Germany plans electronic 'wall'

BONN (Reuter) - Germany may use radar and night-vision devices to monitor its eastern borders as part of a crackdown on illegal immigrants, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

The spokesman said the Interior Minister, Rudolf Seiters, planned to test military equipment for electronic surveillance for possible use on the borders with Poland and the Czech republic. If the tests prove successful, paramilitary border police will be equipped with radar and infra-red binoculars to help them check the eastern borders for illegal immigrants, he said.

The human rights group Pro Asyl rejected the plans and warned the government against 'militarising the eastern borders'. Germany has been flooded with illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and paved the way to unification a year later.