Kohl Criticizes Opponents of Reunification

Chancellor Helmut Kohl today criticized people who say there is little chance the two Germanys will reunite, an apparent response to Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s comments on the subject.

“He who does not want to make decisions for our people should not try to persuade them the best thing is a division of our fatherland,” Kohl said in his first speech to Parliament regarding East Germany’s historic border openings.

Reunification has become an increasingly important topic following the growing unrest in Communist East Germany that led to the new government of President Egon Krenz and the decision to open the nation’s borders.

The Soviet president on Wednesday said talk about reunification “would mean interference in the affairs” of East Germany and West Germany.

But Kohl, who did not mention Gorbachev, said East Germans “must be able to decide for themselves, which path they want to follow in the future.”

Kohl said West Germany would “respect every decision made by the people of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in free self-determination.”

The chancellor claimed socialism is a “total failure.” A day earlier, Gorbachev insisted the Communist revolution “was not a mistake.”