Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 5, 1990 TAG: 9007050255
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIENNA, AUSTRIA LENGTH: Medium
The government of leader Ramiz Alia and foreign ambassadors in the Albanian capital were deadlocked today over what to do with those holed up in the embassies. Two more people slipped inside the Hungarian Embassy this morning, said diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The asylum-seekers, many of whom crashed through gates or scaled walls to enter embassies earlier this week, present one of the biggest challenges in 45 years to the rulers of Europe's poorest, most isolated country.
A diplomat said by telephone that as many as 500 Albanians assembled in front of the Yugoslav Embassy today, waiting for travel visas. Another crowd of several hundred people was waiting outside the West German mission and a smaller group in front of the French Embassy, the diplomat said.
On Tuesday, a new Albanian law went into effect allowing any adult to apply for a passport, said an Albanian diplomat in Vienna, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. But Albanian authorities have branded many of the asylum-seekers common criminals, making them ineligible to leave the country.
Albania, the last hard-line Communist country left in Eastern Europe, in recent months has expressed interest in shedding its isolationist ways and broadening ties with other nations.
But the Communist monopoly on power continues. Communist Party chief Alia, who succeeded the Stalinist strongman Enver Hoxha, has firmly rejected the type of multiparty system that has taken hold in the rest of Eastern Europe.
The exact number of refugees holed up in foreign embassies was not known.
The United States has no embassy in Albania since the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.
A Hungarian diplomat who was reached from Budapest today said a man and a woman walked into the embassy compound this morning as "we were opening the gate to let a car out." The two brought the number of refugees inside to six.
"There is a strong police presence around the embassy, but no incidents," said the Hungarian diplomat who, like all others, refused to be identified.
Last week, a few Albanians hoping to flee their country of 3.2 million sought political asylum at embassies. Word of their success apparently spread and on Monday their numbers swelled.
The embassies were scrambling to find ways to feed the refugees.
Albania refused on Wednesday to grant landing permission for a cargo plane carrying relief supplies for the West German Embassy, where 86 Albanians sought refuge, said Hanns Schumacher, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Bonn.
by CNB