WALDHEIM CHARGES 'CONSPIRACY' AGAINST HIM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100130023-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: March 28, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/02 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100130023-4
ARTICLE NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGER 28 March 1986 FILE
ldheim Charges `Conspiracy UIgainSt Hlm
Waldheim
March 27 (AP) - Kurt
Waldheim says in an interview pub
lished today by a Belgrade daily that
the publication of documents asserting'.
that he joined in Nazi war crimes in
Yugoslavia was part of an "almost in-;
comprehensible conspiracy."
The former United Nations Secre-
tary General, who is a conservative-
backed candidate for the Austrian
presidency, told the Belgrade daily
Vecernje Novosti that his political op-
ponents were behind what he called a
"slander campaign."
In a recent autobiography, Mr. Wald-
heim discussed only his early military
service with the German forces on the
Soviet front in 1941, passing over his
subsequent World War II activities in
the Balkans with a German Army
group that conducted brutal campaigns
against Yugoslav partisans and their
civilian supporters.
Since information about the Balkan
phase of his military service first be-
came public earlier this month, Mr.
Waldheim has said that his duties were
those of a German-Italian interpreter
on the staff of the commander of Army
Group E. Gen. Alexander Lohr. The
general was tried in Belgrade as a war
criminal in 1947 and was executed.
Mr. Waldheim's interview with
Vecernje Novosti followed a day after
the newspaper published a Yugoslav
Government document of 1947 accus-
ing Mr. Waldheim of "murder, slaugh-
ter, shooting of hostages and ravaging
of property by burning of settlements"
in the course of an antipartisan cam-
paign in western Bosnia.
The document indicated that Yugo-
slavia had sought Mr. Waldheim's ex-
tradition in 1947 for war crimes.
Vecernje Novosti said that Mr. Wald-
heim telephoned the newspaper
Wednesday after publication of the
document and said:
"I have no doubt that the documents
kept in the Yugoslav archives contain
serious charges against me, but I as-
sure you that this is not the real truth."
He added that he was certain that
documents clearing him also existed in
the archives. He called on the Yugoslav:
Government to make them public and
thus clear him of any wrongdoing as a
soldier with the German forces.
The Yugoslav Government has re-
frained from commenting beyond a
statement by Prime Minister Milka
Planinc in Vienna this week that this
was purely an Austrian affair.
Simon Wiesenthal, head of the Jew-
ish Documentation Center here, said
the document prepared by the Yugo-
slavs was "the gravest disclosure so
far" against Mr. WsiUi.eim, but he
counseled caution:
West Germans Find Documents
BONN, March 27 (Reuters ) - A
spokesman for the West German mili-
tary archives in Freiburg said today
that documents show that Kurt Wald-
heim had filed intelligence reports
while serving with the German Army
in the Balkans.
The spokesman said that documents
covering Mr. Waldheim's service in
1943 and 1944 showed that he had'filled
in for the head of his unit in Armv
Group E and had drafted secret dis-
patches on the military situation in the
c'n.ief's absence.
Present in Antipartisan SweeP
BELGRADE. Yugoslavia, March 27
(Reuters) - In the interview with
Vecernje Novosti. Kurt Waldheim is
quoted as having said that he was in the
Kozara Mountains of western Bosnia in
1942 when the Germans conducted an
antipartisan drive in which thousands
of civilians were killed or sent to con-
centration camps.
"I was on Kozara," Mr. Waldheim
was quoted as having said. "At the
time of `Operation Kozara.' I was in
that territory, but was not directly in-
volved in the fighting."
When Vecernje Novosti asked Mr.
Waldheim about his earlier denials
that he had taken part in military
operations, he was quoted as having
said, "Who can remember everything
from the war period?"
Some 68,000 people were deported
from the Kozara Mountains, including
23,000 children, most of whom never re-
turned to her burned-down villages.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/02 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100130023-4