New Document Shows That Waldheim Cooperated with the Soviets During Their Invasion of Czechoslovakia

The World Jewish Congress has released a document here which the WJC said shows Kurt Waldheim cooperated with the Soviets during their 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by attempting to block Austria’s granting of asylum to fleeing Czechs.

The WJC release on Thursday followed an expose in The Washington Post which reported that top former Yugoslav intelligence officials said the Yugoslav intelligence cooperated with Soviet intelligence to attempt to blackmail Waldheim with a Yugoslav indictment charging Waldheim with war crimes.

The WJC said it had uncovered a secret cable that Waldheim sent in 1968, when he served as Austrian Foreign Minister, to the Austrian Embassy in Prague ordering the Embassy to close its doors to Czechs seeking asylum and to throw out any Czechs in the building.

WALDHEIM’S SPOKESMAN ADMITS WALDHEIM LIED

In a related development from Austria, Waldheim’s spokesman admitted that Waldheim had lied about his whereabouts during a massacre of resistance fighters in the Koraza mountains of Yugoslavia carried out by the Army unit in which Waldheim served as a senior intelligence officer.

Waldheim previously denied any role in the Koraza massacres in the spring and summer of 1941 and said he was some 100 miles away from the site of the massacres during that time. But now Waldheim’s spokesman said that the former United Nations Secretary General who is now President of Austria did take part in the brutal campaign. However, the spokesman said, Waldheim was a “supply officer” and not involved in combat.

The WJC said Waldheim also lied about his role in Koraza to the United States Justice Department which is conducting an ongoing investigation into Waldheim’s wartime activities to determine if he should be placed on a watch list of Nazi war criminals who are barred from entering the United States.

The Post story cites an interview with the former head of Yugoslav intelligence in 1947-48, Anton Kolendic, who said the Yugoslav intelligence community had compiled the indictment and several other files on Waldheim’s alleged war crimes in cooperation with Soviet Agents who wanted to recruit Waldheim. Among those files was the evidence submitted to the UN War Crimes Commission in compiling the dossier that charged Waldheim as an accused war criminal, discovered last March. Kolendic said he had received instructions from the Soviets to recruit Waldheim and said he was “absolutely certain” the Russians had contacted Waldheim, according the Post. Another former Yugoslav intelligence agent told the Post that the Russians later informed Yugoslav intelligence that “Waldheim was recruited.”