JERUSALEM, Mar. 1 -- Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas made an emotional appeal for forgiveness Wednesday to Israel's parliament for the part Lithuanians played in the Nazi Holocaust more than 50 years ago, and vowed to prosecute war criminals 'publicly, consistently and conscientiously.' Brazauskas, on his first visit to Israel, told the Knesset he would answer the question that, he said, 'hangs in the air of this chamber and to which you all await an answer.' He then asked forgiveness for his countrymen who, he said, 'ruthlessly killed, shot, deported and robbed Jews.' 'In the final analysis, conscience and shame do exist,' the president said. However, Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center that has traced and tracked down fugitive Nazi members to be tried for war crimes, said he is unconvinced. 'Frankly we have been hearing nice declarations for some time now,' Zuroff said. 'I'm still waiting for the first (Lithuanian) president to stand up and say thousands of Lithuanians were involved. His apology wasn't specific enough.' An estimated 220,000 Lithuanian Jews were killed during the Holocaust. The Wiesenthal Center claims 5,000 Lithuanian war criminals were exonerated by a 1991 government pardon and received benefits under the 1990 rehabilitation law. After a working meeting with Brazauskas, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in a statement Wednesday that Israel was 'unwilling to accept' the rehabilitation of Lithuanians who took part in the Holocaust, and called for 'mistakes of the past' to be corrected. Brazauskas told the Knesset he was committed to an 'acknowledgment of the truth.'
He had issued a decree the week before empowering Lithuania's Supreme Court to review rehabilitation cases, which would leadthe way to prosecution of alleged war criminals. At a later meeting, Brazauskas said he would not repeal the 1991 law on grounds it would be 'impossible' to claim that all rehabilitation cases are related to Holocaust killings. However, he said, 'We are ready and we are determined to investigate and review all cases in a joint effort with Israel.' (Written by Georgina Griffin in Jerusalem)
