E. Germany’s Honecker Faces New Probe by Party

The East German Communist Party has opened a disciplinary investigation against former leader Erich Honecker, who was forced out last month, state-run television reported Thursday.

At the same time, Guenter Mittag, a former top economic adviser to Honecker and a former Politburo member, was expelled from the party, state television said in a brief announcement. Mittag, 63, had been responsible for handling the East German economy since 1976.

The report did not give any details of the Honecker investigation, which could result in his expulsion from the party. It is being conducted by the Central Control Commission, the party’s main disciplinary body.

But Honecker, whose health has been poor since a gallbladder operation earlier this year, has been deemed too ill to face questioning in the proceedings, the official news agency ADN reported.

A separate probe already is being conducted into charges of corruption against Honecker, 77, and some of his advisers.

Meanwhile, the East German government on Thursday announced a series of measures designed to prop up the economy by cracking down on those smuggling food and consumer goods across the border to the West.

Government spokesman Wolfgang Meyer reported that a Cabinet meeting adopted the measure to stop East Germans and foreigners from taking advantage of cheap, subsidized goods in the Communist state.

At the same time, one of the smaller East German parties allied with the Communists, the National Democrats, said the Communist regime should consider joining a “confederation” with West Germany.

The National Democrats’ newspaper, the National Zeitung, editorialized: “With a confederation of two sovereign German states, a genuine zone of peace could be created in Central Europe. It would be the beginning of a real, cooperative coexistence. West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher has floated the idea of a confederation as an alternative to reunification, which is Bonn’s official policy, though opposed by East Germany, the Soviet Union and others.”

It declared: “A confederation could be a goal of the foreign and domestic policy of the GDR (East Germany) and the Federal Republic (West Germany). The opportunity is now at hand.”

In addressing the crackdown on currency violations, the new government said it will introduce tight customs controls. These are designed to stop people from buying cheap, subsidized goods in East Germany, taking them into West Germany and selling them at a considerable profit.

Spokesman Meyer said the purchases of sausages and spices, shoes, industrial products and other specified goods will be limited to East Germans and foreigners employed in the country. Meyer said antiques will be on the control list and customs officials will set up more stringent inspections at border points.

The crackdown will particularly apply to Poles, who have shuttled among Poland, East Germany and West Berlin, taking advantage of the currency differential to sell Polish goods in Germany and vice versa.

More than 11 million of East Germany’s 16.6 million citizens have applied for travel visas, Meyer said, adding, “Every citizen will have the right to travel abroad at any time and to have a passport.”

In another move, the government allowed publication of Stefan Heym’s novel, “Five Days in June,” a fictionalized account of the abortive workers’ uprising in 1953. The book reveals the corruption in the Communist regime that prompted workers to strike and demonstrate--moves that were harshly quelled.

Heym finished the book in 1959, and a smuggled version was published in West Germany in 1974. Heym remained in East Germany, criticizing the government but supporting a socialist state and condemning the free-enterprise societies of the West.