CONFIDENTIAL
GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
Report by Western European Department
Right No.
(i) The "catch-all" nature of GDR laws and their interpretation make such cases rare. The number of political prisoners, sentenced mainly for attempted escape, is estimated to have fallen from 12,000 in 1962 to about 3,000 (in a population of rather over 17 million). There have been cases of unjustified committal to psychiatric clinics.
(ii)
Arrestees are roughly handled
and prisons are overcrowded, but the nearest approach to torture is perhaps committal to a psychiatric clinic.
(iii) There is no slavery.
(iv)
Rating suggested by Department
4
4
0
The GDR media are totally and thoroughly controlled by the state. The GDR population are however subject to
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Western influences in the form of TV and broadcasts from the FRG.
(v)
The judiciary is made to serve the ends of the state. Judges are elected, are answerable to the Government and can easily be dismissed.
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(vi)
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The
Trade unions are controlled by the state and used to propagate Party policy. right to strike was abolished after the 1953 disturbances.
(vii) A GDR citizen may not leave the country
legally without an exit visa. These are largely restricted to pensioners and certain other restricted categories. 5,600 escape illegally each year. persons have been killed since 1961 in trying to cross the frontier or the Berlin wall.
About
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CONFIDENTIAL
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