East Germans Resentful of Soviet Troops : Occupation: Tension is reported increasing. Residents are tired of military maneuvers.

East Germany’s defense minister said Thursday that tension is rising between impoverished Soviet troops based in the country and increasingly resentful local people.

Never much loved by ordinary East Germans, Soviet troops now face the unrestrained resentment of people fed up with decades of noisy exercises, troop movements and low-flying military aircraft.

Disarmament and Defense Minister Rainer Eppelmann told a televised session of Parliament that there has already been one violent incident in which East Germans threw bottles and stones at Soviet troops during a demonstration outside an air base.

“We are facing a very big problem of great political dimensions,” he said.

There have been other protests outside bases belonging to the Western Group of Soviet Forces, as the contingent of 360,000 to 380,000 soldiers stationed here is officially called.

Referring to the rally at the air base, Eppelmann said: “It came to violence from our side. East Germans threw bottles and stones at Soviet soldiers.”

The minister said Soviet officers disarmed their troops to prevent them from retaliating.

“We have Soviet officers to thank that there was no retaliation,” said Eppelmann, a Protestant pastor.

Soviet soldiers are under increasing psychological and financial strain. With the inner-German border erased and the two states’ economies merged, the Soviet bases have become Communist islands in a sea of capitalism.

Troops are being given a monthly allowance of West German marks, now legal tender in the East, but it is a fraction of average East German wages and scarcely enough to buy a beer and sausage once a week if they are allowed off base.

Eppelmann said that even if Moscow immediately agreed to withdraw troops and their families, an estimated total of more than 500,000 people, it would take years to complete the move.

“Even if trains were leaving night and day, the process would take four years, according to conservative estimates. There are others who say it could take five to six years.”

Patience would be needed to avoid tension boiling over during the transition period. “It would be very bad for relations between the two states and for all of Europe if a new center of conflict was to develop,” he said.

The Soviet presence in East Germany stems from World War II and is likely to be phased out or greatly reduced after Germany’s political unification.

Talks among the two Germanys, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and the United States are covering the future of Soviet troops as well as the united country’s military status. Moscow has so far resisted Western demands that Germany should be a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Eppelmann said East Germany’s armed forces, once the Warsaw Pact’s best front-line army, are down to 98,000 uniformed men from a Communist-era strength of 175,000.