Page 42 - Bulletin, Vol.79 No.1, February 2020

Government of East Germany, one of the harshest in the world) to drop the module
Marxism-Leninism from this United Nations sponsored course! This was no easy
achievement, after which the secret police of East Germany, the Stasi, promptly opened
a file on me following and recording all my movements and utterances at each
subsequent visit (I was to hear later!). In the early eighties at home in Mauritius
especially after two years as President of Action Civique, I was also followed by the
local Stasi equivalent (the NIU) but that was a much more benign affair, a reflection on
the humanism of our successive Prime Ministers, starting from SSR.

From 1986 to 89, at every visit to Berlin I perceived a slow but perceptible series of
changes in East German society. Winners of over 100 gold and silver medals at the
Olympics but at what cost: parents dreaded that their sons and daughters reveal
sporting talent-which would result at the child being immediately removed from the
family for special training.

In 1989 in Berlin, one evening one of my official guides took me for a walk in the garden
(away from microphones of the Stasi!) and confessed that she had been all along the
Stasi appointed person to keep a close watch on me, lest I came up with more reform
proposals (which in fact I did). Late night meetings were taking place particularly in
Churches (which unlike in USSR, had not been turned into museums) to discuss the
future or plan escapes to the West. As a foreign UN official I was a good source of
information and at times of advice, though being careful to keep the professional
neutrality, so dear and important to the United Nations. In March 1989, I gave a long
interview to an East German paper ( Neue Zeit published in German) about the need for
precise statistics about air, land and water quality in the German Democratic Republic,
democratic only in name of course! The official figures gave these as being very clean,
whereas in reality the city water was so polluted with heavy metals and organics that it
was not safe to drink, and bottled water was distributed to all citizens! This type of
article would have been unthinkable just three years earlier but it was helped by
Gorbachev’s bold Glasnost (transparency) policy.

On a cold November evening some of my German colleagues Kathrin, Sabena and
others said they were going to the Unter den Linden, the broad avenue leading to the
Brandenburg Gate; something was brewing. Would I wish to come? I changed my
suit and tie for a black leather blouson and a thick scarf (it was a cold night as often is in
Berlin). Hundred thousand people were milling around in tense expectancy, but true to
the German character and especially in East Germany, there was no chaos. In relative
order people approached the wall at different locations. The crowd was composed of
Germans from all age groups and all professions, with, I recall, the notable absence of
the older state officials and as far as I could tell no foreigners (except me!) and no
onlookers. There was a sense of commitment in the air. The armed green-uniformed
guards did not know what to do; they could not shoot at such a crowd. Apparently the
crumbling regime had not, for once, issued orders as to what to do. So gradually the
guards laid down their arms, some I remember distinctly removed their uniforms, so the
no man’s land surrounding the Berlin Wall was free of access. Using a variety of tools,
the crowd began to BREAK THE WALL. I felt suddenly that I was Citizen Michael, not

38 AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 79 No. 1, 2020-02