Dubcek Given Passport; Exit Visa to Visit West Is Expected

Former Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek has been given a passport and is likely to receive an exit visa to travel to the West, the Czechoslovakian government said today.

The ousted leader of the “Prague Spring” reform movement plans to go to Italy next month, when he is due to be awarded an honorary degree by the University of Bologna along with jailed African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela.

It would be Dubcek’s first trip abroad since 1970, when he served briefly as Czechoslovakian ambassador to Turkey after his removal as Communist Party chief.

Speaking by telephone from Prague, government spokesman Miroslav Pavel said Dubcek had received the passport and was awaiting an answer to his request for the exit visa.

“One can expect that he will receive it,” Pavel said.

Dubcek, 66, has recently emerged from obscurity to publicly denounce the Soviet-led invasion of his country in August, 1968.

In Oslo, a Norwegian journalist said earlier that Czechoslovakian police briefly detained Jiri Hajek, foreign minister under Dubcek, when he tried to take the journalist to see Dubcek.