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Annan asks UN members for Holocaust commemoration
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
begun to poll U.N. General Assembly members in an effort to convene a
special session to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi
concentration camps, U.N. officials said on Monday.
Soviet Red Army troops freed the Auschwitz concentration camp in
Poland on Jan. 27, 1945. The 60th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz is to be observed in 2005 as Holocaust Memorial Day.
"The secretary-general feels this would be an important event and
awaits the responses," said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
A majority of the 191-member assembly will have to approve the January
session, requested by the United States and supported by Russia,
France, Hungary, Canada and the Netherlands, representing the
25-member European Union as well as other nations.
U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, in a Dec. 10 letter to Annan, said the
General Assembly should convene three days before the anniversary to
avoid conflicting commemorations in Auschwitz.
U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, a California Democrat, visiting Annan on
Monday, said Arab nations had raised objections. However, Yahya
Mahmassani, the Arab League's U.N. ambassador, told Reuters he was
unaware of any opposition.
"I am appalled by what I understand is the opposition of some (Arab)
countries to this session, which reflects a degree of a historical and
mindless venom which is difficult to justify in the international
arena," Lantos told reporters, without naming any nation.
The secretary-general said he was determined to do everything in his
power to proceed with such a session," he added.
"I feel very deeply and strongly about the importance of a special
session," said Lantos, the only holocaust survivor in the
U.S. Congress.
Lantos survived by serving as a 15-year old messenger for Raoul
Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of
Hungarian Jews from Nazi destruction near the end of World War
II. Wallenberg is the uncle of Nane Annan, the wife of the
secretary-general.
Six million Jews were exterminated in the concentration camps and
millions of others -- including Poles, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners
and Gypsies -- were killed, imprisoned or used as slave labor.
A session on the Holocaust would mark a change for the General
Assembly, which sets aside several days a year for resolutions on the
rights of Palestinians and Israel's occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
12/13/04 21:52 ET
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
begun to poll U.N. General Assembly members in an effort to convene a
special session to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi
concentration camps, U.N. officials said on Monday.
Soviet Red Army troops freed the Auschwitz concentration camp in
Poland on Jan. 27, 1945. The 60th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz is to be observed in 2005 as Holocaust Memorial Day.
"The secretary-general feels this would be an important event and
awaits the responses," said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
A majority of the 191-member assembly will have to approve the January
session, requested by the United States and supported by Russia,
France, Hungary, Canada and the Netherlands, representing the
25-member European Union as well as other nations.
U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, in a Dec. 10 letter to Annan, said the
General Assembly should convene three days before the anniversary to
avoid conflicting commemorations in Auschwitz.
U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, a California Democrat, visiting Annan on
Monday, said Arab nations had raised objections. However, Yahya
Mahmassani, the Arab League's U.N. ambassador, told Reuters he was
unaware of any opposition.
"I am appalled by what I understand is the opposition of some (Arab)
countries to this session, which reflects a degree of a historical and
mindless venom which is difficult to justify in the international
arena," Lantos told reporters, without naming any nation.
The secretary-general said he was determined to do everything in his
power to proceed with such a session," he added.
"I feel very deeply and strongly about the importance of a special
session," said Lantos, the only holocaust survivor in the
U.S. Congress.
Lantos survived by serving as a 15-year old messenger for Raoul
Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of
Hungarian Jews from Nazi destruction near the end of World War
II. Wallenberg is the uncle of Nane Annan, the wife of the
secretary-general.
Six million Jews were exterminated in the concentration camps and
millions of others -- including Poles, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners
and Gypsies -- were killed, imprisoned or used as slave labor.
A session on the Holocaust would mark a change for the General
Assembly, which sets aside several days a year for resolutions on the
rights of Palestinians and Israel's occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
12/13/04 21:52 ET