10 April 1976 · Hidden in vehicles · Friedrichstraße station
Refugees in the boot of an embassy car: the Zaire attaché and the ARAMCO network
An administrative attaché of Zaire's embassy in East Berlin used his diplomatic car to drive at least eight East Germans to West Berlin in the boot. The operation ended when his courier was arrested at the Friedrichstraße crossing.
At about 9 p.m. on 10 April 1976 a citizen of Zaire, born in 1946 and living in West Berlin, was arrested at the Bahnhof Friedrichstraße crossing as he tried to enter East Berlin. The Stasi suspected him of 'subversive trafficking in human beings'.
According to the Stasi, he was working as a courier and go-between for the commercial escape-help organisation it called 'ARAMCO AG'. He brought East Germans who wanted to leave to a second man, the administrative attaché of Zaire's embassy in the GDR, born in 1933, and helped them into the boot of the escape car.
Using his diplomatic immunity, the attaché had then driven at least eight GDR citizens to West Berlin through various East Berlin crossings. He mostly used the embassy's Opel Rekord and once his private Opel Admiral. The Stasi said he did it for money.
The report does not say that the attaché was arrested. The Stasi proposed that the GDR ambassador in Zaire raise the matter at Zaire's foreign ministry and ask for the attaché's recall, so as not to strain relations between the two countries.
Sources
Whose account is this? Told from a GDR record only: documents of the GDR’s police, Stasi or border troops. No other account of the event is cited.
GDR records
- Jahrgang 1976: Versuchte Fluchthilfe durch einen Angehörigen der Botschaft Zaires – Information Nr. 290/76, 13 April 1976Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “Refugees in the boot of an embassy car: the Zaire attaché and the ARAMCO network”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/zaire-embassy-attache-diplomatic-car-1976/ (accessed [date]).
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