The Soviet Union said Friday that a massive housing shortage back home has forced it to suspend indefinitely the withdrawal of nearly one-tenth of its troops from East Germany.
In December 1988, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised the unilateral withdrawal of one-tenth of the Red Army soldiers in East Germany. Officials in Bonn say it was to include about 36,000 troops.West German authorities say the Soviets have pulled out about 12,000 military personnel. Soviet officials say the number is higher.
The suspension comes as Moscow apparently is balking at signing an overall troop reduction agreement for central Europe.
In recent days, the Soviets have been hesitating about signing a treaty that would reduce Soviet forces and U.S. forces to 195,000 for each side in central Europe. That area includes East Germany.
Soviet diplomats, at a news conference in East Berlin on Friday, insisted that housing rather than politics was behind the suspension.
Mikhail Logvinov, a counselor with the Soviet Embasssy, said "the housing shortage is a problem that will take years to solve."
Western experts have said that some of the troops being pulled out of Eastern Europe have been kept in tents back home while they wait for permanent homes.
"The army barracks are still filled with refugees from the earthquake area of Armenia and Azerbaijan, where there has been unrest," Logvinov said.
"The army has been put into action building apartments for these people," he said. "Now, sufficient numbers of apartments must be built for the officers, junior officers and their families returning from abroad."
He estimated that number at 100,000. The Soviet Union also has agreed to pull tens of thousands of troops from Hungary and Czechoslovakia.