Kohl’s Opponents to Seek Removal of U.S. Missiles

Johannes Rau, the opposition Social Democratic Party’s candidate for West German chancellor, pledged Tuesday to seek the removal of U.S. nuclear missiles from West Germany and a phase-out of its nuclear power plants if his party wins next January’s federal parliamentary election.

He also said that a Social Democratic government would take West Germany out of an agreement with Washington on its “Star Wars” anti-missile research program and would work to establish a nuclear- and chemical weapons-free zone in Europe.

The candidate said he would cancel the agreement with the United States on participation by West German companies in “Star Wars” research.

That would not prevent West German companies from working on the space defense system, but the “memorandum of understanding” signed last March encourages them to take part by stipulating that the technology developed would be shared among participants.

The aerospace firm Messerschmidt-Boelkow-Bloehm of Munich is the only West German company to have signed a contract so far.

Vote of Approval

After Rau’s speech, the party voted 425-1 with three abstentions to approve his nomination by party leaders to make him the standardbearer in the Jan. 25 elections. The decision at a party congress here pits Rau, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany’s largest state, against conservative Chancellor Helmut Kohl, a staunch U.S. ally.

Kohl supports “Star Wars,” formally named the Strategic Defense Initiative. He also began deployment of 204 U.S.-built Pershing 2 and cruise missiles for North Atlantic Treaty Organization three years ago despite polls indicating at least two-thirds of the West Germans opposed it.

Kohl has charged that Rau’s party is anti-American. The Social Democrat leader voiced a firm denial in his speech Tuesday.

“I can say, without any touch of hypocrisy: I am a friend of America’s,” Rau said. “But friendship means equal rights.”

But in opposing the U.S. missile deployments, Rau said, ‘There are more weapons of mass destruction deployed here than in any other country in the world. They must be reduced.”

Pershing, Cruise Missiles

Rau demanded removal of the 108 nuclear-armed Pershing 2s already stationed in West Germany and cancellation of plans to install 96 cruise missiles.

He urged the Soviets to reduce their arsenal of SS-20 nuclear missiles to its 1979 level and dismantle those stationed in East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

He promised that the party would move to shut down all nuclear power stations within 10 years and stop plans for West Germany’s first fast-breeder reactor at Kalkar and the reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf.

“Our goal is the phased closure of all nuclear power plants,” he said, arguing that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union in April had shown the need to start now to move away from atomic energy.