1988. február (17-31. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2
®ffll 24/D Little RuíscI! Street, LONDON, W-C.i -TeLOl-W z< ze ■ G. Krassé 20/1988 (E) 4-th February, 1988 Letter of Protest to the GDR’s Council of State Signed By 259 In this common letttér sent to the Germán Democratic Republic’s Council of State 259 citizens from five countries - 23 Czechs, 75 Yugoslavs, 78 Hungarians, 79 Poles and 4 Soviet citizens - demand the release of the East Germán humán rights activists who have been arrested and imprisoned and a halt to the forced emigration of dissid- ents. The letter, dated today, is as follows: To the GDR*s Council of State We, the democratic-minded citizens of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia undersigned, were shocked to hear of the imprisonment of five Germán Democratic Republic citizens and of other retaliatory measures. The activists in the civil iniative group struggling fór peace and humán rights, Bárbei Bohley a painter, Ralf Hirsch, Wemer Fischer and Lőtte and Wolfgang Templin (who have two children aged 3 and 13) are accused of treason by the GDR’s state security organs and are thus threatened with the longest term of imprisonment possible. They have committed no other crime than exercising their right to dissent and airing their views without the authorities’ consent. They are currently in prison because they spoke out against the suppression of democratic freedom and police violence. By arresting them the state and Party leadership of the GDR has contra- vened the Helsinki Accord, vhich the GDR has alsó signed. We demand that all five activists are released immediately and that the criminal proceedings against them are dropped. We demand the release of Vera Wollenberger, Andreas Kaik, Till Böttcher and all the other GDR citizens who have been sentenced to year-long terms of imprisonment fór taking part, or trying to do so, in a protest on January 17th 1988. We demand that the GDR authorities cease their practice of forcing East Germán citizens to emigrate to the West by threatening long terms of imprisonment and persecution. We demand that the GDR respects the right of free speech and free press. We are in solidarity with all those who due to their democratic convictions suffer persecution in your country. Prague, Bmo, Bratislava, Budapest, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Cracow, Gdansk, Poznan and many other Polish towns, Moscow, Belgrade, Ljubljana, Zagreb and seven other Yugoslav towns. Ath February 1988. 259 signatures The common letter sent to the GDR’s Council of State was published in London by the East-European Cultural Foundation. qr __________.______:____________________________________i
