WORLD : Krenz to Ease Curbs on Travel
New head of state Egon Krenz told a news conference today he will let East Germans travel abroad more freely but made clear the Berlin Wall, a scar on the city for nearly three decades, will not come down.
Under a more liberal law proposed by the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo, passports and exit visas will be available for travel to any other country. It drops current requirements that family members remain behind as insurance that travelers will return home.
A Western reporter asked whether easier travel to the West would make the Berlin Wall obsolete. Krenz replied: “The wall has a very different meaning than what is implied in your question.”
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