Britain Will Expel 3 Czech Diplomats for Espionage Activity

Britain today ordered the expulsion of three Czech diplomats, including two military attaches, for engaging in “activities incompatible with their status,” or spying.

The order was the latest in a series of diplomatic expulsions over the last month in an apparent government crackdown after increased scrutiny of foreign missions.

A Foreign Office spokesman said that Czechoslovak Ambassador Jan Fidler was summoned to the Foreign Office and told that air attache Maj. Bedrich Kramar, Maj. Vlastimil Netolicky of the military attache’s staff and Pavel Moudry, a member of the commercial section, had 14 days to leave the country.

“The foreign secretary wishes it to be clearly understood that, while we wish to build up our relations with Czechoslovakia, we are not prepared to relax our policy on the sort of activity in which Maj. Kramar, Maj. Netolicky and Mr. Moudry have engaged,” the spokesman said.

He said Britain still attaches great importance to the further expansion of contacts with Czechoslovakia.

A spokesman for the Czechoslovakian Embassy in London had no immediate comment on the expulsions.

Relations between Britain and Czechoslovakia, one of the more hard-line Soviet Bloc countries, have been generally cool in recent months and the British government has been outspoken in its criticism of Czechoslovakia’s human rights record.

Action on Arms for IRA

In what appeared a conciliatory gesture by Prague, Czech authorities agreed last month to help stem the flow of Czech-made explosives to the Irish Republican Army, which is fighting to oust Britain from Northern Ireland.

Britain protested to Prague earlier this year after security police broke up a religious gathering in Bratislava with batons, slightly injuring one British journalist.

The Foreign Office described the police action as an echo of the “brutalities of a bygone age.”

The spokesman would not comment on whether the expulsions were related to the arrest earlier this year of Erwin van Haarlem, an art dealer accused of spying and believed to be a Czech citizen.

Van Haarlem, who was charged with possessing deciphering equipment and information that could be useful to an enemy state, is awaiting trial.

Britain has expelled three diplomats--two Cubans and one Vietnamese--in the last month as part of a clampdown on the abuse of diplomatic status. All three were accused of firearms offenses.

Parking Fine Expulsion

A Tunisian diplomat was ordered out last week for failing to pay parking fines.

Britain sent home two Czech diplomats in 1984, a year after it expelled two Czech envoys for espionage. Prague retaliated by expelling two British diplomats in 1984.

Asked if Britain expects retaliatory action on this occasion, the spokesman said: “Any retaliation would be entirely without justification.”

Britain issued a warning to foreign missions last week after an incident in central London when a Cuban attache opened fire with a revolver on a group of people, injuring one slightly.

Police sources said the man injured was a member of the security services.