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Friday September 13, 1996

Congress may attempt to stop U.N. pension for ex-chief Waldheim

SHAWN COHEN
Washington Jewish Week

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The United Nations, the same entity now taking a stand against war criminals in Bosnia, is still paying former Nazi and accused war criminal Kurt Waldheim nearly $100,000 annually as pension for his past service as U.N. secretary general.

The Congress, which 10 years ago tried to have these funds cut, is again ready to take on an issue that has stupified several Jewish leaders.

"We think this is unconscionable," said Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), "but the reality is that this is the same U.N. that maintains Kurt Waldheim's portrait in the main lobby of its secretariat building."

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) plans to introduce a measure that once again puts Congress on record urging the administration to use its influence at the United Nations to end Waldheim's pension.

Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D-N.Y.) introduced a similar resolution in 1986 that was approved as part of that year's anti-terrorism act. It instructed the U.S. representative to the U.N. to eliminate Waldheim's retirement allowance from its regular program budget.

To date, no action has been taken. Waldheim, who served in the U.N. post from 1972 until 1982, was paid more than $88,000 in 1995, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Adjusted for inflation, the accused Nazi has received in excess of $1 million since 1982.

For decades after World War II, Waldheim lied about his service as a young German Army intelligence officer attached to a unit in the Balkans which assisted in the deportation of Jews. Neverthless, he was elected president of Austria after his U.N. work and after admitting his wartime activities.

In 1986, he was placed on the Justice Department's "watch list" of suspected Nazi war criminals and barred from entering the United States.

"The United Nations does itself a great disservice by paying Mr. Waldheim a large pension at the same time he is writing revisionist history which whitewashes his Nazi crimes and blames the American Jewish community for his problems," said Maloney, who earlier this year pushed the "War Crimes Disclosure Act" to subject U.S. intelligence files on war crimes suspects, such as Waldheim, to the Freedom of Information Act.

Some maintain Waldeim deserves the U.N. pension. "The fact is that he served [as U.N. secretary general]. And since he served, he is entitled to the pension," said Harris Schoenberg, director of U.N. affairs for B'nai B'rith International.

"Unfortunately, the fact is that the U.S. government knew he was a war criminal and yet voted for him anyway [as secretary general]."

In promoting the 1986 congressional resolution, Moynihan argued that: "It is not a pension. There is no pension fund. It is, rather, an appropriation in lieu of a pension and is entirely optional with the General Assembly."

The WJC's Steinberg suspects that even if Congress does call the United States to cut off its share of U.N. funding, the move may prove largely symbolic. Regardless of whether U.S. funds are cut, he said, the United Nations still will fund Waldheim's pension.

"I don't think there is a real chance they will eliminate his pension," Steinberg said. "Having dealt with real politics at the U.N., it's unlikely to happen."

The fact that the United States already owes the United Nations more than $1 billion may limit the effect of such a move. "Because we [the U.S. government] are in arrears on our U.N. dues, we probably do not have the purse-string power to pull the plug on the pension," said a spokesperson for Maloney.

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