,,Conspiracy against Belgium"
EUPEN, BELGIUM (Own report) As long as fifteen years ago, the hidden work of German influence in eastern Belgium gave rise to investigations by the Eupen Regional Assembly. In October 1995 this resulted in the appointment of an investigating committee which followed new lines of enquiry.
As the Assembly 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 ,,Hermann Niermann Institute"was the fostering of ,,German identity". This was intended to lead to demands for autonomy and thereby to associated centrifugal tendencies.
As the investigating committee established, the pressure for German influence included right wing extremists and instances of official participation by 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 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 enganged in subversive activity in Eupen and was ,,an accomplice in a conspiracy against Belgium".