Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990 TAG: 9003091733
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: BONN, WEST GERMANY LENGTH: Medium
At the same time, Chancellor Helmut Kohl defended his controversial position that Poland should renounce any claim for World War II reparations from a unified Germany.
And later in the day, in Brussels, Belgium, Kohl assured fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that a united Germany would remain in NATO.
"German unity," Kohl said in Brussels, "is conceivable only under a European roof that includes NATO."
Kohl's visit to NATO headquarters was seen as an attempt to soothe ruffled feelings among allies who have complained that he may be moving too rapidly toward German reunification and without adequate consultation.
He said he wanted the reunification process to "proceed at a reasonable pace, not in a rush."
On the question of the Polish border, the Bundestag, the lower house of West Germany's Parliament, adopted a resolution intended to clarify the German position. It calls on the West German Parliament and the East German legislature, which is scheduled to be elected March 18, to adopt the following statement:
"The Polish people are assured that their right to live in secure borders will not be questioned by us Germans through territorial claims, either now or in the future."
The resolution also calls for united Germany and Poland to enter into a treaty that would settle the matter formally.
Poland's frontiers were altered substantially at the end of World War II. Parts of West Germany, in Pomerania, Silesia and East Prussia, were ceded to Poland to compensate for Polish territory annexed to the Soviet Union.
In Washington Thursday, the White House described that as a positive and important step.
But Polish President Wojciech Jaruzelski described it as only a "quarter-step forward" and accused West Germany of stoking anxiety by persistently dodging the issue.
by CNB