhile, the Christian Democrats, a small party in the Communist Party-dominated coalition, and the new Opposition Social Democrats demanded free elections by mid-1990, months earlier than they had previously asked for. The Social Democrats had previously suggested elections at a later date, out of concern that reform groups would need considerable

time to form campaign organisations and draft platforms. “But the political situation is getting worse day by day. The crisis is developing with galloping speed,” The Christian Democrats and another small government party, the Liberal Democrats, both announced that they were dropping out of a policy forum led by the Communist Party — the “Democratic Bloc.” The move was another sign of the growing independence of the four small coalition parties as Communist Party cohesion has collapsed in the face of reform demands and corruption scandals.