Bonn Asks Prague to Aid Refugees : Conditions for East Germans at Embassy Called Inhumane

As concern mounted Friday over the fate of nearly 3,000 East Germans who have taken refuge in the West German Embassy in Prague, West German officials appealed to the Czechoslovak government to provide living quarters “befitting human beings” for the refugees.

At the same time, Czechoslovak authorities were said to be debating whether to provide facilities outside the embassy compound for the growing number of East Germans trying to flee to the West.

Late Friday, West German sources said indoor facilities might be made available for refugees already in the embassy in Prague--if an agreement on this excludes additional East German refugees.

‘Very Serious’

A Czechoslovak government spokesman, Miroslav Pavel, conceded that conditions at the embassy are “very serious.” He said his government was considering a positive response to the West German appeal.

Earlier, the West German foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, called on the Czechoslovak government to avoid “a human tragedy” by providing temporary quarters for East Germans who have been climbing over a back wall into the embassy grounds, unimpeded by the Prague police.

In Bonn, government spokesman Hans Klein said the Czechoslovak government could perform a humanitarian service by establishing quarters for the East Germans, who have been living in tents on the rain-soaked embassy grounds.

“At this hour,” he told a news conference, “the issue is to provide a minimum of accommodation befitting human beings for the refugees in the embassy grounds, among them hundreds of small children.”

‘Pragmatic Solution’

Bonn, he said, will continue to push for a “pragmatic humanitarian solution” that would allow the refugees “eventually to emigrate to West Germany as they wish.”

Pavel, the Czechoslovak spokesman, said his government is facing a problem of public order.

Czechoslovak radio said the government is trying to deal with the situation “in a spirit of humanitarian cooperation and fulfillment of conventional obligations which we concluded with East Germany.”

The Czechoslovak government is caught in the middle of the refugee crisis, as the Polish government is and as the Hungarian government was earlier. They want to keep on good terms with West Germany because of its financial aid and trade, and also with East Germany because they are all members of the Soviet Bloc.

Hungary solved its problem earlier this month by allowing all East Germans there who wished to go to the West to do so.

Czechoslovakia and Poland have not made such a decision, however--although it may be forced upon them because of the growing crisis among the refugees.

About 600 East Germans are in the West German Embassy in Warsaw. The Polish government has allowed some East Germans to take shelter in a Roman Catholic hostel at the edge of the capital.

Within the past few days, Wolfgang Vogel, a special East Berlin emissary, has promised East German refugees in Prague and Warsaw that they will be allowed to emigrate officially in six months or so but that first they must return to their homes. Only about 200 of the East Germans in Prague and 50 in Warsaw have decided to go home.

West German officials say it is clear that more have not heeded Vogel’s words because they do not believe that their Communist government will keep its word.

According to Irmgard Adam-Schwaetzer, a Foreign Ministry official who flew to Prague to inspect the scene, there is not much West Germany can do about the East Germans’ perception.

She said, “I don’t think it is the job of the Federal Republic (West Germany) to convince people of the credibility of a government they turned their backs on.”

But West German spokesman Klein pointed out that some of the 350 East Germans who left the West German mission in East Berlin earlier this month have been given exit documents by the Communist regime.

In the past, East Berlin dealt with serious dissenters by banishing them to West Germany. But the number of people who are unhappy with life in East Germany and are seeking exit papers has risen dramatically this year. More than 100,000 East Germans have left, with or without authorization, according to West German officials.

In Bonn, Egon Bahr, a leading member of the opposition Social Democratic Party who has been in favor of close relations with East Germany, said Friday that “something terrible is happening when tens of thousands of people pull up their roots, leave their homes and leave their relatives behind because they think they have to use this chance.”