Date of Report 23 September 2002
Translated on 15 October 2002

EUPEN,BELGIUM :(own report). As long as fifteen years ago, the covert activities of German influence in eastern Belgium gave rise to investigations by the Eupen Regional Assembly (*1). In October 1995 this resulted in the appointment of an investigating committee which followed new lines of enquiry.

As the Assembly (*1) committee reported two years later in its final report, it was established that an institute based in Duesseldorf (Nord Rhein Westfalen) had worked consistently with significant influence. The aim of the "Herman Niermann Institute " was the fostering of "German identity". This was intended to lead to demands for autonomy and thereby to associated demands in neighbouring territories.

As the investigating committee established, the pressure for German influence included right wing extremists and even instances of official involvment by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany. It mentioned Uwe Stiemke as Chairman of the Herman Niermann Institute. Stiemke was ,at the same time, a Ministerial Counsellor(*2) in the German Federal Ministry of the Interior. The world-wide financing of foreign nationals who identify themselves as "German" falls within the competence of the Interior (!) Ministry. It could be asserted that Ministerial Counsellor Stiemke had been engaged in
subversive activity in Eupen and was "an accomplice in a conspiracy against Belgium".

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

(*1) The word actually used was "Parliament" but this does not convey the essence of a subordinate regional body.
(*2) The German word is "Ministerialrat" which is approximately equivalent to Head of Section within a department of the Ministry.