The Hindu : International : Waldheim is dead

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Friday, Jun 15, 2007
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International

Waldheim is dead

Kurt Waldheim

VIENNA: Former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, who was elected Austrian President died today. He was 88.

Waldheim, who was hospitalised in Vienna late last month with an infection, died at home of heart failure at 1245 p.m. (1625 IST), state broadcaster ORF reported. It said family members were at his bedside when he died.

Waldheim's legacy as UN chief from 1972-81 and his tenure as president from 1986-92 were overshadowed by revelations that he belonged to a German army unit that committed atrocities in the Balkans during World War II.

While Waldheim himself was not implicated in wrongdoing, his initial denial of such service - and then assertions that he and fellow Austrians were only doing their duty led to international censure and a decision by Washington to place him on a "watch list" of people prohibited from visiting the US. That ban was never lifted.

President Heinz Fischer issued a statement expressing his "deepest condolences," and officials lowered the flag flying outside his office to half-staff this afternoon.

"We have lost a great Austrian," Vice Chancellor Wilhelm Molterer said today.

Former Chancellor Wolfgang Schuesel called Waldheim "a great fighter for peace and freedom in the world," but said he endured bitter personal experiences that "unjustifiably moved him into the proximity of war criminals."

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