U.N. condemns denials of Nazi Holocaust
By Evelyn Leopold 35 minutes ago
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution on Friday condemning denials of the Holocaust, weeks after
Iran sponsored a meeting dominated by speakers questioning the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews in World War Two.
The resolution, co-sponsored by more than 100 countries, including all Western nations, was approved by consensus, without a vote. Iran disassociated itself from the action, calling the resolution a political exercise that
Israel would exploit against Palestinians.
The resolution "condemns without any reservation any denial of the Holocaust" and "urges all member states unreservedly to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end."
It is a follow up to a broader November 2005 assembly measure making January 27 the International Day of Commemoration for victims of the Holocaust.
But at least 22 nations left their seats empty in the assembly hall, including Bolivia, Chile and Columbia, who had co-sponsored the resolution. Others not attending included Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan,
Syria, Tajikistan and Zimbabwe, according to U.S. officials.
Iran is not mentioned by name although the resolution is clearly aimed at a Tehran conference convened in December by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Most speakers expressed doubt about the Nazis' mass extermination of Jews.
Ahmadinejad came to power in August 2005 and caused an international outcry by terming the Holocaust a "myth" and calling Israel a "tumor" in the Middle East.
Iran's envoy Hossein Gharibi told the assembly, "In our view there is no justification for genocide of any kind, nor can there be any justification for the attempt made by some -- particularly by the Israeli regime -- to exploit the past crimes as a pretext to commit new genocide and crimes."
Responded U.S. acting ambassador, Alejandro Wolff, "Iran stands alone, in shame, isolated, against the international community."
"Conferences like those sponsored by Iran are designed solely to polarize and incite hatred. If successful they can then use that hatred as a catalyst to justify genocide," Wolff said. "To deny the event of the Holocaust is tantamount to the approval of genocide in all its forms."
Said Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman, "While the nations of the world gather here to affirm the historicity of the Holocaust with the intent of never again allowing genocide, a member of this assembly is acquiring the capabilities to carry out its own."
"The president of Iran is in fact saying, 'There really was no Holocaust, but just in case, we shall finish the job."'
Middle East nations were not among the co-sponsors. But Egypt's U.N. ambassador, Maged Abedelaziz, said while he agreed with the resolution the world should also speak out against the rising "Islamaphobia."
Friday's measure is timed to coincide with the January 27 commemoration, which Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin emphasized was the day the Soviet Red Army liberated the large Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
Up to 1.5 million prisoners, most of them Jews, were killed in Auschwitz alone. A total of six million Jews and millions of others including Poles, homosexuals, Russians and Gypsies were murdered by the Nazis and their allies during the war.
Germany's U.N. Ambassador Thomas Matussek, representing the
European Union, said he was aware that the "unprecedented crime of the Holocaust was committed by Germans and in the name of Germany and from that stems our special responsibility."