Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

279. Telegram From the Embassy in Czechoslovakia to the Department of State¹

145.

Prague, January 9, 1985, 1520Z

SUBJECT

• GDR Refugees in FRG Embassy, Prague: Nearly All Have Left.

1. C—Entire text.

2. The FRG Government this week has reduced the number of GDR refugees in their Embassy to about six hard core cases. Ambassador Ekkehard Eickhoff, who is usually assigned to CSCE matters in Bonn, has been visiting Prague for the past week along with a West German diplomat from Berlin (who has served as liaison with Vogel) to try to persuade the refugees to return to the GDR. When they arrived last week there were still over 40 refugees.

3. The conditions worked out with the GDR have evolved slowly and through extended negotiations. They now are that:

— Each returnee will be free from persecution and will be “reincorporated” back into his job and living situation without prejudice;

— Each returnee can apply immediately for emigration and his/her case will be handled epedipously. Eickhoff then said (strictly protect) on a close (#) chance to emigrate. The GDR has refused, however, to give specific assurances to individuals as it used to do. This element is obviously extremely sensitive. If it should become public the flow of refugees to the FRG Embassy here would start all over again. Eickhoff, in fact, believes that several of the refugees will not be given permission to emigrate and others may have to wait a long time.

4. Eickhoff also believes, however, that the GDR has been forthcoming on several difficult cases. For example, one returnee, a lieutenant in the GDR secret police, will be allowed to return, will not be persecuted, and may well be allowed to emigrate. He will not be taken back into the secret police, however. Eickhoff also said that many individuals who fled did so because they had high debts—one of the hard core cases remaining is simply fleeing his many creditors. The refugees will not be put in jail on return for nonpayment of debts or even for other crimes, such as desertion from the armed forces. Eickhoff said most of the recent cases have been relatively young Germans, in their 20’s and 30’s. Many of them, particularly the last ones to leave, are a sorry lot with criminal records or worse who were not fleeing for political reasons. The FRG Embassy is particularly suspicious of three of the remaining six and considers they may well be GDR police plants.

5. A complication arose involving the U.S. Embassy in a separate conversation between one of our consular officers and the German Embassy Charge, Siemes, who said that several of the refugees will be returning to the GDR with a story that they were able to leave the FRG Embassy and move around in Prague for several hours by sneaking out through a common fence with the U.S. Embassy back garden which gave them access to our garden and then the public garden. The East Germans allege that they accomplished these clandestine exits and returns with the assistance of the U.S. Marine security guards. I have personally assured Siemes, after checking with every Marine, that the allegation is completely unfounded. There are holes in the long common fence which some Germans may have used, but we have neither observed nor assisted in such activity. Moreover, our security people here have been working with the FRG Embassy to repair the fence.

6. As this difficult problem here reaches the end of another chapter, FRG Ambassador Meyer is in Bonn for several weeks, on a long over-due leave that Genscher finally granted him now that the problem has been nearly resolved in his Embassy. The strain on Meyer and his Embassy staff has been severe. Moreover, the differences within the FRG Government on how to handle the problem and the heavy press attention to it added significantly to the stress. Eickhoff told me that there is now a sense in Bonn that there is a need for a tougher approach to this refugee issue. He mentioned that some are talking about the need for stationing the equivalent of our “young strong Marines” in their Embassies in this part of the world. I made clear to Eickhoff that I believed Meyer had done an excellent job in carrying out his Foreign Minister’s policy and that he has worked closely and effectively with us during this period.

7. Comment: Even though the FRG Embassy here has followed a policy which we obviously have found unsound and certainly inconsistent with our view of the way to manage refugees or asylees, Meyer was clearly following a policy that came directly from Foreign Minister Genscher. That Genscher’s policy on German refugees was not shared by others in the FRG was apparent. In any case, there appears to be a move to tighten up procedures and policies in a way that will not in the future leave the FRG Embassy so exposed, crowded, and distracted as it has been over the past year with the hundreds of temporary occupants. The access to the FRG Embassy now is closely controlled. The experience of living side by side with the refugees, many of whom were common criminals and misfits, has been educational for Bonn and apparently Genscher.

8. Department please pass to Embassy Bonn and Berlin.

Luers

1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Cable File, Europe (State) NODIS IN (12/01/1984–03/02/1985). Confidential; Priority; Nodis.