The unity of India was imperilled, he said, by a government which was " at
the mercy of the rightists and the charity of the leftists" and which held
power only by the magnanimity of the Congress leader, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, who
did not try to form a government. 
<p no=1>
He told the Prime Minister: " We have handed over to you a united country.
I hope you are not presiding over its liquidation." 
<p no=2>
However, the majority mood of the house yesterday was running strongly for
Mr V.P. Singh.   In an encouraging sign for his hopes of achieving an
early solution to the tangled and bloody problems of Punjab state, even
the small group of Akali Dal members supported the confidence motion. 
<p no=3>
The Akali Dal, or rather the faction of the much splintered Sikh movement
which swept the November poll in Punjab, was formerly in the forefront of
the campaign for a separate homeland.   But yesterday one of the group's
leading members, Mrs Rajender Kaur, stated firmly that Sikhs did not want
Khalistan, their own state.   Rather, they wanted justice and honour. 
<p no=4>
She accused the Congress government of treating the whole Sikh community
as extremists, and authorising untold atrocities.  Mr V.P. Singh said his
immediate priority was to deal with separatist and secessionist violence
in the Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir. 
<p no=5 segment_break>
The government has also drafted a set of measures to restrain the growth
of individual cash incomes so as to reduce demand for goods.   It also
intends to tax enterprises which increase wages by more than 3 per cent.
The Prime Minister told parliament that he was against freezing savings
accounts or monetary reform which would devalue the internal rouble and
cut the value of individuals' savings. 
<p no=6>
Mr Yeltsin has supported such reforms while trade unions have suggested
that all savings accounts above a certain level should be wiped out.
<p no=7>
Mr Ryzhkov also ruled out rationing of food and basic goods with other
products available on the free market, saying rationing was a return to
centralised administration, and contradicted the notion of reform. 
<p no=8>
"It would be difficult to introduce a rationing system but even more
difficult to get rid of it.   It would be a major step backwards with
great adverse effects," Mr Ryzhkov said.   However, his own plans rely on
strengthening the central system.   Mr Abalkin, outlined three possible
reform variants. 
<p no=9>
The first, "conservative" option proposes a gradual switch to market
principles over an unspecified number of years.   There would be price
freezes, limits on co-operatives, and controls to prevent producers from
cutting back on low-priced goods in favour of more profitable lines to
control inflation.   The consumer market would be saturated with goods.
Enterprise managers would be free to make their own deals with suppliers,
but there would be no change in the basic concept of state ownership of
industry. 
<p no=10 segment_break>
Transylvania clergy take the lead.   Calvinist pastors are an increasing
threat to Ceausescu's domination of the Romanian churches, Ian Traynor
writes. 
<p no=11>
The role of the church in helping to topple the Communist order in Poland
and East Germany, compounded by the fact that it was the fate of a
Protestant clergyman in Timisoara that triggered the unrest in Romania,
has raised the prospect of Romanian churches becoming a focus of political
resistance. 
<p no=12>
Observers are quick to point out that the main church, the Romanian
Orthodox, is well under the control of the secret service and constitutes
no threat to President Nicolae Ceausescu.   In the north-west, the seat of
the current crisis, the situation is different.   In Transylvania, the two
million strong Hungarian minority is served by the Catholic and Hungarian
Reformed Churches. 
<p no=13>
The pastor, Laszlo Tokes - reported by Human Rights workers to be in a
remote village in the Romanian district of Salaj - belongs to the latter,
Calvinist denomination.   He appears to be the standard bearer of a young,
more radical generation of clergymen in deep conflict with their elders
and increasingly assertive in their defence of religious, cultural and
ethnic rights. 
<p no=14>
The Hungarian Reformed Church in Transylvania has about 800,000 members,
slightly fewer than the Catholic community.   The 680 pastors that serve
the region are said to preach to well-attended churches on Sundays. 
<p no=15>
Mr Gyula Keszthelyi, the former editor of a Hungarian-language daily
newspaper in the main Transylvanian town of Cluj, who fled to Hungary last
year but remains in close contact with the region, says that there is now
a serious row raging between the local pastors and the church hierarchy. 
<p no=16>
"There is a grave conflict between the bishops and the local clergy
because the pastors are getting rebellious, particularly those of the
Tokes generation." 
<p no=17>
The two elderly Reformed Church bishops in Transylvania, Laszlo Papp in
Oradea and Gyula Nagy in Cluj, are widely viewed as being beholden to the
regime, giving them little authority with their congregations.   "The
bishops do what the Securitate Party tells them to do.   The pastors are
trying to defend the Hungarian identity," says Mr Keszthelyi.
<p no=18>
Pastor Istvan Szalatnay, a member of the Hungarian Reform Church General
Synod in Budapest, responsible for links with the Church's communities
outside Hungary, describes Bishop Papp as "the hand of the Ceausescu
regime and the secret police."
<p no=19>
In contrast, most local clergymen seek to serve their local communities
and defend them against Bucharest's policies of assimilation.
<p no=20>
"The great majority of the pastors try to live in their congregations," he
says.   But the scope for resistance is limited and the all pervasive
security network is said to extend to Sunday services where sermons are
monitored for hints of dissent.   "The pastors try to survive.   They see
no possibilities of widening the issues beyond their congregations."
<p no=21>
His General Synod colleague, Pastor Tamas Bertolan, goes further.   "The
church leadership implements the policies of the regime, while the pastors
are persecuted."
<p no=22>
But the grass roots is fighting back.   This month the clergy forced the
hierarchy to issue a letter requesting ethnic Hungarians to stay in
Transylvania and work for change rather than seeking to flee to Hungary.
It was the first time the church authorities had discussed the issue of
the refugees, some 25,000 of whom have entered Hungary from the south over
the past year.
<p no=23>
The grass roots also tabled a demand for 30 new pastors to be appointed
each year to take over vacant parishes.   At the moment half a dozen
vacant posts are filled a year.
<p no=24 segment_break>
According to Ms Li: "Most people are fairly cynical and fairly resigned
about the UK Government's attitude to Hong Kong.   People do n't have much
confidence, this is just one more nail in the coffin." 
<p no=25>
Mr James Tien, a member of the legislative council and a textile
manufacturer, said that as an employer he was already experiencing acute
shortages of skilled staff.   "We have a confidence problem.   In all
conscience, I ca n't tell my staff that everything's all right." 
<p no=26>
Mr Tien saw the package as damaging the colony's business prospects.   "As
an investor, I have to say that this environment does not allow me to put
more money into Hong Kong.   I do n't want to invest in anything where
every day I have to worry whether my managers are going to leave me." 
<p no=27>
What impact the British offer would have on the brain drain, which is
expected to push over 10 per cent of the population out of the colony
before China's 1997 takeover, was not clear. 
<p no=28>
Ms Li said: "I do n't know if it's possible to have less confidence in the
future than people already have, but I'm certain it will decrease
confidence in the British Government." 
<p no=29 segment_break>
East and West Germany have set in motion a big spy swap, as a sign of
rapidly improving relations, it was announced yesterday. 
<p no=30>
The exchange involves the handing over of 24 convicted West German agents
for four high calibre Communist spies held in West Germany. 
<p no=31>
They include two top secretaries formerly employed in Bonn ministries and
the Chancellory. 
<p no=32>
Mrs Margarete Hoeke, sentenced in August, 1987 to eight years in jail for
spying for the KGB, and Mrs Elke Falk, a ministerial secretary sentenced
to 6  1/2  years last May, both said they were forced into spying after
love affairs. 
<p no=33>
In advance of their exchange, they were pardoned yesterday by President
Richard von Weizsaecker. 
<p no=34>
Meanwhile, Chancellor Helmut Kohl yesterday described German longing for
unity as an historic fact and said those trying to ignore it were making a
" serious mistake". 
<p no=35 segment_break>
President Reagan spent an inordinate time in trying to destabilise the
Sandinistas by arming the contra rebels.   His venom against a country of
3 million people not only reinforced the Latin American image of the US as
a bully, it also led directly to the Iran-contra scandal, the most serious
political crisis of his administration. 
<p no=36>
The CIA-backed contra war was an inconsequential affair in world terms,
although it brought much destruction and suffering to the Nicaraguans
themselves.   That could not be said of the Cuban missile crisis which
could be seen as President Kennedy's determination to uphold the Monroe
doctrine. 
<p no=37>
Kennedy's insistence on keeping Soviet influence out of the Western
Hemisphere and miscalculations by both superpowers brought the world to
the brink of nuclear conflict in 1962.   Following Fidel Castro's seizure
of power, Kennedy failed to keep a gung-ho CIA in check, which proceeded
with its ill-conceived invasion plans of Cuba. 
<p no=38>
The episode ended in the Bay of Pigs disaster, with Cuban exiles pinned on
the beaches cursing the US for failing to provide air cover.   In order to
reassure Castro of Soviet support Khrushchev began sending nuclear
missiles to Cuba, triggering the October crisis. 
<p no=39 segment_break>
Even so, in countless places around Europe, people behave and think in ways
which are totally distinctive.  Stand in a French village when the Tour de
France goes by and you are participating in an event which is unambiguously
French.  Go to a provincial Italian opera house and you enter a
quintessentially Italian world where the relationship between performers and
audience is a private ritual.  Talk to a Hungarian reformer about the
political crisis and you will soon learn that he is literally obsessed with
the situation in Budapest.
<p no=40>
In every case, such encounters have their European dimension.  The Tour de
France is now broadcast daily into most European countries and you can find
6-year-old children in London who will argue the merits of Fignon versus
Lemond.  Opera, too, is beamed around the Continent like never before;
tonight's Verdi first night at La Scala is on radio and television channels
across Europe.  And persons of average political sensibility in many lands
eagerly study the transformations in Hungary and seek to draw lessons from the
changes.
<p no=41>
Yet in all these random examples, which are each dimensions of the new Europe,
it would n't occur to the participants for one second that they are being
European.  The British are not in any sense unique, though they may be an
extreme example, in their preoccupation with themselves and their own ways.
To expect Europe to become a single warm cultural bath is simply to mistake
the nature of the European, and indeed any other, identity.
<p no=42>
To be European in France is to think globally about a French-led political
Europe which will challenge the power of Japan and America.  But to be
European in Lithuania or Scotland is to assert your nationality and the wish
to get Moscow or London off your back.
<p no=43>
To be European in Italy is a logical extension of what is already assumed to
be one's natural multiple identity within a family, a city, a region and a
nation.  And to be European in southern England, is to make a political
statement against Thatcherism, philistinism, and English insularity.
<p no=44 segment_break>
The two elderly Reformed Church bishops in Transylvania, Laszlo Papp in
Oradea and Gyula Nagy in Cluj, are widely viewed as being beholden to the
regime, giving them little authority with their congregations.   "The
bishops do what the Securitate Party tells them to do.   The pastors are
trying to defend the Hungarian identity," says Mr Keszthelyi. 
<p no=45>
Pastor Istvan Szalatnay, a member of the Hungarian Reform Church General
Synod in Budapest, responsible for links with the Church's communities
outside Hungary, describes Bishop Papp as "the hand of the Ceausescu
regime and the secret police." 
<p no=46>
In contrast, most local clergymen seek to serve their local communities
and defend them against Bucharest's policies of assimilation. 
<p no=47>
"The great majority of the pastors try to live in their congregations," he
says.   But the scope for resistance is limited and the all pervasive
security network is said to extend to Sunday services where sermons are
monitored for hints of dissent.   "The pastors try to survive.   They see
no possibilities of widening the issues beyond their congregations." 
<p no=48>
His General Synod colleague, Pastor Tamas Bertolan, goes further.   "The
church leadership implements the policies of the regime, while the pastors
are persecuted." 
<p no=49 segment_break>
Rogue regimes show up the shortcomings of law.   Experts agree the US
breached international conventions.   But, John Cunningham argues, it is
not quite as simple as that. 
<p no=50>
Panama is the latest in a series of rogue regimes, the menacing state of
whose internal affairs has led to armed intervention by other countries -
and to an unresolved international tangle about the legality of such
action. 
<p no=51>
The chain has stretched from Uganda to Grenada and Nicaragua, since the
1970s. 
<p no=52>
Experts cite Romania as a possible future instance where human rights
violations could lead to a call for action from outside national
boundaries.  This strengthens the case for powers to be granted to the
United Nations to deal with such conflicts. 
<p no=53>
Gen Noreiga said last Friday that Panama considered itself at war with the
US so long as American aggression against Panamanians continued.   The
reaction of a Pentagon spokesman to the remark was first an incredulous
"What?" then laughter. 
<p no=54>
The implication was that Gen Noreiga's bravado could in no legal sense be
taken as a declaration of hostilities.   The mechanisms for registering
and resolving a conflict via the United Nations, which would apply in this
situation, had not been gone through by the general. 
<p no=55>
The thrust of the Bush justification for US action was the very real
danger to US personnel.   "I have no higher obligation than to safeguard
the lives of American citizens," he said on television. 
<p no=56>
The President gave lower ranking to ancillary reasons: safeguarding
democracy, combatting drug trafficking and protecting the integrity of the
Panama Canal Treaty. 
<p no=57>
To experts in international law and relations, the US action demonstrates
a breach by a major power of international conventions. 
<p no=58>
It also shows the shortcomings of international law in not providing a
mechanism for dealing with such situations. 
<p no=59 segment_break>
Dr Kohl was speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Dresden - his first
official trip to East Germany - which left him clearly pleased with his
reception and warm response to his striving for German unity. 
<p no=60>
But the enthusiasm of the 10,000 East Germans who cheered Dr Kohl and
pinned their hopes on him to bring the two Germanys together was in stark
contrast to official statements on the future from East Germany's
reform-minded leaders. 
<p no=61>
Mr Wolfgang Berghofer, the mayor of Dresden and deputy Communist Party
chairman, insisted after meeting Dr Kohl that East Germany would continue
as a sovereign state.   But he also said that, after the Chancellor's
Dresden meeting with the East German Prime Minister, Mr Hans Modrow, "
relations between the two German states will never be the same again". 
<p no=62>
A day after Britain and the Soviet Union cautioned against " hasty steps"
towards German reunification, Dr Kohl yesterday made a point of citing US
support for the desire for German unity. 
<p no=63>
He maintained President Bush totally agreed with his own viewpoint on
unification.   "President Bush understands the position of his friend
Helmut Kohl very well," the Chancellor said. 
<p no=64>
Asked whether the same applied to Mrs Thatcher, Dr Kohl replied: "She is a
democrat, she supports self-determination, but her ideas about a time
frame for German unity are different." 
<p no=65>
Dr Kohl said he understood fears over unification arising from Germany's
past.   But no one needed to be afraid of a future where 17 million
"dynamic" East Germans were united with 62 million West Germans. 
<p no=66 segment_break>
Delegates fear a split as minority hardline grouping displays bitterness.
Lithuanian Communists vote to be independent. 
<p no=67>
In an historic decision to break with Moscow, the Lithuanian Communist
Party voted yesterday to declare itself an independent party by more than
5 to 1, well above the two-thirds majority needed. 
<p no=68>
After the vote at the 20th party congress, delegates leapt to their feet
in rapturous applause and sang the Lithuanian national anthem.   A beaming
party leader, Mr Algirdas Brazauskas, went to the podium to declare the
party "rejuvenated and ready for new battles". 
<p no=69>
In the name of the Congress, Mr Algimantas Cekuolis, an influential member
of both the party and the nationalist movement, Sajudis, issued a clarion
call to young people to join the party now. 
<p no=70>
"We are a great force," he declared.   "There are over 200,000 of us but
we need more.  Let us not leave it to others to fight for our goals." 
<p no=71>
The decision is seen in Vilnius as the biggest step yet on the road to the
complete independence of Lithuania, although Mr Brazauskas was careful to
draw a distinction between party and state relations. 
<p no=72>
Only a fortnight ago, the Lithuanian parliament abandoned the
constitutional guarantee of the party's leading role in society, in favour
of a multi-party system.   In the new year, Lithuania, together with the
other two Baltic republics of Latvia and Estonia, will become economically
autonomous within the Soviet Union. 
<p no=73>
But there is a real possibility of a split within the Lithuanian party.
The minority which voted for a " sovereign party within a renewed Soviet
Communist party" arranged to meet last night to consider its position. 
<p no=74>
The vote for independence came after two days of acrimonious debate
between the Lithuanian majority and the Russian Polish minority, who were
joined by a handful of old-guard Lithuanian Communists. 
<p no=75>
The minority, which could muster only 160 votes against the majority's
855, displayed considerable bitterness towards what they said was pressure
on them to accept independence, and threats that they would lose their
jobs or worse. 
<p no=76 segment_break>
Europe was a "vocation" for Germans, and within a European framework
reunification would be acceptable. 
<p no=77>
"It is absurd to talk about a fourth Reich, because it is us Germans who
are today leading the way in ceding national sovereignty to European
institutions", he said. 
<p no=78>
East Germany's leaders will have the opportunity of discussing the future
of the two Germanys over the next two days with President Francois
Mitterrand of France, the first head of state of the Western wartime
Allies to pay an official visit to East Germany. 
<p no=79>
The French President, who arrived in East Berlin last night, will have
talks with Mr Modrow, the Communist Party chairman, Dr Gregor Gysi, and Mr
Manfred Gerlach, the acting head of state. 
<p no=80>
Mr Mitterrand, who will visit the southern city of Leipzig today, said on
television he was looking forward to his talks with East Germany's new
leaders after the extraordinary changes that had taken place in the
country. 
<p no=81>
"I hope for a rapprochement between our two countries, which know very
little about each other," he said. 
<p no=82 segment_break>
It's a cynical view, he admits, but if there are few casualties, people
will tolerate such action, without condoning it, even though " Americans
have a habit of being very clumsy, as in Grenada". 
<p no=83>
The thornier aspects continue to intrigue international legal experts. 
<p no=84>
Prof Wilkinson points out that the international community might not decry
unilateralist intervention provided that it approves of the outcome. 
<p no=85>
While intervention on the basis of protecting American lives might win
approval because it could be classified as a humanitarian act, President
Bush has apparently widened this to take in replacing one leader with
another. 
<p no=86>
"I do n't think what is happening in Panama can be compared to a raid to
rescue hostages," says Prof Gutteridge. 
<p no=87>
Nor does the drugs menace pose a sufficient threat to US security to
justify the US action, says Professor Wilkinson. 
<p no=88>
However, he feels that there are instances where regimes violating human
rights might justifiably be subjected to external action. 
<p no=89>
He sees it as a weakness of international law that no such machinery
exists, and argues that an internationally authorised force should be set
up by the UN Security Council to intervene in rogue states on various
continents.   
<p no=90 segment_break>
Parliament is united on what is wrong with the Soviet economy.   Growth
has been slowing; inflation is up.   The government has been spending
beyond its means, with a budget deficit last year of 120 billion roubles
(GBP120 billion at the official rate), or 10 per cent of GNP. 
<p no=91>
Some form of short-term stabilisation programme is needed to eliminate
shortages of goods, and soak up people's cash.   There is also agreement
that a switch to market incentives is necessary after that.   The argument
centres on what kind of stabilisation plan to introduce, the pace of
reforms, and whether the two programmes can be combined.   Can you deal
with inflation while bringing in the market, or should you deal with the
first problem first? 
<p no=92>
The government's solution relies on a sharp switch from long-term capital
investment and the defence sector towards food and consumer goods
production and improving social services. 
<p no=93>
Many construction projects are already being stopped.   Over the next two
to three years, between 89 and 90 per cent of national income will be
allocated for current consumption to cut the budget deficit to 92 billion
roubles this year, and 60 billion roubles in 1990. 
<p no=94 segment_break>
In the biggest American paratroop operation since the Allied attempt to
seize the Rhine bridges in 1944, the US Army dropped two battalions of
elite Rangers into Panama in an operation involving 24,000 troops, tanks,
warplanes and gunships. 
<p no=95>
Claiming a military success in toppling the regime, even while General
Manuel Antonio Noriega remained at large, the chairman of the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, said: "Noriega has been decapitated
from the dictatorship of this nation." 
<p no=96>
More reinforcements flew in yesterday morning from the 7th Infantry
Division in Fort Ord, California, to back up the earlier contingents from
the 82nd Airborne and the 5th Mechanised Infantry, who launched the
initial assaults. 
<p no=97>
The highlights of the operation were two night-time parachute assaults by
the Rangers, one on the International Airport, the other on the Rio Jara
base of the 7th company of the Panamanian Defence Forces. 
<p no=98>
The first casualty reports from the Pentagon said 11 US troops had been
killed in action, 39 had been wounded and one man was missing.   Briefing
reporters at the Pentagon yesterday morning, Gen Powell said he had " no
reliable information" on Panamanian military or civilian casualties. 
<p no=99>
Facing powerful political pressure in Washington for reductions in the
defence budget, the Pentagon was also keen to overcome the embarrassing
memories of the chaotic invasion of Grenada in 1983. 
<p no=100>
President Bush and Gen Powell insisted that the 12,000 extra troops
deployed in Panama over the past 48 hours would be withdrawn "as soon as
possible".   But as the shooting and the mopping-up continued yesterday,
the prospect of a protracted guerrilla operation began to loom over what
the Pentagon had hoped would be a splendid Christmas victory. 
<p no=101>
Four separate military task forces were deployed in the first major
military deployment of the Bush presidency, with the Pentagon keen to show
that if the traditional threat in central Europe was declining, it was
ready to project US power elsewhere in the globe. 
<p no=102>
But the clear intelligence failure which let Gen Noriega escape, to
organise what could prove to be a prolonged guerrilla resistance,
threatens to turn this latest military adventure into a political
embarrassment.
<p no=103>
After weeks of planning, the first phase of the military operation went
well.   The troops were delivered to their start lines with the
traditional logistical efficiency of the US armed forces.   They launched
their assaults with the equally traditional use of overwhelming firepower. 
<p no=104>
As convoys of military cargo planes flew into Howard Air Force base all
day on Tuesday, bringing the advance elements of the 82nd Airborne, there
was little real surprise.   The combat operations began just after 1am
local time, shortly after the new government was sworn in. 
<p no=105 segment_break>
A woman tractor driver, Ms G. Serzhantovich, said: "I consider that the
formation of an independent Lithuanian Communist Party will lead to its
annihilation.   But there is no opportunity to express an opinion other
than that of Sajudis." 
<p no=106>
They expressed fears of leaving the embrace of what they regarded as the
mother party.  "The proposed new independent status would mean a split in
the party," said the Vilnius district secretary, Mr Vladislav Shved,
speaking in Russian.   "Is it democratic to declare the Lithuanian party
independent without a referendum of party members?" Delegates rejected
proposals for a referendum. 
<p no=107>
But there was even greater bitterness among many Lithuanian nationalists,
who felt the Russians had never wanted to understand why the Lithuanians
felt resentment against years of oppression. 
<p no=108>
"I can well understand the feelings of the minority, but I can not
understand why they're offended," said Mr Sliudikas, another district
secretary in the capital.   "People had begun to look on the Lithuanian
party as the servile agent, even the secret agent, of the Soviet Communist
Party." 
<p no=109 segment_break>
Panama, as a sovereign state, can claim that any interference in its
domestic affairs by another country contravenes the UN charter, says Paul
Wilkinson, Professor of International Relations at St Andrew's University. 
<p no=110>
He points out that such a provision bans any invasion of sovereign
territory, air space and maritime zones, even where there might seem to be
good grounds. 
<p no=111>
"That's why human rights violations, even those by Idi Amin in Uganda,
have been such embarrassments, because you ca n't legally do anything
about them in international law," Prof Wilkinson says. 
<p no=112>
The public, at least, generally reconciles its conscience if such
interventions end cleanly, effectively and quickly, says another academic,
Professor William Gutteridge, executive director of research at the
Institute for Conflict. 
<p no=113 segment_break>
Oil prices surged yesterday amid market fears that the Panamanian crisis
could hit US crude supplies. 
<p no=114>
North Sea oil on the London spot market rocketed 30 cents a barrel before
settling back to $19.45 in late trading. 
<p no=115>
In New York, the spot price of West Texas Intermediate, the main crude
traded on Wall Street, rose 35 cents to nearly $22 a barrel. 
<p no=116>
About one quarter of production from the giant Alaskan oilfields is pumped
through the 81-mile TransPanama pipeline for shipment to the US Eastern
seaboard.   The oil mostly comes from British Petroleum and Exxon's
Alaskan fields together with a small quanity of Latin-American and Asian
crudes. 
<p no=117>
Only small quantities of oil are transported through the actual canal
because the shallow water depth bars the passage of large tankers.   The
pipeline operators, US Northville Industries, claimed yesterday that
production is being held at normal levels of around 300,000 barrels per
day. 
<p no=118 segment_break>
President Francois Mitterrand, the first head of state of the wartime
Allies to visit East Germany, said yesterday that the existence of two
sovereign German states could not be "abolished at a stroke". 
<p no=119>
Reflecting French anxiety over German reunification, Mr Mitterrand said
the two Germanys were jointly responsible for stability in Europe. 
<p no=120>
"German unity depends first of all on the German people... and France will
not be against it.   But Germany must be aware that it has to keep the
balance in Europe," Mr Mitterrand said following talks with Mr Hans
Modrow, the East German Prime Minister. 
<p no=121>
Earlier, he said on East German television that it would be "far from
good, even dangerous" if European borders were put into question. 
<p no=122>
After meeting Mr Modrow, Mr Mitterrand travelled to Leipzig in recognition
of its leading role in East Germany's peaceful revolution.   At the
Karl-Marx University, the oldest in East Germany, he held an animated and
good-humoured discussion with 450 students. 
<p no=123>
They were interested in learning about the opportunities for French
involvement in rebuilding the East German economy, but asked how Mr
Mitterrand felt about Germans, as a former prisoner of war. 
<p no=124>
Mr Mitterrand praised the people of Leipzig for "having written the
history of Europe and Germany in the last few weeks".   The speed of
change was such that it had become difficult to keep up with developments
of which perhaps "we have not yet seen the end".   But he appealed to the
students to contain their passion and to show a measure of reason.   "If
you want peace it is important to stay cool." 
<p no=125>
Later, he visited the church of St Nicolas, the starting point every
Monday evening for the demonstrations which have gripped Leipzig and
forced the pace of change.
<p no=126>
Mr Mitterrand also had talks with one of the key figures in the reform
movement, the conductor, Kurt Masur, who has urged East Germans to pause
and reflect before pursuing their revolution further. 
<p no=127>
In Berlin last night, Mr Mitterrand had what were described as wide
ranging talks with Dr Gregor Gysi, the new chairman of East Germany's
Communist Party. 
<p no=128>
Meanwhile, preparations were under way for the opening of two pedestrian
passages through the Wall, on either side of the Brandenburg Gate.   The
bulldozers were to start work overnight, according to East German police. 
<p no=129>
The neo-classical Triumphal Arch, erected in 1794, has been sealed off
since the Berlin Wall was built in August, 1961.
<p no=130>
The formal reopening will be attended today by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and
Mr Modrow as well as by the mayors of East and West Berlin.   The two
German leaders agreed on the Christmas re-opening in Dresden earlier this
week. 
<p no=131 segment_break>
When the National Front leader, Mr Vishwanath Pratap Singh, was invited to
form a government on December 1, he was told by President Ramaswamy
Venkataraman to secure a vote of confidence within 30 days.   Some
observers then thought he might not even survive that long.
<p no=132>
But in the event, the government's early performance has delighted even
its own supporters.
<p no=133>
The Congress Party, the biggest single group in the house, but now in
opposition for only the second time since independence in 1947, had no
option but to sit in silence when the voice-vote was called.   A single,
unidentified, MP called out a no vote.
<p no=134>
The effortless victory followed an occasionally rowdy five-hour debate in
which Congress speakers taunted the new government for its dependence on
other parties, and for alleged inability to spell out its policies.
<p no=135>
Mr A.R. Antulay, a senior Congress member, described the administration of
the Prime Minister, Mr Vishwanath Pratap Singh, as "two headed and three
legged".   It had not been able to clarify its position on vital issues
such as Punjab violence and communalism.
