European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 25, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                June 1985 the stars and stripes army photo by Larry Byerly iwo elite East German Border guards the commonly known As Gas Advance cautiously through the tall grass toward the in the yaks guard fhe guards by Don Tate staff writer the Gas Are out of their in front of the Iron they Are 50 Yards from Freedom and advancing with nothing Between them and the West but Green grass and the other the invisible several americans watch them Gak is Short for  a Spe Cial East German Border guard who guards the regular Border Gas Are the Only soldiers of the East who Are allowed West of their own steel they keep an Eye on the troops who Are keeping eyes on the any oppressed Soldier who thinks that in the West the air is cleaner and the grass is Greener has got to get past the when the Gas come you know somethings this East German engineers in Black suits Are blowing up mine Fields close by the Border near a big machine that helps explode the mines rumbles medical vehicles Are stationed a four tent command Post has been set in several communist soldiers Are tearing Down old 2yardhigh fences and building a new 3yardhigh from time to tempting Daylight appears in the if somebody Over there this is my and runs for says 1st George of troop 3rd 7th 3rd inf its up to the Gas to Stop if they cant physically Stop  shoot this is very unusual activity you rarely see says Kenneth com Mander of troop when they have a Fence what  do is play out a red Cord about an Inch like Engineer and what hat is is a death i anybody but the Gas crosses that line  be gunned but who guns Down the Gas if they make a break for it Gas Are the most trusted the most politically says they operate in the Only person who can Stop a Gak is his they rotate partners so they dont get too buddy today he s with this tomorrow but if both those Guys decide to defect right nothing can Stop the borderline 100 Yards or so in front of the is nothing but widely Blu striped White no no no the Gas Are striding Forward through the grass As though there going to keep they Are Only about 35 Yards away when they both Are packing ak47s and 9mm maybe they dont want mutters an unarmed maybe they want one Gak has binoculars and the other a camera that they keep trained on the who Are standing just this Side of the they move Forward a Little 30 Yards a three second dash is All it would three seconds to there one is tall and his face red from the he looks As if he walked off a the other is Short and both Wear Long sleeved Woolen uniforms on a hot the Blond one noses out from behind his binoculars now and the dark one hides behind his each time an american photographer tries to snap his he turns its a Battle of cameras until the american catches the Short Gak with his camera now the men from different worlds stand gazing at each playing mind games what Are thinking whispers an there this whats stopping them were not supposed to have any con tact with says no speaking to no usually they dont want their pictures and move away As soon As they spot a Cam we dont want to be Covert about go Low crawling along the Border or any says Lee in a Low there paranoid enough about us lord knows whats in their what Treyve been told wed do to them if they made the big but the Only message were trying to Send were were not scared of you and we dont want you to be scared of us because were not Here to make but do the Gas make trouble sometimes you get an old warrant offi cer who been in about 30 says the Wholl scowl and look us up Down like american Noth ing worse than that since Ive been after 25 this Battle of the Eye balls is the seeming More aggressively curious than finally turn and move slowly they had been three seconds from free Dom three a few hot breaths but they  make it through the invisible curtain the one in their just before they reach their outer Fence they sink Down into the High lift their binoculars and gaze again at the who Are also moving Sakharov Back on hunger stepdaughter says up soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov has resumed a hunger strike and is being Force fed by so Viet authorities in a Gorky his stepdaughter said Tatyana Yankelevich said the Nobel prizewinning nuclear physicist has been returned to Semashko but the location of her Yelena is for two the whereabouts and condition of my parents have been Uncer Yankelevich said at the National con Ference of amnesty International at Massachusetts Institute of Sakharov is now on a hunger she told 400 members of the human rights organization who wrote letters to so Viet ambassador Anatoly asking where is Sakharov where is Yelena Bonner Yankelevich said she received reports Friday that the apartment Sakharov shared with his wife is now empty and that sakha Rov was being Force fed by soviet author she said she also received a translated copy of a letter from dated novem Ber which described their living conditions and his 1984 hunger my isolation is greater than that of Bonner said in the we dont know what is known of us in the the letter said the couple is completely uninformed and has no Access to Televik newspapers or All contacts Are Bonner Yankelevich said the letter had been translated before she received and cer Tain words had been she said she expects to get the original letter the letter said Sakharov was first admitted to the Hospital on May four Days officials began Force feeding the first intravenously and then through a nose the letter when that the letter food was forced Down Bis eventually causing a mild Sakharov began another hunger strike on and was readmitted to the but officials released him the Fol lowing Sakharov was declared a dissident after he opposed the use and testing of nuclear he has since become a Champion of rights for other dissidents and has campaigned for free emigration from the soviet an earlier hunger strike by Sakharov in 1981 was credited with winning Lisa Alex Eye a the right to emigrate to the United where she married Alexei Semyon Bonners