The famous Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff says that the Wiesenthal Center's Operation: Last Chance produced names of almost 200 Lithuanian suspects during the past year, with 32 names submitted to the Procurator General's Office for formal investigation.

However, Lithuanian authorities in charge of war crimes say that the campaign brought more data for historiography rather than criminal hearings.

The Zuroff-led Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a press release on Monday that it had received names of 184 suspects accused of participation in Holocaust crimes in Lithuania or as members of Lithuanian Security Police units outside the country during the initial year of its Operation: Last Chance project launched together with the Targum Shlishi Foundation of Miami in July 2002 in Vilnius.

"The center is looking forward to the opening of additional official investigations against at least several of the suspects," reads the statement.

"The results achieved during the first year of Operation: Last Chance in Lithuania are the best proof of the significance of this project. Most of the names submitted to us were unknown and they constitute an important addition to our knowledge of the identity of the perpetrators of the Holocaust," said Zuroff.

Valentukevicius, chief prosecutor in charge of special investigations, told BNS he had received information from Zuroff on several occasions during the pat years, noting that the majority of data was "fragmentary and without actual grounds."

"Most of Zuroff's data could be important for historiography and archives, but unfortunately it is of little use for legal assessment and prosecution," said Valentukevicius.

However, in his words, all data was investigated in the framework of the new Code of Criminal Process.

"The possibility cannot be ruled out that the facts had already been checked. Among those sentenced and repressed in the after-war period, there were hundreds charged with Jewish genocide. Zuroff's material speaks about specific facts, events and names but there isnothing to catch on," said Valentukevicius.

Among "more serious and potential" data yet to be confirmed theprosecutor mentioned the recently started pre-trial investigation ofthe massacre of two Jewish families (10 persons) in the Rokiskisdistrict in August 1941. Zuroff mentioned four suspects, two alreadydeceased, one living in Lithuania and one abroad. The data is beingprobed by the State Security Department's Panevezys Office.

Last July, Zuroff offered a bonus of 10,000 U.S. dollars forinformation leading to prosecution of war criminals, with the prizeto be awarded only in cases when the suspect is prosecuted andsentenced.

According to the Monday's press release, the center has not yetpaid any financial rewards to informants in Lithuania but will do soas soon as there is an official murder investigation against anysuspect healthy enough to stand trial.

The analogous campaign in Estonia was a failure, in the opinionof the country's security police.

Nazis and their local perpetrators massacred about 90 percent ofLithuania's pre-war Jewish population of 220,000 during the World WarII.