E. Germans to Halt Berlin Checks on Diplomats

EAST BERLIN —  East Germany has told diplomatic missions in East Berlin that it will issue them new diplomatic passes and stop controversial passport checks on the border with West Berlin, Western diplomats said Sunday.

The move appeared to end a two-week dispute sparked by the introduction of the passport controls, which North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries held to be a violation of agreements guaranteeing the special status of the city established after Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II.

East Germany dropped the controls on U.S., British and French diplomats--who have special rights here under occupation statutes--within three days after protests. But other NATO diplomats were turned away by Communist guards when they showed only their usual diplomatic cards.

In a May 29 protest to Vyacheslav I. Kochemasov, the Soviet ambassador to East Germany, the three powers said that the East German action was a violation of four-power agreements and that they would not recognize any East German attempt to infringe on free movement in the divided city 110 miles inside East Germany.

When the new rule was enforced for other Western diplomats, they instead made lengthy detours around the city to enter and leave East Berlin at checkpoints not on the East-West city border but on the border between West Berlin and East Germany. Passports always had been shown at these checkpoints.

A United City

The NATO countries said that showing passports would effectively recognize East German claims that the Berlin border is an international frontier. The West continues to insist that in view of the absence of a peace treaty formally ending the war, Berlin legally remains a united city divided into four occupation zones, each governed by one of the victors--the United States, France, Britain and the Soviet Union.

However, East Germany insists that the Soviet zone is the capital of East Germany, while the three Western allies have turned over the day-to-day administration of the Western sectors to the West Berlin city government.

East Germany said the passport controls were a response to Western security fears after the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque in April that has claimed three lives. Washington charged that the attack was launched by the Libyan mission in East Berlin.

The Foreign Ministry note said the new diplomatic passes would be especially difficult to forge.

“The dispute appears to be over, but I’m reserving my final judgment until I’ve seen the new passes,” a Western diplomat said Sunday.