← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Valley Forge
Thread ID: 12171 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2004-02-05
2004-02-05 23:26 | User Profile
[SIZE=5]SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER LAUNCHES ââ¬ÅOPERATION: LAST CHANCEââ¬Â[/SIZE]
IN LITHUANIA, LATVIA AND ESTONIA TO MAXIMIZE PROSECUTION OF NAZI WAR CRIMINALS --CONCLUDES PROJECT LAUNCH IN RIGA
Riga - 11 July 2002-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today concluded the initial stage of "Operation Last Chance" by launching the project in the Latvian capital of Riga. The project was presented at a press conference held at the local Jewish community with the participation of Israel director, Dr.Efraim Zuroff, who is coordinating "Operation Last Chance, "Targum Shlishi Foundation President Aryeh Rubin of Miami, who is funding the project and Mr.Arkady Suharenko, Chairman of the Latvian Jewish community. The project has already been presented this week in Lithuania and in Estonia.
"In a country like Latvia, in which the only ongoing Nazi war crimes investigations are being carried out against suspects who have already died, I believe that Operation Last Chance is badly needed," said Zuroff. He pointed to the failure of the Baltic countries to prosecute Nazi war criminals since they obtained independence, emphasizing the lack of political will in this regard. "The results speak for themselves. In Latvia, a country in which there was extensive collaboration with the Nazis and more than 95% of the local Jewish community was murdered, not a single Nazi war criminal was ever convicted since Latvian independence."
Latvian nationalists tried to rattle Zuroff by demanding that Communist criminals also be included in the program, but the Israeli based Nazi hunter replied that the Centers expertise and priority was to bring Holocaust perpetrators to trial. Those who believed that Communist crimes were worse than those of the Holocaust should invest their energies in trying to bring the guilty to trial instead of attempting to interfere with the efforts of Nazi hunters," said Zuroff.
[url]http://www.wiesenthal.com/social/press/pr_item.cfm?ItemId=6011[/url]