Vienna - A low-key funeral of former Austrian President and
UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim began on Saturday morning in
Vienna's St. Stephens cathedral according to the late politician's
wishes with a requiem mass open for all those wishing to attend.
Waldheim, who was at the centre of controversy in the 1980s over
revelations about a Nazi past which he had kept secret, did not
receive a formal full state funeral since he was not the current
serving president.
Under slightly adapted funeral protocol, heads of state were
therefore not formally invited. The ceremony was attended members of
the Austrian government and dignitaries from neighbouring
Liechtenstein and South Tyrol.
The controversial former Austrian president will be laid to rest
in the presidents' vault on Vienna's central cemetery after two
commemorative ceremonies, one with members of the Austrian government
and a second at Vienna's UN offices attended by Vienna UN head
Antonio Maria Costa.
Waldheim had been internationally isolated due to his refusal to
discuss his Nazi past. He always rejected claims of his involvement
in war crimes, committed while his unit was stationed in the Balkans
and Greece during WW II.
In a letter published after his death, Waldheim 'deeply regretted'
that he 'took position on Nazi crimes fully and clearly much too
late.'
The accusations against him had nothing in common with his
thinking, he wrote, saying that his silence had nothing to do with
his beliefs, but with his outrage over the extent of the accusations.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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