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Tuesday January 7, 1997

Angered Jewish groups urge boycott of Swiss banks

MICHELE CHABIN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

They condemned the remarks of outgoing Swiss President Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, who last week termed "blackmail" calls from Jewish groups for his nation to set up a $250 million fund to begin compensating Holocaust victims and their heirs possibly entitled to money deposited in Swiss banks in the World War II era.

"If we agreed now to a compensation fund, this would be taken as an admission of guilt," Delamuraz told the Tribune de Geneve newspaper after stepping down as president.

"This is nothing less than extortion and blackmail," added Delamuraz. "This fund would make it much more difficult to establish the truth."

Instead, the Swiss government will wait until its newly appointed historical commission determines whether Switzerland misappropriated Jewish assets, said Delamuraz, who is now Swiss economics minister.

Delamuraz has since said he was sorry if he offended families of Holocaust victims but repeated it was not the right time to set up a compensation fund. Still, Switzerland's foreign minister phoned his Israeli counterpart Tuesday and apologized.

The Swiss government Tuesday also expressed interest in setting up a Holocaust memorial fund that would be funded by dormant bank accounts of Holocaust victims, not by the government.

Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Avraham Burg immediately rejected the Swiss plan, saying that it was dealing in words, not action.

At Sunday's news conference, the WJRO said it might attempt to implement the series of punitive measures if Swiss authorities do not denounce Delamuraz's statements and accelerate their investigation into Swiss-held Jewish assets from the Holocaust.

The WJRO, created in 1992 by the World Jewish Congress and the Jewish Agency, said the measures included calls for a withdrawal of investments in Swiss banks, cancellation of the banks' operating licenses and a lawsuit.

Burg and World Jewish Congress Secretary General Israel Singer said the WJRO had reluctantly proposed the punitive actions after Delamuraz's comments.

Singer said the WJRO would wait four weeks before taking any steps to give to the Swiss time to consider their position.

Noting that the Swiss government did not denounce Delamuraz's statement -- though a few legislators voiced their displeasure -- Singer said there has apparently been a "sea change" in the government's desire to resolve the Jewish assets case.

The WJRO may also file a class-action suit against the Swiss Bankers Association on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors and their heirs.

Other proposals include a call for private groups, as well as federal, state and local authorities in the United States and elsewhere, to withdraw their investments from Swiss banks.

If the Swiss government does not act soon, the WJRO may also ask U.S. legislators to probe the licensing of Swiss banks.

Acknowledging the measures could have deep repercussions, Singer said, "We do not take this matter lightly. But we cannot take the words of a person who speaks for a nation lightly, either."

Delamuraz's comments must be "rejected by Switzerland and the bankers clearly and very, very decisively," Singer added.

In Washington, the State Department blasted Delamuraz's charge that foreign critics were trying to undermine Switzerland's role as a world financial center.

"To make a charge that somehow an agency of the United States government is attempting to destabilize the Swiss banking system or is blackmailing the Swiss government is ludicrous," said State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns.

Burns said the United States is studying its own records to learn about U.S. actions in the 1940s regarding Holocaust victims' assets.

"People have a right to see the truth," said Burns.

Switzerland has been the focus of an international storm over its wartime dealings with Nazi Germany and the fate of Jewish assets deposited during the Holocaust.

Jewish groups have suggested that Switzerland set up a preliminary fund as "a good faith financial gesture."

Jewish and Swiss officials have been discussing creating a $250 million fund in recent weeks.

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