SEVENTEEN years after German reunification, archivists have found the first written proof that East German border guards had been ordered to shoot to kill anyone trying to escape to West Germany, including women and children.

SEVENTEEN years after German reunification, archivists have found the first written proof that East German border guards had been ordered to shoot to kill anyone trying to escape to West Germany, including women and children.

The seven-page order, dated October 1, 1973, was discovered last week in the regional archive office in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.

Though unsigned, it shows that the Ministry for State Security, known as the Stasi, had told guards that they must "stop or liquidate" anyone trying to cross the border.

"Do not hesitate to use your firearm, not even when the border is breached in the company of women and children, which is a tactic the traitors have often used."

The revelations were made public just days before the 46th anniversary yesterday of the building of the Berlin Wall.

The wall was toppled on November 9, 1989, and paved the way for the reunification of the city and the two Germanys.

The Centre for Contemporary Historical Research in Potsdam, near Berlin, said 270 to 780 people trying to flee East Germany were killed by border guards.

Since reunification, former East German Communist Party leaders and senior functionaries have repeatedly denied that the Stasi, one of the largest and most pervasive of the secret police organisations in the former Communist Eastern Europe, had given any shoot-to-kill orders.

But on Sunday, Marianne Birthler, director of the government office that manages the millions of Stasi files, said the document offered firm evidence that the top leadership had expected that anyone trying to flee would be killed. - © (2007) New York Times