Call from East German Peace Activists
The following is a message from militants of the East German (GDR) independent peace movement to "those demonstrating against the new American missiles." It was read out by Heinrich Boll at the October 27 Bonn anti-war demonstration.
"We are members of various GDR independent peace groups. We too are against the new American missiles. We also campaign for the dismantling of Soviet missiles. But we are conscious that peace cannot be reduced to the missiles question. Above all it is human beings who use them, it is a case of criminals and victims. Orders are given and followed, either with apathy or zeal. We face the problem of social relationships that create divisions between those who command and those who are commanded. Even without the new American missiles, the world can be annihilated hundreds of times.
We know very well why certain milieus in the West will always have a stake in the war drive. Profits from the arms industry attract them. We are conscious of their responsibility -they threaten us also. But what we are also threatened by is a series of still embryonic developments in the states where there is 'existing socialism'. From what point can an unhealthy need for security be transformed into the threat of war? What are the profits made by a state that owns an arms industry, even if they are made only through sales to developing countries?
Often the way in which the question of human rights is posed in reiation to peace seems very abstract. It occasionally sounds like a moral lesson. Thus, taken out of its context the peace question always appears to be more important than any other right, such as the right to travel for instance. But that seems to us to be a wrong way of posing the question. How direct a link is there between the right to refuse an order and whether or not peace is endangered or preserved? How important in the deferce of peace is the right to openly criticise militaristic tendencies?
In this sense certain paragraphs of the GDR penal code jeopardise the possibility of a peaceful exchange of ideas and information. In our country a 'rally' in front of an army base can be punished by the death penalty if the state judges such a demonstration a particularly important danger for its military strike force. To close our eyes to that state of affairs would be to refuse to face reality. How can we achieve real peace if we do not fully take into account the reality of the situation? The Soviet Union does not want a war, doubtless neither does the USA - but one country could initiate a war to forestall a supposed enemy attack.
It is difficult for us to keep the discussion on this question on an abstract level. We cannot talk about humanity without taking into account the individual human being and his/her possibilities of working for peace and achieving it in the society where he/she lives. For our part we come up against a credibility gap which exists in our country between the government's verbal declarations and its practice. In the GDR the importance of the military factor increases year by year. It is dangerous for peace.
In the city of Halle, Rochau, Funke and Kathrin Eigenfeld (activists of the GDR independent peace movement) are in prison for having written an article on the peace question. The information on which this article is based comes from official sources - it is not a state secret. Official secrecy covers a much bigger domain than in your country. In general, the Halle 3 only gave advice on the legal means of becoming 'Bausoldat' or of opting for an alternative to military service (1). Giving advice on how to use the law is already a crime in itself! It is called 'obstructing state measures. That is what we mean when we talk about threats to peace.
Let's take another example: the experimental measures aimed ai obliging women to join up for military service. In several towns in the GDR in the last few days they had to take "aptitude tests' after which they receive military cards. They are
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East and West, Europeans call for peace (DR) told they must already consider themselves to be army members. In the interests of peace we are against such measures and we counterpose our demand for the demilitarisation of civilian life. That is certainly an area where the GDR could and should proceed with unilateral disarmament without for all that leaving itself disarmed
We ask you to pay attention to what is happening here. Take a position on this — as we have taken a position against the American war threats. A real interests in what is happening in the East is perhaps more important that just protests. It is certainly necessary to make some effort to understand the situation here. It is just as useless to see things through anti-Communist spectacles as to adopt an attitude of reverential admiration if we want to go forward in our thinking. You should keep well away from one or the other position.
Various currents are involved in working for peace in our country: religious, socialists, liberal democrats, radicals. Poems, songs, plays, pictures, photos and political books have all played a big role in the movement in our country. Critical literature has particularly contributed to the emergence of the peace movement.
Excuse us for not signing this letter. We don't want to put ourselves forward as individuais but want to publicise ideas that, outside of ourselves, are popuiar in our country. Solidarity greetings, Friends of Peace in the GDR October 1983
The Bausoldaten' special service ('soldiers of construction') was established in 1964, under the pressure of young Christians who refused to carry arms. The GDR authorities consider that it is not a civilian ser vice to the extent that the conscripts - attached to construction projects remain soldiers in uniform, are subjected to the same military discipline as regular soldiers.
International Viewpoint 28 November 1983