UK: LONDON: GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON NAZI GOLD UPDATE

(3 Dec 1997) English/Nat

Delegates arrived for the second day of the first global conference on Nazi gold in London on Wednesday morning.

Forty-one countries are represented at the conference, which is discussing what should happen to five-and-a- half tonnes of gold looted from Holocaust victims.

At the start of the conference on Tuesday, the United States and Britain launched a new fund for victims of Nazi persecution, each pledging (m) millions of dollars.

Delegates from 41 are attending the conference, held at Lancaster House in London.

Among the first to arrive, Ambassador Thomas Borer, head of Swiss delegation.

Also attending, the U-S Undersecretary of State, Stuart Eizenstat, head of the American delegation.

On Tuesday Eizenstat urged that records of the Tripartite Gold Commission - which the Allies established after the war to distribute looted Nazi gold - be opened immediately.

Lord Janner, the British lawmaker who persuaded Britain to host the conference, said he hoped France would take the lead in determining how to distribute the gold.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think we'll probably start with the French because the French will get forty percent of the gold from the tripartite commission, we don't yet know what they're going to do except one of their senior delegates told me they were not going to take it for their treasury, it will go to individuals but if it goes entirely to individuals in France, then most people will expect a great country like France to make a contribution also to survivors elsewhere."
SUPER CAPTION: Lord Greville Janner, Conference Organiser

Over the past 50 years, the commission has returned more than 300 tons of gold to 10 countries whose treasuries were sacked.

Britain, France and the United States run the commission.

They have proposed that nations with rights to the remaining five-and-a-half tons of looted gold give up their claims so it can be used to compensate individual victims.

At the start of the conference on Tuesday, the United States and Britain came up with nearly 6 (m) million dollars to launch a new fund for victims of Nazi persecution.

The United States hopes to offer a total of up to 25 (m) million over three years, if Congress approves.

Argentina and Luxembourg also will contribute.

The conference finishes on Thursday, a report on its findings will be published in February 1997.

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