Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 3, 1990 TAG: 9007030521
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BONN, WEST GERMANY LENGTH: Medium
Western diplomats said about 200 refugees had sought sanctuary in foreign embassies since late last week in an attempt to flee Albania's repressive regime.
A statement by the official Albanian news agency ATA said 300 to 400 people, including "vagabonds, former prisoners...as well as some deceived adolescents," tried to enter a foreign embassy in Tirana, the capital, Monday night.
They clashed with "forces of order," throwing stones, bricks and breaking shop windows, and some people "were slightly wounded," it said.
The Greek government released a statement saying: "According to other reports which have been impossible to confirm up to now, shots were heard last night and it is rumored that there were victims among the population."
The Albanian news agency said: "With the immediate interference of the forces of order and the working people of the capital, the persons who violated order and tranquility dispersed. There were slightly wounded on both parties." A number had been detained, it said.
The news agency called the disturbances "alarming" and said they were aimed at distorting "the image of Albania in the world."
A Western diplomat in Tirana, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said other Western diplomats told him of rioting in central Tirana Monday night. "I didn't see it myself but I heard shouting and shots," the diplomat said.
Earlier, a West German Foreign Ministry spokesman said 83 refugees were in the West German Embassy compound, and 60 to 80 others were scattered in other foreign embassies.
The spokesman, Hanns Schumacher, would not specify which embassies were involved. The West German Bild newspaper said they included the embassies of Greece, Italy, Algeria and Egypt.
A Western diplomat in Tirana, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about 200 Albanians had sought refuge in at least 11 embassies.
"The wave started last week, especially on Thursday and Friday, when 25 Albanians entered the Polish Embassy" the diplomat said.
He declined to say why so many Albanians had suddenly rushed to the embassies.
The incident was reminiscent of events last year in which East Germans crowded Western embassies in Eastern Europe, triggering the popular revolution in their country.
Schumacher said one person was wounded in the leg late Sunday night as Albanian guards fired at refugees at the West German compound.
Seventy-nine people fled into the compound Monday night and early today; four sought refuge the night before, Schumacher said.
He said the 79 refugees succeeded in entering the compound either by climbing the wall or by breaking it down with a truck.
"In both cases, the Albanian security guards tried to hinder them by using their weapons," the spokesman said.
He said the refugees' motives were not clear, but he assumed "this is the outbreak of dissatisfaction with the existing political realities in Albania."
He added: "Nobody will be expelled from the embassy against his will."
The West German government summoned the Albanian ambassador to the foreign office in Bonn today and formally protested "the brutal behavior' of the Albanian security guards, Schumacher said.
The Foreign Ministry also set up a crisis task force, and Schumacher said a meeting of the foreign policy arm of the European Economic Community was scheduled for Wednesday in Brussels to coordinate a response to the situation.
"The situation is extremely difficult," the Bild newspaper quoted an unidentified West German embassy staff member on the scene as saying. The report said the embassy apparently has been ringed by members of the Albanian militia.
Last August, Hungary opened its borders to the West and thousands of East Germans began taking refuge in Western embassies in Warsaw Pact nations or fleeing across the Hungarian border.
East Germany eventually was forced to open its borders, and its Communist government fell.
Albania, a hard-line Stalinist state, has been vigorously resisting the types of pro-democracy reforms that have been sweeping other Eastern European countries.
However, the Communist leadership has signaled some willingness to increase foreign ties and grant citizens freedoms long denied under the rigid regime imposed by the late leader Enver Hoxha.
by CNB