Thousands of Albanians Trying to Flee Country Pack Embassies

Diplomats in the Albanian capital of Tirana said Friday that conditions are worsening inside embassies packed with thousands of Albanians seeking refuge from the last hard-line Communist government in Europe.

Between 2,500 and 3,000 Albanians jammed embassies requesting foreign help out of the country, even though the government of Communist leader Ramiz Alia pledged to issue them travel papers, foreign officials said.

At the same time, the Austrian news agency APA reported from Tirana that police armed with truncheons on Friday attacked a large crowd of demonstrators who were demanding democratic reforms.

The officers beat several protesters and scattered hundreds of others in the most serious disturbance since police opened fire Monday on scores of refugees trying to enter foreign embassies, the news agency said.

Also on Friday, the policy-setting Central Committee of Albania’s Communist Party met in emergency session for a second day to try to resolve the refugee crisis.

Attempts by foreign governments to send supplies and personnel to ease conditions in the embassies have been rebuffed by authorities in Albania, and some diplomats Friday spoke of near-intolerable conditions as a result.

“The West German Embassy looks like a railway station. They keep on arriving,” one diplomatic source told Reuters news agency.

A senior East European diplomat in Tirana said that people are still streaming into embassies and were not being stopped by police.

“Everyone who wants to climb over the wall or fence can do so. No one has been hindered since yesterday afternoon,” he said. “People are just climbing in and out the whole time. It is very difficult to put a figure on them all or register them.”

The sometimes violent rush to the embassies in Tirana this week follows last year’s exodus of East Germans to embassies in other East European countries shortly before the fall of their hard-line government.

The Albanian Foreign Ministry promised Thursday to grant passports to those who have sought refuge in foreign embassies in a desperate attempt to flee their homeland, which is on the Adriatic bordering Greece and Yugoslavia.

Diplomatic sources said more than 2,000 Albanians were packed in the West German Embassy, more than 200 had taken refuge in the French Embassy and 300 in Italy’s. The Czechoslovak and Polish embassies are sheltering about 50 refugees each. Altogether, about a dozen embassies are harboring refugees.

“The situation is more tragic than comic,” said an official at the Italian Embassy, reached by telephone from Rome. “This is an embassy designed for 10 people.”

Under 45 years of hard-line Communist rule, travel for average Albanians was virtually impossible as the country’s late leader, Enver Hoxha, steered his 3.2 million people into increasing isolation. But under Communist leader Alia, the country has increasingly sought ties abroad and has begun implementing some cautious reforms.

A package of new regulations, entitling all Albanians over the age of 16 to own a passport for foreign travel, took effect Tuesday.

Alia pledged continued reforms Friday but said only the Communist Party could “realize the genuine democracy, the human rights, the country’s progress and the defense of its freedom and independence.”

He promised a new election law, but strongly implied it would not affect the Communist Party’s monopoly on power. The Central Committee meeting will continue today.