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Friday December 8, 2000

World Report

JOHANNESBURG (JTA) -- A Muslim radio station is asking a court to overturn a section of the broadcasters' code of conduct that prohibits hate speech.

The station said the section of the broadcasters' code should be revoked because it is too broad and limits freedom of expression. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies lodged a complaint against Radio 786 for airing a program that dealt with the ideology of Zionism.

Appearing on the program was Yacoub Zaki, a historian at the Muslim Institute in London.

During the broadcast, Zaki said, "I accept that 1 million-plus Jews died during the Second World War, but I dispute the fact that they were murdered, that they were killed by gassing.

"These people died, like other people in the camps, from infectious diseases, particularly typhus," he said.

The court has not yet delivered a ruling, but is expected to soon.

Croatian judiciary rejects Nazi appeal

ZAGREB (JTA) -- Croatia's highest court upheld a 20-year sentence imposed last year on the commander of a World War II concentration camp found guilty of crimes against humanity.

The court's decision on Monday ends a legal procedure that began more than two years ago, when Dinko Sakic was extradited from Argentina to Croatia.

Sakic was convicted in October 1999 after he was found responsible for the killings of about 2,000 people when he ran Croatia's Jasenovac concentration camp in 1944.

Bubbes and zaydes to get new visitors

WARSAW (JTA) -- The social welfare system of the Polish capital's Jewish community inaugurated a program called "Zaydele," or "Adopt-a-Grandparent."

Funded by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the program seeks to recruit volunteers among younger members of the Jewish community to spend a few hours each week with a Holocaust survivor.

The organization serves as an overseas arm of the American Jewish community. It sponsors programs of relief, rescue and reconstruction.

Survivors awaiting Austrian restitution

VIENNA (JTA) -- Austria will offer to pay Jews and other groups whose property was seized by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat said last Friday that victims' representatives have asked for no less than $1 billion from the Austrian government and companies.

Meanwhile, an Austrian committee last week recommended the return of two paintings looted by the Nazis from Austrian Jews.

The two paintings by Gustav Klimt include "Lady With Hat and Boa," valued at up to $9.5 million.

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