Posted on 02/01/2006 10:42:42 PM PST by NormsRevenge
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's legal system and its insufficient zeal in investigating alleged crimes committed under Hitler's Third Reich make it a "paradise for Nazi war criminals," a top Nazi hunter said on Wednesday.
Frustrated at slow progress in finding suspected war criminals in Austria and bringing them to court, Simon Wiesenthal Center director Efraim Zuroff came to Vienna for talks with ministers aimed at accelerating the process.
"The law in this country does more to protect Nazis than to bring them to justice," Zuroff told reporters after talks with Austria's ministers for justice and the interior.
"There is a system here that makes Austria a paradise for Nazi war criminals, plain and simple," he added.
Austria's interior ministry declined to comment while the justice ministry was not immediately available for comment.
One case Zuroff raised in his meetings was that of Milivoj Asner, who fled Croatia after being exposed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and now lives in the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt.
Zagreb has asked Vienna to extradite him but Austria has so far refused on the grounds he is Austrian and is therefore ineligible for extradition, Zuroff said.
Austria is investigating the accusations against Asner, which include overseeing the deportation of hundreds of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies to Nazi concentration camps.
Because Asner is alleged to have played a part in people's killings but not to have killed anyone himself, he cannot be tried in Austria because a statute of limitations applies to such crimes, Zuroff said.
Zuroff argues that Asner, who has Croatian and Austrian passports, should be deported because he obtained Austrian citizenship "under false pretences" by not declaring he was wanted for war crimes.
"The only hope we have here is that his Austrian citizenship gets canceled," Zuroff said.
Zuroff also said not enough was being done to find war crimes suspects or inform the public of who these suspects are.
"There are too many people in this country who want these problems to disappear. This is the problem, and this is why we came here to press the case because if we didn't press the case nothing would happen."
He criticized the way investigations were handled. "Apparently the modus operandi is not to look very hard for evidence and then to speak to the suspect and ask him: 'Well, are you guilty?"' he said.
Simon Wiesenthal was a hero to all mankind, he dedicated his life to hunting down Nazi scum.
I'm glad to see the center that bears his name continues the fight.
In a few years, the hunt will end as all those who escaped will be dead.
The matter of educating folks as to the horrendous acts committed will not and should not end.
Simon Wiesenthal also believed in
Never Forget!
Hell, wasn't one of the PMs a Nazi a few years back?
And as far as 'never forget' goes; it's a rude joke. The world 'forgets' all the time. Cambodia, China, the Ukraine, the USSR, Rwanda, Iraq, Iran slaughering religious minorities...never forget my ass.
L
a 20 year old in 1935 would be 91 today
wasn't one of the PMs a Nazi a few years back?
Kurt Waldheim is who you're referring too, I believe.
"In 1986 he was elected president of Austria, despite the scandal caused by the revelation that he had been an officer in a German army unit that committed atrocities in Yugoslavia during World War II; he denied any knowledge of the atrocities.
An international investigation cleared him of complicity, but many felt he must have known more than he revealed. His tenure as president was marked by international isolation, and he did not run in 1992."
And these are the people that didn't want Tookie executed.
Thanks.
Specifically, I believe he was an intelligence officer.
Arresting a 90 something year old won't do anybody any good.
L
Mr. Zuroff should be pressuring Croatia to bring charges against Asner instead of pressuring Austria.
"...the ex-Wehrmacht intelligence officer with an annual pension of $124,754 which he receives in Vienna and can expect to collect every year until the day he dies, the Daily News has learned."
"(The U.N. General Assembly) voted Waldheim a series of pension-allowance raises even as evidence surfaced of his alleged role in the mass deportations of Greek and Yugoslav Jews to Nazi death camps, and in the execution of Allied prisoners, in 1942-45."
"Because the U.S. share of the UN's regular budget was 25% until January 2001, when it was reduced to 22%, Washington has shelled out about $555,000 of the total."
L
Kurt Waldheim (Second from the left.) with Artur Phleps outside of the Podgorica, Montenegro airfield in 1943.
I should have included this:
"Between 1982 and the end of this year, the disgraced diplomat will have pocketed more than $1.8 million."
Q. What is Waldheimer's Disease?
A. When you forget that you were once a Nazi.
I always thought the Iron Curtain was a way to keep western media and peoples relatives out of eastern Europe's/USSR's killing fields from investigating the 60 million that were murdered and property stolen.
I also found it strange that the term "IRON CURTAIN" was used by a Nazi describing what USSR was all about.
Than Winston Churchill popularized the term "Iron Curtain".
Who is next....
that's what I was thinking
Communists can kill hundreds of millions and still get a pass from most people, including Jews.Especially Jews. There is no human being more idealistic and more stupid on planet earth than a leftist Jew. They support all manner of communist schemes that invariably ending up turning anti-semitic in the extreme.
Are you a Jew? Are you a leftist? You are one brain-dead SOB. And your numbers are legion.
ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.