Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1990 TAG: 9007110032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROME LENGTH: Medium
"We hope the operation can begin by the end of the week," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Rome. He spoke on condition of anonymity. Another source said it could begin as early as Thursday.
A representative of U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar was in Tirana, the Albanian capital, negotiating the departure procedures on behalf of the almost a dozen embassies where Albanians have taken refuge, he said.
Under the agreement, the asylum-seekers would be ferried from Albania's Adriatic port city of Durres to either Brindisi, about 85 miles away, or Otranto on the Italian coast, the spokesman said.
The Italian government is working on contracting commercial vessels to bring out the Albanians, the official said, adding he expected that several trips would be needed to evacuate them all.
Although foreign diplomats have estimated the number of Albanians in the embassies at 5,000, the Italian spokesman said there are about 3,000. More than 2,000 are believed to have taken refuge in the West German Embassy alone.
The asylum-seekers began taking refuge in the embassies on June 28 in a bid to escape Europe's last hard-line Communist regime.
The Albanian ambassador to Italy, Dashnor Dervishi, said Tuesday that the Albanians in all the embassies were free to go.
The first 51 Albanians allowed to leave Tirana landed in Czechoslovakia on Tuesday. Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel sent his official airplane to Tirana for the refugees.
One Albanian who made his way to Yugoslavia told reporters that despite modest reforms, the Albanian government still was oppressive and economic hardship was a part of daily life.
by CNB