East German Official Rejects Reform to Curb Exodus

A senior East German official Wednesday ruled out any economic or political reforms that the West German government contends could halt the flow of refugees from the Communist state.

The statement by Kurt Tiedke in the Communist Party newspaper, Neues Deutschland, came amid reports circulating in Bonn that 77-year-old East German leader Erich Honecker is critically ill.

Tiedke, 65, a member of the party Central Committee and head of its Karl Marx College, criticized changes in other Communist countries, notably the Soviet Union, Poland and Hungary, although he did not single them out by name.

“Why should we be in favor of a ‘socialism’ that adopts the basic evils of capitalism?” he asked rhetorically in the party newspaper. “Surely ‘new thinking’ cannot mean copying bourgeois policies or cribbing from Social Democratic programs which nowhere lead to socialism.

“There will never be a return to the capitalist society of injustice,” Tiedke added. “There is nothing--repeat, nothing--that persuades us to correct our course.”

The remarks seem to challenge statements by various West German officials, including Chancellor Helmut Kohl, that East Germany could best solve its refugee crisis by liberalizing economic and political life in the country.

Tiedke declared that there is no alternative to the hard-line policies set by Honecker, and he underscored a recent declaration by party ideologist Otto Reinhold that Marxist state socialism is the only reason for East Germany’s separate existence from West Germany.

In Bonn, the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies quoted West German intelligence sources as reporting that surgeons who treated Honecker this month were unable to operate on his gall bladder because of its condition. No further details were given.

However, the East German Foreign Ministry, when asked about the report, insisted that Honecker is recovering from surgery.

The official East German news agency ADN reported Aug. 21 that Honecker had been operated on for a gallstone condition the previous week.

Diplomats will be watching to see if Honecker makes a scheduled appearance at a parliamentary session Friday marking the 50th anniversary of the start of World War II.

Honecker, a Communist hard-liner, has led East Germany as party chieftain and head of state since 1971. He has no apparent successor.

Meanwhile, the Bonn government said it is preparing emergency accommodations to handle additional refugees--in case Hungary decides to allow East Germans, who are vacationing there and wish to flee, to leave the country.