Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 30 2007

German bid for European Union law on Holocaust deniers faces
resistance

EU term president Germany’s proposal to punish Holocaust deniers in
all 27 member countries has been facing opposition from many fronts.
The Armenian lobby is also asking that the Armenian `genocide’ be
included in the draft.
While member countries such as Britain, Italy and Denmark oppose the
draft on the basis of freedom of expression, historians object to the
idea as a form of censorship. While trying to convince these two
fronts, Germany now has Baltic countries seeking the inclusion of
Stalin-era crimes in the draft, which Germany is lukewarm on. Turkey
has been closely following the developments, waiting for the draft to
be clarified.
German diplomats, speaking to Today’s Zaman, say there is no
reference to any historical event in the draft but cautions that the
topic will soon be discussed at the level of the Committee of
Permanent Representatives (COREPER). Diplomats cannot say whether the
Armenian question will be eventually included or not. The draft,
whose full name is the Framework Decision on Combating Racism and
Xenophobia, aims at penalizing the deniers of the Holocaust, war
crimes and crimes against humanity in all 27 member countries.
Germany, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, wants to
revive an initiative started by Luxembourg back in 2005 for tougher
laws on the incitement of racial hatred and historical revisionism.
This includes `the denial or gross minimization of genocide out of
racist and xenophobic motives.’
Germany outlined the main points of the draft in a press statement
released on Monday:
Public incitement to hatred and violence for reasons of racism or
xenophobia will be criminalized. This applies in all cases for
conduct that constitutes threats, insults or defamatory statements,
and for conduct that is apt to disturb the public peace. The
dissemination of writings with such content will be prohibited as
well. The maximum penalty for such conduct will be at least one to
three years in prison.
Public approval, denial or gross minimization of genocide, crimes
against humanity and war crimes within the meaning or Articles 6, 7
and 8 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (‘Rome
Statute’) and pursuant to Article 6 of the International Military
Tribunal of 1945 (Nuremberg Tribunal) against a group of persons or a
member of such a group, defined according to the criteria of race,
color, religion, descent, or national or ethnic origin, will be
criminalized. Here as well, the maximum penalty will be at least one
to three years in prison.
The Framework Decision does not identify specific cases of genocide,
crimes against humanity or war crimes; rather, it refers to the
Statute of the International Criminal Court and the International
Military Tribunal of 1945 and thus creates abstract offenses. Whether
a concrete historic crime falls within these definitions would be
decided by a court in each concrete and specific case. This occurred,
for example, with regard to the Holocaust. Pursuant to the Draft,
Member States have the possibility of making criminal liability
dependent upon the determination by a national or international court
that a concrete historic event constituted genocide, a crime against
humanity or a war crime.
European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini, in a written
declaration on Jan. 27, lent full support to the German proposal.
However, Frattini’s country Italy, drafted a law that proposes
penalties up to three years in jail for inciting racial hatred but
stops short of making Holocaust denial a crime. Some 200 Italian
historians have objected to the draft.

31.01.2007

SELÇUK GÜLTAŞLI BRUSSELS