Warsaw will seek compensation for damage the Nazis inflicted on the occupied capital during World War II if Germans forced from prewar homes in western Poland don't give up claims to their former property, the city's mayor said on Wednesday.
Some German groups and individuals have threatened to use Poland's entry into the EU on May 1 to regain property or seek compensation for land they were forced to give up in the aftermath of Germany's defeat in 1945.
"Our action is a reply to what is incredible German nerve," Lech Kaczynski said in an interview with TVN24 television. "That country caused the war, that country inflicted huge damage, that country carried out genocide on an unheard of scale and now it demands compensation."
Relations are generally good between Poland and Germany, which have painstakingly rebuilt ties since the collapse of communism in 1989 ended the division of Europe. Berlin strongly backed Warsaw's successful drive to join the EU.
But relations have grown tense over the property claims and over a recent focus in Germany on wartime suffering of ethnic Germans, which many Poles see as a symbol of fading remorse for Nazi Germany's crimes.
After the Third Reich collapsed in 1945, an estimated 12.5 million Germans lost their ancestral homes in present-day Poland, the Czech Republic and other parts of eastern Europe.
While the legal basis for German and Polish claims is unclear, Kaczynski insists that Poland's membership in the EU has made it eligible to claim war damages from Germany.
Kaczynski asked a group of experts last year to assess the wartime devastation of Warsaw. The work could take up to two years, Kaczynski said.
Studies done in the late 1940s put the damage at about US$30 billion, but the mayor said he expects the figure to be much higher.
"That sum will definitely be bigger," Kaczynski said, speaking a day ahead of a visit to Poland by German President Horst Koehler. "No one can say that it's possible to rebuild a city of 2 million for US$30 billion."
Much of Warsaw was flattened when the Nazis liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto and brutally crushed uprisings in 1943 and 1944. The city is still dotted with war-damaged buildings that Poles could not afford to repair.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) purge of his most senior general is driven by his effort to both secure “total control” of his military and root out corruption, US Ambassador to China David Perdue said told Bloomberg Television yesterday. The probe into Zhang Youxia (張又俠), Xi’s second-in-command, announced over the weekend, is a “major development,” Perdue said, citing the family connections the vice chair of China’s apex military commission has with Xi. Chinese authorities said Zhang was being investigated for suspected serious discipline and law violations, without disclosing further details. “I take him at his word that there’s a corruption effort under
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
RSS