Kohl Chides E. German Chief on Rights Abuses : Chancellor Lectures Visiting Honecker, Who Makes Plea for 2 Nations ‘to Live in Peace’

East German leader Erich Honecker arrived in West Germany on Monday with a plea for the two Germanys to “live in peace,” while his host, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, lectured him on the need for improving human rights in the visitor’s Communist homeland.

The white-haired, 75-year-old Honecker, making a historic first visit by an East German head of government, declared on his arrival, “My most important aim will be to see how both German states can actively work to fulfill their obligation and ensure that war never again emanates from German soil, but only peace.”

Kohl greeted Honecker at the chancellery as bands played the national anthems of both countries. Nearly identical red, gold and black national flags flew overhead.

Security Is Tight

Heavy security forces were in evidence as Honecker’s limousine arrived from the airport. He had flown to Bonn from East Berlin in a Soviet-built Ilyushin 62M jetliner operated by Interflug, the East German airline.

Outside the chancellery, a group of youths who said they were members of Kohl’s Christian Democratic Party held banners bearing the words “Germany, United Fatherland.” The phrase is from a line in the East German anthem that was banned after the East Germans scrapped plans for reunification in the 1950s.

In Bonn’s central Cathedral Square, a score of Roman Catholic demonstrators erected a symbolic replica of the Berlin Wall, which was built under Honecker’s supervision in 1961 to keep East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin.

Kohl, in his welcoming remarks, emphasized that the two German states could cooperate, but he urged that improvements be made in the way East Germany observes human rights. In particular, West Germany would like to see the East Germans rescind their order to border guards to shoot anyone trying to escape. A total of 188 people trying to flee to the West have been killed by East German border guards since the wall went up.

‘Violence Not Acceptable’

According to Kohl’s spokesman, Friedhelm Ost, Kohl told Honecker, “The use of violence or the threat of violence along the border is not acceptable.” Ost said Kohl also told Honecker that West Germany continues to strive for reunification by peaceful means.

After the meeting with Kohl, Honecker lunched with West German President Richard von Weizsaecker, who declared that Germans in East and West belong to the same country, despite the separation after World War II.

“We belong to one nation, which did not disappear in the ruins of World War II or with Hitler,” Von Weizsaecker said. “Our continent is divided but we are united in spirit.”

At a banquet Monday evening, Kohl returned to the issue of human rights in East Germany while Honecker sat motionless at his side and stared straight ahead.

“We want peace in Germany, and this means that weapons must be silenced along the frontier,” Kohl said in a dinner speech. “Violence that hits innocent people hurts peace.”

He charged that the Berlin Wall “repels” Germans, adding, “In dismantling (that which) divides people, we would heed the demands from Germans, demands that cannot be ignored.” Honecker, in his dinner speech, chose to ignore the remarks. Instead, he struck the familiar East German theme of the separation of the two Germanys into two distinct, sovereign states that ruled out any prospect for reunification. Referring to the two nations’ different political systems, Honecker declared, “Socialism and capitalism are like fire and water.”

Earlier, Honecker said, “It is dangerous and senseless to mourn the German Reich that perished so shamefully,” a reference to the division of Germany after the Nazi collapse.

Kohl, under pressure from conservative supporters, has described Honecker’s trip as a “working visit” rather than a state visit. Only seven motorcycle police escorts were assigned to Honecker’s limousine, rather than the usual 15 for visiting heads of state.

Honecker, who has ruled East Germany as head of the Social Unity (Communist) Party since 1971 and as head of the government since 1976 as chairman of the council of state, is expected to sign agreements today with the Kohl government in the fields of nuclear safety, environmental control and scientific exchanges.

On Wednesday, he will tour the Ruhr industrial area, and on Thursday he will visit his hometown, the village of Wiebelskirchen, now incorporated into the larger community of Neunkirchen, in the Saarland near the French border.

On Friday, Honecker will fly to Bavaria, where right-wing Bavarian Premier Franz Josef Strauss will be his host and push the sale of Bavarian products.

On the first day of Honecker’s visit, the East German city of Potsdam suggested becoming a sister city with Bonn. Eleven such arrangements have been made between cities in East and West Germany.