Latvia pressured to prosecute Kalejs

RIGA - Latvia's World War II past, the efforts of its prosecutor
general's office to bring war criminals to justice and a recent
discovery created an explosive reminder of the country's struggle to
deal with its history.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an organization dedicated to tracking
those suspected of crimes against humanity during World War II, found
86-year-old Konrads Kalejs living in England in mid-December.

Kalejs is alleged to have killed tens of thousands of Jews as an
officer with Arajs Kommando during the years 1941 to 1944.

In spite of these allegations, no country, including Australia,
Canada, the United States or Latvia, has ever convicted Kalejs of war
crimes.

However, the United States deported him in 1993, nearly 10 years
after it launched an investigation into Kalejs. Canada deported him
in August 1997.

Since the Wiesenthal Center discovered the octogenarian in England,
the British government has considered deporting Kalejs to Australia
where he retains citizenship.

"The Home Secretary is minded to deport Mr. Kalejs, and Mr. Kalejs
has seven days in which to make representation. And that's before the
final decision is taken either way," said Sarah Murrell, the British
Embassy's press secretary in Latvia.

Wiesenthal Center, which wants Kalejs to face justice either in
Britain or in Latvia, on Dec. 29 condemned the Latvian government for
failing to take action.

"Latvia has enjoyed almost a decade of independence, but to date not
a single local Nazi collaborator has ever been prosecuted for his
crimes in your country, nor has Latvia ever sought the extradition of
any of the many escaped Latvian war criminals who fled to the West in
World War II," said the organization's press release.

Latvia's prosecutor general's office investigated Kalejs for his
connections to war crimes more than two years ago, but found no
evidence to support the allegations made against him in October 1997.

Nevertheless, court documents obtained from the United States
suggested Kalejs has often evaded authorities there, and in Australia
and Canada in the last two decades.

He moved to Australia after Germany's defeat in World War II, but
came to the United States in 1959, claiming to be a farm laborer
during the war.

The U.S. Justice Department started investigating Kalejs in 1984, but
he fled to Australia and Canada before he was arrested.

He returned to the U.S., and tried to assume a new identity before he
was captured in April 1985.

"In the more than eight years since his arrest, Kalejs has bitterly
disputed the charges that he was an officer in a pro-Nazi unit that
killed tens of thousands of people, and that he assisted in other
persecutions as an army officer, policeman and concentration camp
guard," said the 1993 court document.

Kalejs told U.S. authorities he was a student who joined a police
unit of skiers before developing an ulcer and working part-time on a
farm.

The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Kalejs was a member of the Arajs
Kom-mando and he misrepresented himself on his original application
to emigrate to the United States.

The Wiesenthal Center's discovery of Kalejs in England, and the
subsequent coverage in the British press sparked Latvia's prosecutor
general's office to start investigating Kalejs on charges of war
crimes and genocide.

The prosecutor general's office has asked both the British government
and the Wiesenthal Center for information and evidence substantiating
the allegations against Kalejs.

"Starting a criminal investigation does not give a reason to turn to
the United Kingdom to ask for Kalejs' extradition," said the
prosecutor general's office.

"After an investigation and evidence is found, the prosecutor's
office can turn to the court and request a warrant for Kalejs'
arrest, draw up charges and ask for the extradition of Kalejs."

Yet such a finding will hardly be automatic, given the sensitive
nature of Latvia's intertwining pasts of Nazi and Soviet occupations.

Jewish organizations like the Wiesenthal Center have accused the
Latvian government of failing to prosecute people, like Kalejs, who
allegedly committed atrocities during World War II.

Latvians have accused Jews of supporting the Soviet deportations and
murders of Latvians; politicians and officials, on occasion, have
denied many people were complicit with the Nazis.

History, more than 50 years after it happened, once again remained
unresolved in Latvia.