Word: orderers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Monday, Oct. 16 ((when more demonstrations were expected)), I went to Leipzig, together with people who were responsible for security. We drew up instructions that 1) any kind of violent confrontation must be avoided, 2) in no case should firearms be used, and this was summed up in an order by the chairman of the National Defense Committee. I then went to the room in which we are now sitting and presented the order to Honecker. I insisted on his signing it, which...
...there is one more thing, which I have not yet said in public. I told my political friends in Leipzig, no matter what the final order looks like, even if it should be a different order, you will refuse to use firearms. Today I'm glad we acted this way because it enabled us to protect the peaceful revolution in our country...
...told them in effect that if there was any order to shoot, they should ignore...
...reaction in East Germany, another audience whose interests Kohl undoubtedly weighed, was more mixed. The parliament in East Berlin fulfilled one of Kohl's prerequisites -- for its own purposes, to be sure, not in order to please Kohl -- by eliminating the Communist Party's monopoly of power. But East German leader Egon Krenz told TIME that "so long as both states remain in their political and military alliances, a confederation of the two states is simply not possible." Several of the country's new opposition parties also weighed in against the Kohl scheme because of their desire to maintain some...
...succeeded Erich Honecker reveals to TIME that he told officials to disobey any order to shoot demonstrators in Leipzig. He invites "all political forces" to shape a consensus that will serve his country's majority. But he insists that present borders must be respected and takes a dim view of German reunification...