Trio paid tribute to a key event in 20th
century history
Three Cold War leaders from the Soviet
Union, West Germany and US who saw the Berlin Wall fall two decades ago
have been reunited in Germany's capital.
Mikhail Gorbachev,
Helmut Kohl and George Bush Senior paid tribute to the ordinary people
who were behind the peaceful revolution of 1989.
The trio also praised one another during the two-hour reunion.
Major celebrations are planned for 9 November, the 20th
anniversary of the wall's collapse.
The event ushered in the end of Soviet communism and Germany's
reunification.
"We
Germans don't have very much in our history to be proud of," said Mr
Kohl, 79, who was chancellor of West Germany and then the reunited
Germany from 1982-98.
"But we've got every reason to be proud about German
reunification."
Mr Kohl, who has used a wheelchair since fracturing his hip
last
year, added: "There has never been a relationship that reached the
level of my relations with these two gentlemen."
Correspondents say the trio clearly enjoyed each other's
company at their first reunion in many years.
Mr
Bush, 85, who was US president from 1989-93, said the historic events
behind the wall's collapse had grown "in the hearts and minds of the
people who so long had to strive for their God-given rights".
"The wall could never erase your dream, our dream of one
Germany, a free Germany, a proud Germany," he said.
Newly re-elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel was among the
dignitaries who attended Saturday's reunion.
"The
people were the heroes," said Mr Gorbachev, 78. "The three of us don't
want to take credit for the accomplishments of the previous
generations."
The last Soviet leader also remembered two absent
Cold War leaders: former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who
has dementia, and ex-French President Francois Mitterand, who died in
1996.
Mr Bush, now walking with the help of a cane, was full of
praise for Mr Gorbachev, a Nobel Peace laureate who was in office
between 1985-1991.
"Through it all he stood firm, which is why
he'll also stand tall when the history of our time in office is finally
written," said the former US president.
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The people were the heroes 
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