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Berlin (dpa) - The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which hunts down
Nazi war criminals, criticized Germany on Monday for not
mounting enough war crimes trials.
In its annual report, it said not a single person was indicted
or convicted in the period between April 1, 2006 and March
31, 2007 in Germany for Nazi-era actions although a large
number of suspects remained alive.
The centre rated Germany's response as "poor" for
the first time since annual reports by the centre had begun
to be published in 2001.
Efraim Zuroff of the Centre's Jerusalem office, the author
of the report, said it was still feasible to prosecute ex-Nazis
for war crimes committed more than 62 years ago despite their
advanced age.
The report said the number of those convicted of Nazi war
crimes during the 12 months had risen to 21 from 16 one year
earlier.
The annual report praised the US Office of Special Investigations
for its success in unmasking and deporting war crimes suspects,
with Italy as the next best performer, managing for a second
time to convict 10 people within one year.
Zuroff said war crimes trials remained fully feasible, with
69 verdicts since January 2001 and at least 44 indictments
recorded. He said the obstacle was not the age of the defendants
but a lack of political willpower.
He said Sweden and Norway were no longer mounting inquiries
at all because prosecutions were legally out of time under
their law, while nations such as Syria had no provision to
catch suspects at all.
The centre says one of those it would like to still see
brought to justice is Alois Brunner, who is believed to live
in Syria and was an aide to Adolf Eichmann, the organizer
of the "Final Solution."
The centre, founded in 1977 and named after the late "Nazi
hunter" Simon Wiesenthal, is based in Los Angeles.
Zuroff said he found Germany's record in the 2006-2007 period
all the more disappointing as there was no significant political
group that opposed the prosecution of war criminals.
The report was even more critical of nations such as Austria,
Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Canada, which it charged had
opened dozens of inquiries but brought none at all to trial.
expatica.com
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