German new left apologises for 1968

Berlin - The PDS, reformed successors of the communist party that dominated the former East Germany for 40 years, made a public…

Berlin - The PDS, reformed successors of the communist party that dominated the former East Germany for 40 years, made a public apology yesterday for East Berlin's role in the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

A statement by the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), marking the 30th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact intervention that ended the brief "Prague Spring" led by the reformist Alexander Dubcek, said Moscow and its partners had flouted international law.

"Elected political leaders were arrested and forced to submit to Soviet power," the apology to the Czech Republic and Slovakia recalled. "For us August 21, 1968 marks above all the end of the last attempt at the democratic renewal of socialism in the east bloc," it said.