Word: telegrams
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...German soldiers supported by troops of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia crushed a band of resistance fighters on Mount Kozara in western Yugoslavia. In the aftermath of the battle, according to controversial -- and still unauthenticated -- new evidence, an officer belonging to Ustasi, the local fascist forces, sent a telegram calling for the removal of civilians to nearby concentration camps. Named in the telegram as the source of the order: Lieut. Kurt Waldheim, then a supply officer in the German army and now the beleaguered President of Austria...
...genuine, the telegram would be the first document directly linking Waldheim, 69, to possible war crimes in the Kozara campaign, in which an estimated 60,000 Yugoslav civilians died. It could also give the lie to Waldheim's steadfast denial that he participated in atrocities, and would indicate, as a Western diplomat put it, that Waldheim was "part of the conveyor belt that committed them...
...Waldheim's role on Mount Kozara has been proved." Plenca has turned over his Waldheim documents to Yugoslav Journalist Danko Vasovic, who plans to publish them in the spring. But Vasovic apparently could not wait to spread the news. Last week he sold the publication rights for the controversial telegram and other materials to Der Spiegel, the Hamburg-based weekly...
Legal experts could only speculate on the telegram's authenticity and whether it proved that Waldheim had committed war crimes. Declared an official of the U.S. Administration, which last year barred Waldheim from entering the country: "This document, if it is genuine, is more than prima facie evidence of Waldheim's guilt. Besides, where did he think they were being sent, to summer camp...
...share the document with the panel. Plenca questions the panel's methods, declaring, "They spent two hours a day for two days in the archives in Belgrade. How can that be compared to my investigations of 40 years?" True enough. But unless impartial experts are permitted to examine the telegram and other evidence thoroughly, his charges against Waldheim will remain clouded...