E. Germans Told Not to Use U.S. Embassies for Refuge

WASHINGTON —  The United States today sent a signal to East Germans seeking to emigrate to the West not to use American embassies as a place of refuge.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. embassies are not equipped to handle a large number of people hoping to leave their country.

“Our embassies and other diplomatic missions overseas generally do not have the capability to handle even a limited number of people . . . especially people who have to seek to depart their home country by sitting in at a foreign embassy,” Boucher said.

Eighteen East Germans who sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Berlin earlier this week left after the government promised to review their cases positively and not to take reprisals against them.

Boucher warned people thinking of copying them that there is no guarantee of receiving similar assurances from the East German government in the future.

“We would also note that people put themselves in a potentially difficult situation with respect to their own government,” he said.

He noted that most fleeing East Germans want to go to West Germany, not the United States, but said Washington remains ready to raise the cases of individuals wishing to emigrate and other issues of humanitarian concern.

Earlier, President Bush said he was moved by the exodus of East Germans and hailed West Germany’s handling of the situation.

“America stands with the forces of change,” Bush said during a Rose Garden ceremony honoring German-Americans.

“We are riveted, and I am moved, by the tens of thousands of East Germans sacrificing all that they own . . . to find their way to the West,” Bush said in his first public comments on the mass exodus.

“I want to praise the actions of (West Germany) in rising to the challenge presented by these events,” Bush told a small gathering that included 12 members of West Germany’s Bundestag, or Parliament.

“I look forward to the day when Germans will not have to climb fences, freeze in embassy courtyards or dodge bullets in order to enjoy the fruits of a free society,” Bush said.