Word: opens
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...trickle compared with the hemorrhage of 3 million East Germans to the West between 1949 and 1961. But this time there was the remarkable sight of Hungary bucking its Communist ally to assist the East German refugees in their quest to begin new lives in a capitalist nation. To open its borders, Budapest suspended key paragraphs of a 1969 bilateral treaty between Hungary and East Germany that forbids the unauthorized passage of citizens of either country into third countries. Budapest's bold maneuver provided the West with a vivid glimpse of fractures within the Warsaw Pact -- and raised unnerving questions...
...charging it with an "attempt to destabilize" East Germany. But the East German media also raged against Hungary, accusing it of "trading human lives for pieces of silver," a pointed suggestion that Hungary had swapped the refugees for hard West German currency. Two days after the border was thrown open, East Germany charged that Hungary was in "clear violation of legal treaties" and demanded that it stop letting the refugees through. Budapest angrily dismissed the charges and asserted that it was not willing to become a "refugee camp" for East Germany's problem. Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn rejected...
...decision to open the border came only after a tortuous debate within the Central Committee of the ruling Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. Hard- liners argued that existing agreements with other socialist states must be upheld, while reformers said it was more important to meet international obligations, among them the 1975 Helsinki agreements and the U.N. convention on refugees. Imre Pozsgay, the party's pre-eminent reformer, told TIME, "We took the step that embraced the higher of the principles involved, that of human rights...
...foot and bicycles, in German Wartburgs and Czech Skodas. Some drivers paused to put black tape over the first D and the R on their DDR vehicle-identification stickers, leaving a single D for Deutschland. "What a Monday!" cried an Austrian radio newscaster. "Boris Becker wins the U.S. Open, and lots of D.D.R. citizens win the Hungarian Open...
Hungary's open-door policy further fractures the Warsaw Pact. Meanwhile, back in Honecker land, there are feelings of frustration with an aging dictatorship. -- Are Russians the victims of discrimination in the Baltic states...