World Notes Austria

Kurt Waldheim's past just will not go away. The Washington Post reported that % the Austrian President had admitted participating as a supply officer in the 1942 German army operation in the Kozara area of Yugoslavia that left thousands of partisans dead. The Post quoted Gerold Christian, a Waldheim spokesman, as saying that an earlier statement in which the Austrian leader denied he was in the province "was incorrect." In a separate article, the newspaper reported that in 1947 and 1948 Yugoslav and Soviet operatives had tried to blackmail Waldheim into becoming a Communist agent by threatening to accuse him of war crimes.

The stories produced a new flurry of charges and countercharges over Waldheim's wartime record. In Austria, Christian sought to clarify the Kozara episode, emphasizing that the former United Nations Secretary-General never actually fought the Yugoslav partisans and noting that this was not the first time he had admitted being in the area. He also denied that the Soviets had conspired to recruit Waldheim.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Justice Department was still considering whether to place Waldheim on a watch list of suspected war criminals, which would bar him from visiting the U.S.