OPINION
CONTENTS
Ukrainian Concern:
Justice Or Cover Up?
PATIENCE T. HUNTWORK
A
s a lawyer, I feel
obliged to correct
several misconcep-
tions contained in a recent ar-
ticle by Russ Bellant (June 30
Jewish News). The article
concerned a June 25 town
meeting in Warren at which
I and others spoke about
grave procedural deficiencies
in the Justice Department's
search for Nazi war criminals.
1. Mr. Bellant incorrectly
referred to the Town Meeting
as part of a campaign to "curb
the prosecution" of alleged
war criminals. Far from "cur-
bing" prosecution, the legal
reforms which I and others
advocate would expand the
powers of the Office of Special
Investigations to those of a
criminal prosecution unit,
and would arm OSI with the
Are recent
criticisms of the
Office of Special
Investigations
based on human
rights or
protecting Nazis?
means to keep alleged war
criminals within the court's
jurisdiction until they can be
brought to justice. (At pre-
sent, some defendants of OSI
have escaped justice by simp-
ly leaving the jurisdiction.)
The same legal reforms
which we advocated at the
town meeting have recently
been enacted into law in
Canada and Australia. Great
Britain is in the process of
considering the proper
method for pursuing alleged
war criminals within its
borders. A British spokesman
stated in Boston in March
that Great Britain is not con-
sidering the civil system now
being administered by OSI.
In view of the trend in other
nations sharing our legal
traditions, there is no
legitimate reason why OSI
should feel threatened by the
proposed criminalization. Af-
fording a criminal trial to
those accused of war crimes is
far preferable to today's
system, which requires the
defendant to, in effect, stand
trial for genocide without a
jury, appointed counsel, the
Fifth Amendment privilege,
the presumption of innocence
Patience Huntwork is an
attorney in Phoenix, Ariz.
CLOSE-UP
Thomas Friedman's
Disillusionment
and other fundamental
safeguards of criminal law.
2. Mr. Bellant's article inac-
curately reported that "vir-
tually all the speakers"
described the OSI as part of a
"sinister conspiracy of the
`Jewish Lobby,' the KGB, or
both." An audiotape of the
town meeting reveals that no
speaker made any such state-
ment and in fact the speakers
repeatedly emphasized the
inter-ethnic
for
need
tolerance and understanding.
If such a statement as quoted
by Mr. Bellant had been
made, I would unhesitatingly
condemn it as offensive and
anti-Semitic.
In view of the painful, at
times devastating, toll taken
by real anti-Semitism, no
responsible reporter should
create fictional anti-
Semitism, as appears to have
occurred in this case.
3. Mr. Bellant describes the
advocates of criminal trials as
"Ukrainian groups." This is
also inaccurate. Those calling
for reform of OSI procedures
have been lawyers, human
rights activists, columnists
and editorial writers across
the country, spanning all
ethnic groups. Like myself,
the vast majority of them are
non-Ukrainian, and a
number of them are Jewish.
Uniformly, they have had
grave concerns about the civil
liberties afforded the defen-
dant under the current
system. Any suggestion that
such concerns are limited to
Ukrainians is misleading and
inaccurate.
4. Contrary to Elizabeth
Holtzman's assertion, the ex
post facto clause is not an ap-
parent bar to criminalization.
The purpose of the ex post fac-
to clause is to forbid
criminalization of conduct
which was lawful when com-
mitted. Needless to say, acts
of Nazi genocide were not
lawful when committed. In-
stead, they were heinous
violations of international
law and the laws of humanity.
5. Mr. Bellant implies that
the Ukrainian Congress
Committee of America is
discredited by reason of its
the
with
association
Organization of Ukrainian
Nationalists (OUN), an
underground resistance
movement formed in 1929 to
seek liberation of Ukraine
from totalitarian rule.
Mr. Bellant is mistaken. By
the time of the Nazi invasion
of Ukraine, the Soviet regime
Continued on Page 12
22
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STEVEN M. HARTZ
After years in one field,
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BOOKS
42 A Thousand Horrors
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NANCY WARTIK
The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust
will be the definitive reference.
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ENTERTAINMENT
So This Guy . • .
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Henny Youngman has made a career
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8:39 p.m.
July 28, 1989
Sabbath ends July 29 9:45 p.m.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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