E. Germany Investigating Honecker for 200 Deaths

Former East German communist leader Erich Honecker is under investigation in the deaths of about 200 people who tried to flee his iron rule, a spokesman for the state prosecutor’s office said Friday.

The spokesman said the ailing 77-year-old Honecker was questioned Friday in connection with the shootings. He said because Honecker formerly was chairman of the East German Defense Council, he may be considered responsible for the deaths.

In addition to the dead, several hundred people were injured while trying to flee East Germany before Honecker’s ouster last fall and the Nov. 9 opening of the Berlin Wall.

Among those killed, 77 were shot when trying to escape through the Berlin Wall, built 29 years ago by Soviet-backed East German troops.

Honecker was among the top officials who secretly planned the Aug. 13, 1961, erection of the wall that divided Berlin.

Later, he reportedly gave the order to shoot to kill anyone seeking to flee to West Germany.

The spokesman said Honecker’s former chief of security, Erich Mielke, 82, was also questioned about the killings along the inner-German border.

Honecker faces trial for corruption and abuse of office, but is considered too ill to be brought to court.

In recent months there has also been pressure to charge the former Stalinist leader with supporting terrorist organizations. He reputedly knew in advance of several attacks in West Germany by left-wing extremists.

Honecker now lives with his wife, Margot, in a 1 1/2-room apartment in a Soviet military hospital outside Berlin. He reportedly suffers from cancer.

A West German newspaper claimed Thursday that Honecker had sought permission to emigrate to Chile but that the East German authorities turned down the request after personal intervention by West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.