Evidence lacking—President

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 6

Evidence lacking —President

NZPA-Reuter Vienna The Austrian President, Dr Rudolph Kirchschlaeger, has said he has not received sufficient evidence to bring a Presidential candidate, Kurt Waldheim, to court on charges of Nazi war crimes. In a 22-minute television address to the nation yesterday, Dr Kirchschlaeger, aged 71, a former judge, told his countrymen they had to decide whether to vote for Dr Waldheim on May 4. Dr Kirchschlaeger said documents passed to him from New York from the archives of the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the World Jewish Congress lacked sufficient evidence to charge Dr Waldheim, who has denied committing war crimes. But he said the documents showed that Dr

Waldheim must have been fully informed about the German Army’s conduct of the war in the Balkans because he was the staff officer drawing up daily reports in the region. “Expect no verdict from me,” the President said. “What conclusions

you draw for the presidential election... must be left to you alone.” Dr Kirchschlaeger had asked for the documents after W.J.C. allegations that Dr Waldheim had been engaged in deporting Greek Jews and atrocities against Yugoslav civilians, and partisans. Dr Kirchschlaeger said the documents he had examined showed that the War Crimes Commission had given the documents on Dr Waldheim an “A” rating out of four possible levels of importance. “This means that the commission was of the opinion that (there was) a clear prima facie proof, that is to say a first-glance proof that the deed took place and that the accused should be arraigned before a national trial,” he said. He noted that the “A” rating was given to nearly 25,000 of 36,000 cases re-

gistered by the United Nations War Crimes Commission. “Now to my personal judgment of this dossier ... if I was placed in the position of a public prosecutor, I would not dare to raise charges on the basis of the evidence laid

before me.” Dr Waldheim has repeatedly denied the accusations and said they were aimed at thwarting his bid for the Presidency. . In a first reaction Dr Waldheim, who is backed by the conservative opposition People’s Party (0.E.V.P.), said Dr Kirchschlaeger’s statement had cleared him of the charges. “With the statement all the allegations against me have collapsed.” His main rival, the former Health Minister, Kurt Steyrer, the governing Socialist Party’s candidate, praised the President’s “objective presentation” of the facts and for leaving it to the Austrian people to make up its own mind. • In Tel Aviv, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, said his country would ask for the files of some 43,000 former Nazis