A Good East German

Til she draws her final breath apparently. Margot Honecker says, What's the matter with people anyhow?

...this year Honecker, who was East Germany's Education Minister from 1963 until 1989, published a book on popular education in East Germany. She also appeared in a rare interview Monday with the German TV network ARD.

In the 90-minute documentary on the Honecker era, the widow, 84, staunchly defended communist East Germany.

She said she never understood why people tried to escape to the West over the Berlin Wall when so many died in the attempt. "There was no need for that, there was no need for them to climb over the Wall. It's certainly bitter to have to pay for such stupidity with their lives," she said.

The widow of former GDR Communist leader Erich Honecker lives in Chile, where she refuses requests to be interviewed by spraying reporters with her garden hose.  "Let others apologize," she's been quoted as shouting from her home.