WORLD : Talks on E. German Defectors Start
A senior aide to West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl flew to Berlin today to discuss the fate of hundreds of East Germans seeking defection at Bonn’s diplomatic missions in East Germany and Hungary.
A government spokesman in Bonn said Chancellery Minister Rudolf Seiters talked with East German Deputy Foreign Minister Herbert Krolikowski in East Berlin about the possibility of the East Germans’ obtaining exit visas to the West.
The spokesman gave no details of the meeting but said “high-level talks” are being prepared--a formulation believed to indicate that Kohl and East German leader Erich Honecker may be planning talks in the near future.
The fragile relations between the two Germanys have deteriorated in the last two weeks as hundreds of East Germans sought refuge in Bonn’s diplomatic representations in the East Bloc. A total of 116 people are holed up in the East Berlin mission and 171 in the embassy in Budapest, Hungary.
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