'Glasnost' meets the Wall:

...The fact that thousands of East Germans have attended "intercession services" which were addressed by high-ranking church officials on behalf of the detained activists indicates that the church may be willing to play this role...

...Others -including Krawczyk and the members of the Peace and Human Rights Initiative - never made it to the demonstration, but were arrested en route or placed under house arrest...

...By the end of the first week of February, Klier, Krawczyk, and Hirsch were forced to sign emigration papers and leave for West Germany...

...It remains to be .seen, however, whether they will be permitted to return to East Germany and whether opposition will continue - or even flourish -in the wake of their expulsions...

...The appearance of Grenzfall, which is independent of both the state and church, was a significant development in the growth of independent activity in East Germany...

...Despite constant harassment the movement has persevered...

...they were subject to short-term detentions, house searches, periods of house arrest, and obvious surveillance...

...OF SEVERAL MINDS John GarveyDS John Garvey...

...Until two months ago, the government was intent on not creating martyrs, or causes celebres, by imprisoning human rights activists...

...Given the stature of the Protestant church in East Germany, and its traditional reluctance to take on the government, a strong stand in defense of human rights activism could force the government to ease its restrictions of independent activity and permit the activists to return, just as church pressure undoubtedly contributed to the government's retreat after the November raid...

...Based on past experience, the East German authorities are not necessarily to be trusted...

...Perhaps realizing that they had stumbled on an occasion to rid themselves once and for all of the troublesome dissidents, the authorities proceeded to expel more than fifty detainees to West Germany, and arrested most of the leading human rights activists...

...That East Germany resorted to charging these people with treason and subsequently expelling them attests to the recent effectiveness of independent activity and to the discomfort that the authorities in the region feel with the changes blowing in from Moscow...

...Instead, the government relied on financial and personal harassment to deter independent activists: they would lose their jobs, their children would be harassed, threats would come in the mail...

...During an official march on January 17 commemorating the murders sixty-nine years ago of the German Communist revolutionaries Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, some 120 unofficial demonstrators who tried to participate were rounded up by police...

...There is reason to...

...Though the seven activists charged with treason had stated repeatedly that they did not want to leave their country, the East German government left them with little choice: if they refused to leave, they would be imprisoned for treason...

...JANET FLEISCHMAN Janet Fleischman is program coordinator of Helsinki Watch, a New York-based human rights organization...

...Even more untenable, however, would be the situation the government would face if it attempts to squash the groundswell of support for independent activity that has emerged in East Germany...

...This surge of activism could enhance immeasurably the chances for reform in East Germany...

...The East German government has changed its tactics on dealing with opposition activity...

...Grenzfall, which first appeared in June 1986, ^s produced by the Peace and Human Rights Initiative and is intended to be a monthly bulletin on peace, ecology, human rights, and independent activities in East Germany...

...As developments evolve over the next few months, two factors could be decisive: the reaction of the Protestant church hierarchy and the impact of international attention...

...the Templins were given two-year passports;Bohley and Fischer were given six-month passports...

...This victory inspired understandable euphoria among independent activists in East Germany...

...By attempting to eliminate the peace and human rights community, the government may have fueled the determination of others to continue their work...

...On January 25, investigations for treason began against leading independent activists in East Berlin - Barbel Bohley, Werner Fischer, Ralph Hirsch, Freya Klier, Stephan Krawczyk, and Wolfgang and Regina Templin - people whose "crime" involved monitoring human rights conditions and trying to promote world peace...

...all the detainees were released and the materials that had been confiscated were supposed to be returned...

...And yet, a mere two months later, the government took its revenge...

...believe that the raid on the environmental library was directed at Grenzfall and the Peace and Human Rights Initiative...

...there have been instances when the government revoked the citizenship of individuals carrying temporary passports, notably the case of the activist songwriter Wolf Biermann in 1976...

...The relatively small group known as activists, most associated with the Peace and Human Rights Initiative (Freya Klier is a dissident theater producer...

...If the church's stand is combined with strong international pressure, emanating from proponents of glasnost in the East as well as from human rights advocates in the West, the East German government would be faced with a potentially untenable situation...

...The outcry from the Protestant church and from the international community helped to force the authorities to back down...

...Those who received passports theoretically should be permitted to return to East Germany, and Bohley and Fischer intend to do so on August 6. That date will be a crucial test for the East German government to see whether it can be taken at its word...

...Faced with the threat of long-term imprisonment or departure to the West, the activists were all forced to leave their country by early February...

...By arresting them on a charge as serious as treason, the East German government openly defied the trend toward liberalization in the Soviet Union - a trend that could alter irrevocably the East German regime's control over society...

...All this Has taken a heavy toll, and has led many activists to seek emigration to West Germany...

...Krawczyk, her husband, is a singer/songwriter who has been banned from performing in East Germany), has worked to bring these issues, in addition to environmental protection, to the attention of the East German public...

...The environmental library was used as a meeting place for unofficial peace, environmental, and human rights work, and two samiz-dat journals, Environmental Page and Grenzfall, were produced there...

...GLASNOST' MEETS THE WALL THE LONG WAY TO REFORM The East German government has launched an undeclared war on opposition activity and, perhaps, on Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glas-nost...

...On November 26, security police raided the church premises - the first time in decades that security police searched a church-and the action sparked significant protests in several East German cities: some activists were detained for protesting the raid, and hundreds\participated in vigils on behalf of those being held...

...The government, uncharacteristically humbled, even agreed to begin a dialogue with church officials over the future of the environmental library...

...The strength of the movement, and the turning point in the government's tactics, was clearly demonstrated in late November 1987, after a crackdown on an "environmental library" in the basement of an East Berlin church...