Czechoslovakia will dismantle its Iron Curtain border with West Germany, shorten military service and end Communist Party influence over the army, its new defense minister said Friday.
Lt. Gen. Miroslav Vacek told a news conference his ministry would recommend that barriers at the West German border be removed because they were no longer a military necessity.Czechoslovak authorities started dismantling Monday the barriers on the border with neutral Austria.
Vacek said he agreed with Foreign Minister Jiri Dienstbier that about 75,000 Soviet troops, stationed in the country since the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, should be withdrawn.
"But as a soldier I see the problems as more complicated with regard to the arms reduction talks in Vienna," he added.
Dienstbier said Thursday he believed an agreement on the withdrawal could be reached soon.
The army is ready to reduce the length of military service from two years to 18 months from Jan. 2, Vacek said, but the law must be amended for this to go ahead.
It would call up 90,000 fewer reservists for exercises next year and would spend money allocated for military parades in Prague and Bratislava on the environment instead, he went on.
The army accepted in principle the idea of an alternative to military service for conscientious objectors.
Vacek said the abolition last month of a provision in the constitution guaranteeing the Communist Party's leading role would be reflected in the structure of the army.