News Digest Edited by Brandon Loomis
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W. Germany approves aid for E. Germany
BONN, West Germany - West
Germany approved $3.6 billion in aid
for East Germany on Wednesday to
keep its economy afloat and prevent
its citizens from fleeing in frustration
until the two nations become one.
Another $1 billion was approved
to resettle East Germans who come to
the West
Though the money is earmarked
for specific East German programs,
none of it will go directly to the gov
emment of Communist Premier Hans
Modrow, who likely will be ousted
when the country holds its first free
elections on March 18.
Modrow, whose two-day summit
here concluded Wednesday, had re
quested $9 billion in immediate di
rect aid Tuesday but was turned down
by the government of Chancellor
Helmut Kohl.
Both leaders, however, hailed the
landmark agreement by the Soviet
Union, the United States, France and
Britain that sets up a procedure for
formal talks on reunification.
The agreement by the four World
War II Allies that defeated and di
vided Germany 45 years ago is a
diplomatic breakthrough and a first
step to a timetable for reunification.
American historians downplay threat of reunified Germany
WASHINGTON - Historians say
misgivings about a reunited Ger
many are understandable but the
world has more to fear from a power
vacuum in the center of Europe.
For the most part, the historians
said an East Germany collapsing
into chaos would be far more dan
gerous than a united Germany.
“The only alternative to reuni
fication,” said Henry Ashby Turner
of Yale, is an East Germany in
ruins, “a basket case, a Bangla
desh of Europe.”
Added Richard Breitman of
American University, author of three
books on German history: “One
Germany is not only inevitable,
but given the successful record of
West Germany over the last 40
years, my feeling is it is better than
having a regime in chaos.”
Turner, author of “The Two
Germanies Since 1945,” said Ger
mans have “no significant interest
in territorial revisions. Those mis
givings are misplaced. I don’t think
there is any chance that the young
men of Germany are going to slip
out of their Adidas running shoes
and pull on jackboots and start
running around saying, ‘Heil!’”
Gerhard Weinberg of the Uni
versity of North Carolina, consid
ered a leading historian concen
trating on the Nazi era, cautioned
that reunification, if mishandled,
still could prove explosive.
While the people of West Eu
rope have learned to put aside their
nationalistic distrusts, East Euro
peans “have been deprived of that
by a control system which restricted
their freedoms to choose govern
ments and express themselves. They
have not, therefore, had the oppor
tunity to work out nationalist senti
ments.”
“We see this as an exceptionally
important development and a great
success for the West German foreign
minister, an important step toward
German unity,” Hanns Schumacher,
a West German Foreign Ministry
spokesman, said Wednesday.
Modrow told reporters in Bonn
that he welcomed the announcement,
made during a meeting of Warsaw
Pact and NATO nations Tuesday in
Ottawa, and considered it the best
means of protecting both German
interests and those of the wartime
allies.
East Germany is a key component
of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact and
West Germany serves much the same
role in NATO. The United States
wants to keep a united Germany in
NATO, while the Soviets arc press
ing for German neutrality.
During the talks between the pcr
manys, West Germany has a com
manding position because of its vi
brant economy, which will be needed
to bail out the financially ailing east
ern state, where thousands are fleeing
to the West.
Modrow, who spoke with West
German industrial leaders on the last
day of his visit, told reporters before
returning to East Berlin that he was
uisappoiilicu uy rvuiu s itjctuon 01
East Germany’s appeal for immedi
ate aid.
Government and opposition po
litical forces had asked for up to $9
billion to help the East German gov
ernment until the election.
West German Economics Minis
ter Helmut Haussmann said Bonn
turned down the request because it
“makes no sense” to grant loans or
credits to East Germany when so little
is known of its economic situation.
However, Finance Minister Thco
Waigel on Wednesday announced
Cabinet approval of $2.4 billion to
modernize East Germany’s aging
factories, repair roads, install a new
phone system and other “immediate
measures” to improve production and
living standards.
The 1990 budget supplement also
provides $1 billion to cope with the
costs of lens of thousands of East
Germans resettling in West Germany,
and another $1.2 billion for a contin
gency fund for unforeseen expenses
related to East German reforms.
Haussmann told reporters that the
bulk of the money would be available
immediately.
1 Two ground stations on Maui, If
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John Bruce/Dally Nebraskan
Two SDI satellites launched
to gauge system’s accuracy
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -
Two satellites rocketed into space
Wednesday to test a “Star Wars”
plan to destroy hostile missiles by
bouncing laser beams off orbiting
mirrors.
One satellite carried a mirror
designed to reflect lasers fired from
a Hawaiian mountaintop back to a
ground target to test the accuracy
of such a system.
The other held sensors for meas
uring how successfully scientists
can correct distortions caused by
dust, moisture and gases as the
beam shoots through the atmos
phere.
The satellites were carried aloft
by a 12-story Delta rocket at 11:15
a.m. Nearly two hours later, the
Air Force announced both were in
their proper orbits and functioning
properly.
A successful mission could help
preserve the S4.5 billion that Presi
dent Bush is seeking for research in
budget year 1991 for the Strategic
Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars.”
Some members of Congress want
to cut that amount.
In the missile-intercepting proj
ect called Relay Mirror Experi
ment, two ground stations on Maui,
Hawaii, will aim low-powered laser
beams simultaneously at the 2,300
pound satellite orbiting 270 miles
above Earth. The satellite holds a
24-inch mirror designed to point a
laser beam with an error of less
than 57 millionths of a degree.
RME will use the first two beams
as signals to orient its mirror. When
an Air Force station atop Mount
Haleakala aims another beam at
the satellite, the beam should re
flect off the mirror and strike a
sensor target at the base of the
mountain 12 miles away.
The tests are scheduled to start
in about two weeks and to last eight
months. RME will pass within range
of the Hawaii stations at least once
a day.
The second satellite, called
LACE for Low-Power Atmospheric
Compensation Experiment, will test
a set of 210 laser-sensitive sensors
packed into a square measuring 13
feel on each side.
The Mount Haleakala laser to
be used on the 3,17*i-pound pay
load has a special flexible mirror
for distorting the laser beam on
Earth to compensate for atmos
pheric disturbances. The beam
should be sharp and powerful by
the time it reaches LACE orbiting
340 miles high.
Proposal for strengthened presidency
met with criticism in Supreme Soviet
MOSCOW - President Mikhail
Gorbachev appealed Wednesday for
legislative backing for a stronger
presidency and said it was vital to his
reforms, but wary lawmakers refused
to be stampeded into setting a time
table.
Once again, the 542-member
Supreme Soviet proved itself a force
to be reckoned with in the new Soviet
political game, which under Gorbachev
has shifted more from closed-door
sessions of the Kremlin leadership to
elected government bodies.
After a two-month break, the fledg
ling Soviet legislature reconvened for
the third time in its less than one-year
history. Lawmakers approved a 22
item agenda to debate bills designed
to pul flesh on the skeleton of Gor
bachev’s economic and social reforms,
including legalization of private prop
erty.
However, the Kremlin leadership’s
proposal to call an emergency session
of the Supreme Soviet’s parent body,
the Congress of People’s Deputies, to
replace the office now held by Gor
bachev with a stronger Western-style
presidency met with raucous debate.
“Unless democracy is strength
ened and ensured by corresponding
mechanisms, democracy will perish,
and we’ll lose,” Gorbachev angrily
told his critics.
Otherwise, he said, the victors will
be forces who want to “tighten the
screws even tighter than they were
earlier.”
More power for the presidency
would strengthen Gorbachev’s gov
ernment powers while further weak
ening theCommunist Party apparatus
that he is trying to reform.
91 passengers die
in Indian jet crash
NEW DELHI, India - An Indian
Airlines Airbus jet that had been in
use only three months crashed onto a
golf course and burned Wednesday
short of a runway in southern India,
and 91 of the 146 people on board
died, officials said.
The Airbus-320 grazed a clump of
trees on its final approach to Banga
lore airport and caught fire when it hit
the ground, about 50 yards from the
runway, officials said.
The flight originated in Bombay,
530 miles northwest of Bangalore. At
least 55 people survived the crash,
including two Americans, the airline
said.
Gorbachev would have two pow
erful instruments to implement his
program of “perestroika’ ’ -- the party
apparatus and the reinforced machin
ery of government
Vice President Anatoly Lukyanov,
who flanked Gorbachev beneath a
gilded globe emblazoned with the
hammer and sickle, recommended that
lawmakers call the Congress into
-4 4
Unless democracy is
strengthened and
ensured by corre
sponding mecha
nisms. democracy
will perish, and well
lose.
President Gorbachev
-f f -
session Feb. 27 to fortify the presi
dency and make other constitutional
changes — including the planned
abandonment of the Communist
Parly’s legally guaranteed right to
govern.
A close Gorhachev adviser, Georgy
Shaknazarov, told reporters during a
break in the proceedings that lop
Kremlin officials want the Congress
to elect the new president within a
month.
But the Supreme Soviet voted 304
95, with 34 abstentions, to debate the
presidential issue first. If the Supreme
Soviet approves Gorbachev’s plan to
fortify the presidency, it must then be
confirmed by the Congress of People’s
Deputies.
Gorbachev, the Soviet leader sinc e
March 1985, is likely to be a candi
date for the new presidency, but for
the second time in a week he spoke
guardedly about whether he will run.
“If we proceed to take a decision
on the presidency, we will decide that
there will be alternative candidates,”
he said. “I don’t know if I will be
among the alternatives.”
Still, a half-dozen speakers Wednes
day criticized the rush to create a
more powerful presidency, and Gor
bachev acknowledged that some
Soviets equate him with late Roma
nian dictator Nicolac Ceausescu. He
did not clarify whether the compari
son was being made by reformers or
by hard-liners who supported Ceaus
escu’s brand of iron-fisted leader
ship.
Ceausescu was ousted by a popu
lar revolution and executed Dec. 25.
Gorbachev told the legislature that
he was once opposed to presidential
power, but “life has demanded
changes.” In the Soviet political sys
tem, the head of state has tradition
ally been merely a figurehead.
A prominent liberal lawmaker from
Ixmingrad, Anatoly Sobchak, said that
increasing the powers of the presi
dency would decrease those of the
legislature, and he opposed such a
shift.
Ilmar Bisher of Latvia said he
supported the stronger presidency but
only if the powers of the office arc
carefully tailored. He said that couldn’t
be done in time to hold a session of
the 2,250-mcmber Congress this
month.
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