Nazi hunter brands Austria 'paradise' for war criminals

BERLIN - An internationally renowned Nazi hunter yesterday described present-day Austria as a "paradise for Nazi war criminals" and bitterly criticised its government and legal authorities for failing to bring suspected Holocaust perpetrators to justice.

Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Jerusalem branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, accused Austria of being utterly complacent in its efforts to capture the country's ageing Nazi war crimes suspects before they died.

"Austria is a paradise for Nazi war criminals," Mr Zuroff told a press conference in Vienna.

"Its investigation of suspects is inadequate and the legal position is outrageous. In Austria war criminals are freely able to talk about their crimes," he added.

Mr Zuroff's broadside followed a meeting he held yesterday with the Austrian Interior and Justice Ministers as part of the Wiesenthal Center's "Operation Last Chance" which is trying to bring ageing Nazi war crimes suspects to trial before they die.

The Wiesenthal Center has identified 83 suspected Austrian Nazi war criminals who are still alive.

But Mr Zuroff said that the 77 suspects currently being investigated by the Austrian Justice authorities were being dealt with "slowly and passively" and that little effort was being made to press charges against them.

Those war crime suspects still alive include Aribert Heim, a medical doctor who experimented on Jewish prisoners at the Nazi's Mauthausen concentration camp, Millivoj Asner, a former Croatian police officer suspected of sending hundreds to the death camps and Erna Wallisch, a Nazi concentration camp guard who allegedly escorted prisoners to the gas chambers.

Of the three, Aribert Heim is the most notorious Nazi war crime suspect still on the run.

He is alleged to have murdered hundreds of prisoners at the Mauthausen camp by conducting gratuitous medical experiments on them during the seven-week that he spent there in 1941.

A court which tried Heim in his absence in 1979 concluded that he "wallowed in the fear of death suffered by his victims" while performing brutal operations on fully conscious prisoners.

Austria launched a criminal investigation into his case in 1957.

He is now 91 and there have been alleged sightings of him in South America, Egypt, Spain and Germany.

However Mr Zuroff said yesterday that he had been told by Karin Gastinger, the Austrian Justice Minister, that "a new law" would be needed if Austria was to contribute to increasing the Dlrs 325,000 reward currently offered by Germany and the Wiesenthal Center for information leading to Heim's arrest.

"We don't need a new law to be passed. We need action," Mr Zuroff said.

"If Heim is caught alive and brought to justice, there is no question that it will be the most important Nazi war crimes trial in 30 years," he added.

Mr Zuroff also accused the Austrian authorities of dragging their feet in the case of Millivoj Asner, who holds dual Austrian and Croatian citizenship.

Croatia charged Asner with crimes against humanity last year and asked Austria to extradite him to stand trial.

Austria refused on the grounds that he held Austrian citizenship.

"The terrible reality of this country is that Asner cannot be brought to trial in Austria for his crimes," Mr Zuroff said.

"Austria owes it to the victims of the Nazi regime to to do everything in its power to bring suspected war criminals to justice," he added.

The Austrian government did not provide any immediate response to Mr Zuroff's criticisms yesterday.

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