The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, September 19, 2002, Image 9

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    INTERNATIONAL
v rME BATTALION
9A
Thursday, September 19, 2002
|Jazi aid Papon freed
efore sentence was up
grater IS (AP) — Frail but now
v of our pe-a free man, wartime collaborator
lan the re; Maurice Papon walked out of
Rumsfeld prison Wednesday and into a
tteeonUc;storm of public outrage after
'g Wednesijudues ruled him too old and
with its iK sick to finish his 10-year sen-
nions tern e for helping send Jews to
e Iraq’s “r Nati death camps.
s for mo\-aBlo victims of France's
‘paring - wanime regime and their fami-
liel. the decision by appeals court
jud. es to release the 92-year-old
Papon after serving less than
thn ; years of his sentence erased
■ huge moral victory they won
will) his 1998 conviction.
mi Hi
plans
After the longest trial in
French history, Papon was con
victed for complicity in crimes
against humanity for his role in
deporting 1,690 Jews to
Germany as second-in-command
of Bordeaux area police. Most
were sent to Auschwitz death
camp and only a few survived.
Papon fled to Switzerland
after his conviction, but was
arrested and began serving his
sentence in October 1999.
“I can’t believe this is hap
pening," said Colette Guttman,
as she watched Papon shuffle out
of Paris' La Sante prison into a
[}Cm1
e Ru
Nazi collaborator released from prison
■ormer French official Maurice Papon, 92, convicted of collaborating
with the Nazis and sending French Jews to Nazi death camps,
was released from prison Wednesday after a court ruled he was
t> > old and sick to serve out his 10-year sentence.
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■ 942-1944: Papon
■erves pro-Nazi
■ichy regime as
■eputy prefect in
Hie Gironde
■refecture in
■outhwestern
■ranee.
■ 958: Named Paris
■olice chief.
■ 978: Named
Budget minister in
Kabinet.
(981: Wartime role
■evealed by satirical
■weekly; top French
Bssistance figures
|ay Papon gave
Bccasional service
t( > the underground,
Jut conclude he
Ihould have
resigned when the
^Boundup of Jews
H|egan in July 1942.
1982: Holocaust
1 Victims file suit;
prosecutors in
Bordeaux,
France,
SOUMCE: Associated Pres
open investigation.
1983: Papon first
charged with crimes
against humanity.
1987: Appeals court
dismisses case for
procedural
irregularities.
1988: Papon again
charged with crimes
against humanity.
1995: State
prosecutors in
Bordeaux reduce
charges to
complicity in crimes
against humanity.
1997: Court rejects
Papon’s final
appeal; trial opens
Oct. 8 in Bordeaux.
April 2, 1998:
Papon found guilty
of complicity in
crimes against
humanity for
organizing arrests
and deportations;
absolved of
complicity in
subsequent deaths
at Auschwitz.
October 1999:
Papon flees to
Switzerland, is
caught and
returned to France
to begin 10-year
sentence.
Sept. 18, 2002:
Appeals court
orders 92-year-old
Papon freed.
waiting car. "My father, my
mother and my uncle were killed
at Auschwitz because of people
like Papon, who now have the
right to rest in their old age.”
Papon’s lawyers hailed his
release as "a great victory.”
Papon had triple coronary
bypass surgery several years ago
and has a pacemaker. His impris
onment set off a debate about the
ethics of jailing the elderly.
Jewish groups accused
France of turning its back on
Holocaust victims.
"We had fought so hard so he
would stay in prison,” said
Serge Klarsfeld. a Nazi hunter
and historian who helped pro
duce much of the evidence used
at Papon’s 1998 trial. His
release, he said, "gives a feeling
of injustice.”
"What I hope is that this sick
man doesn't turn out to be
healthy,” Klarsfeld said.
The U.S.-based Simon
Wiesenthal Center called the
release “a bad case of mis
placed sympathy.”
Israel's Foreign Ministry also
expressed regret.
"A man who committed such
grave crimes against the Jewish
people and humanity ought to
end his days in jail,” said
Israel’s deputy foreign minister.
Rabbi Michael Melchior.
Papon himself was said to
have been incredulous. "He
didn’t believe it,” lawyer Jean-
Marc Varaut told reporters out
side the prison. "I told him he
was free. He said: 'How did it
happen?”’
Lawyers said Papon didn’t
listen to the radio Wednesday
morning, so convinced was he
that this appeal would fail like
all those before.
He gathered his prison
belongings in stunned silence,
including framed photos of his
dead wife and Gen. Charles de
Gaulle, Varaut said.
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24
Accusations and visions of
peace at General Assembly
■ UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Amid more vio
lence in the Middle East. Israel and the Arabs trad
ed terrorism accusations at the U.N. General
Assembly Wednesday but held out the chance for
pe;ice in their 54-year-old conflict.
I Israel blamed Palestinian terror attacks for
rolling back effbrts toward a political settlement.
Still, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said
peace could still be achieved.
I "Terror postponed their destiny. Terror post
poned our willingness to end control over their
lives,” Peres said, referring to Palestinian attacks
and Israeli military occupation of towns in the
West Bank and Gaza.
I From the same podium, Lebanon’s Foreign
Minister Mahmoud Hammoud blamed Israel for
using terror "to implement its policies of expan
sionism and settlement.”
I The leaders spoke as more violence erupted in
the Middle East.
I A bombing in Israel broke a six-week lull in
Palestinian suicide attacks. A Palestinian blew
himself up at a bus stop in a northern Israeli Arab
town, killing one policeman and wounding two
others. Two Palestinians also died — one killed by
Israeli troops and the other apparently by
Palestinians who suspected him of being a collab
orator. Also, Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli
motorist in the northern West Bank.
And in Lebanon, Hezbollah guerrillas opened
up with anti-aircraft fire on Israeli fighter jets flying
reconnaissance missions over the country’s south.
That came as a water-diversion project in
southern Lebanon triggered cross-border ten
sions and threats.
On Tuesday at the United Nations, the so-
called Quartet of key global players trying to end
the Arab-Israeli conflict said they were trying to
forge a deal under which there would be a provi
sional Palestinian state next year and a final settle
ment of the conflict by 2005.
But Israel rejected a Palestinian offer to halt
attacks on civilians as the first stage of a gradual
truce, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said
Wednesday he would settle for nothing less than a
"total cessation” of violence.
Peres said Wednesday that Israel accepts
President Bush’s vision for Mideast peace, which he
said is supported by the Quartet — the United States,
the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
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