Austria In Search of the Smoking Gun

By John Greenwald

In the summer of 1942, following some of the bitterest fighting of World War II, 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.

If 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."

The alleged evidence was unveiled last week by Yugoslav Historian Dusan Plenca, 63, who has spent more than 40 years studying the World War II campaigns in his country and has published seven books on the subject. Says he: "As far as I am concerned, Kurt 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.

Der Spiegel, which is publishing the document this week, released its text last weekend. It reads in full: "Very urgent. Lieutenant Kurt Waldheim of General Stahl's staff requests that 4,224 prisoners from Kozara, consisting mainly of women and children and about 15% of old men, be sent on the way: 3,514 to Grubisino Polje and 730 to Zemun." Both were transit camps, channeling people to labor or concentration camps in Germany and Norway. There was no explanation of why the total (4,224) differed from the sum of the two separate figures (4,244).

Der Spiegel claims that it conducted tests on the paper, ink and official markings to verify the age of the document. But Waldheim's supporters quickly dismissed it as a fake. Presidential Spokesman Gerold Christian said Waldheim "had neither ordered deportations nor rendered them possible in any way." Others said Plenca's disclosure seemed timed to cast doubt on a forthcoming report by a panel of international historians charged with examining Waldheim's war record. Initiated by the Austrian Foreign Ministry last summer, the group plans to deliver its final report next week.

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?"

So far, the commission has received little help from Plenca, who refused to 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.

With reporting by Kenneth W. Banta/Belgrade and Gertraud Lessing/Vienna