
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 11, 1993                   TAG: 9308110048
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BERLIN                                LENGTH: Short

GROUP CLAIMS DEATHS AT E. GERMAN BORDER HIGHER

The number of people killed along the borders of Communist East Germany was far higher than previously believed, a human-rights group said Tuesday.

The August 13th Working Group put the death toll since 1949 at 568 - including 31 children and teen-agers. Most were East Germans dashing to freedom at the Berlin Wall and along the frontier with West Germany.

Bonn officials said four years ago that about 200 people died in escape attempts. They later raised the total killed before the reunification of Germany to 372.

East German border guards shot at fellow citizens racing toward the West. Mines and automatic shooting devices killed other would-be refugees. - Associated Press

by CNB