2,000 East Germans in Prague Embassy

BONN —  West German officials reported Thursday that the number of East German refugees in its embassy in Prague, Czechoslovakia, has topped 2,000 people, despite assurances that the refugees could emigrate legally if they returned home.

In addition, according to newly revised statistics disclosed here, the total number of East Germans who have arrived in West Germany without permission from authorities in East Berlin now stands at more than 35,000 this year--one-third of the total of 100,000 East Germans who have come here thus far in 1989.

West German officials said this “serious drain” on the East German population, which is expected to grow by the end of the year, represented a severe blow to the East’s economy because the refugees’ average age is only 27 and most are skilled workers.

Unfavorable Publicity

The exodus of East Germans is a double embarrassment to the Communist regime in East Berlin--not only because of the loss of population itself, but also because it engenders unfavorable publicity just before the 40th anniversary celebration of the East German state on Oct. 7.

That celebration was intended as a testimonial to German socialism working better than capitalism, and the ceremonies in East Berlin will be attended by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev as well as senior Communist officials from Eastern Europe.

In Munich, West German officials reported Thursday that East German refugees continued to enter West Germany through Hungary, with 360 new arrivals in the last 24 hours.

All Rights and Benefits

They said the pattern appears to be established of several hundred East Germans entering West Germany each day--where they are automatically granted full citizenship and all the rights and social benefits of West Germans.

In Warsaw on Thursday, West German officials said a busload of East Germans apparently left the Bonn embassy in the Polish capital after receiving assurances from East German negotiator Wolfgang Vogel that they would be allowed to emigrate within six months if they returned home.

But there was no news about the 600 other East Germans camped out in the embassy and in a Roman Catholic church building on the outskirts of Warsaw. Vogel had flown to Warsaw from Prague, where he had offered East Germans in the Bonn embassy there the same deal. Only 177 had taken advantage of his offer since Tuesday, according to West German sources.

In Prague, the number of East Germans entering the embassy was described as at “crisis” proportions. Refugees, including entire families, managed to climb the spiked fence at the back of the embassy compound because Czech police were not stopping anyone from entering the grounds.

On Wednesday night, an East German woman who is eight months pregnant got over the fence and then declared, “I want my child to be born in freedom.” Inside the compound, one of her greeters responded, “It will be our first camp baby.”

The influx is expected to be swelled even further because several thousand East German soccer fans are in Czechoslovakia for a European Cup match.

Sleeping in Shifts

Some people are camping out in tents in the West German compound, where conditions had worsened because of early autumn rains. Because there are too few beds to go around in the embassy compound, other refugees have had to take turns sleeping on cots, sources said.

Czechoslovakia, like Hungary and Poland, is in an embarrassing position because it wishes to avoid offending both Bonn and East Berlin. The Czechoslovak government has said that the situation at the embassy must be solved by the two Germanys, on their own.