The World - News from Jan. 16, 1989

East German police detained 80 protesters in Leipzig after several hundred people tried to march through the city to demand freedom of expression and assembly, Protestant church sources said. Demonstrators who reportedly had gathered outside the city’s Old Town Hall for the march ignored calls to disperse, and police moved in, detaining 80. Witnesses reported use of force by police but gave no details. The marchers apparently had planned to call for the release of 11 human rights and peace activists. Leaflets announcing the demonstration, and calling for freedom of assembly and expression and a free press, were found last week in Leipzig, East Germany’s second-largest city.