Bronfman criticizes Ban's Waldheim visit

The president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Edgar M. Bronfman, has criticized a recent visit by the United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon to his disgraced predecessor Kurt Waldheim, in Vienna. In a letter to Ban, Bronfman wrote: “I was shocked to learn of your February 23 meeting with Kurt Waldheim…The United Nations War Crimes Commission assigned Waldheim its most serious suspect rating – the ‘A’ classification for complicity in Nazi war crimes, specifically accusing him of ‘putting hostages to death’ and ‘murder’… Waldheim was complicit in the roundup and execution of thousands of Jews and other innocent victims during the Holocaust.” Bronfman's letter added that the meeting “dishonors victims of the Holocaust, and undermines the UN’s credibility and effectiveness to prevent future genocides and war crimes.”

“At a time when you are personally working to cease the present-day genocide in Darfur, it is inconceivable that you would meet with Waldheim, who lied to the United Nations and the world about his own involvement in war crimes, and who the international community had marginalized for over 20 years. Given Waldheim’s stain on the UN’s record, your meeting also is an affront to the UN’s recent commitment to honoring the memory of the Holocaust.”

After the visit, a spokeswoman for Ban said that the two men had been friends for years, since the time when Ban was stationed as South Korean ambassador in Vienna. The World Jewish Congress president offered to meet with Ban to present to him the available evidence against Waldheim.

In the 1980s, a WJC-led campaign exposed Waldheim’s Nazi past and resulted in Waldheim being isolated by most governments in the Western world. Despite being president of the Austrian Republic, he was barred entry into the United States.

Read Edgar M. Bronfman’s letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

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