ETHNIC GROUPS UNITE IN CALL TO DEPORT ‘NAZI ENABLERS’
By Diane Koven

Canadian Jewish News, Canada
Feb 7 2007

OTTAWA -Frustration with Canada’s lack of action in dealing with aging
war criminals living in this country brought together representatives
from several ethnic communities last week to press the federal
government to have them deported.

Canadian Jewish Congress was joined Jan. 30 in Ottawa by members of the
Armenian, Roma and Rwandan communities, representing peoples who have
been the victims of genocide, in calling on the federal government to
act before "time and natural death" renders action impossible. (The
Darfur Association of Canada also signed off on the effort, but its
representative was unable to attend the joint press conference).

Meeting reporters three days after International Holocaust Remembrance
Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 as
Jan. 27 (the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
death camp), the groups decried the fact that genocide is still
happening around the world, and they noted that Canada continues to
be a safe haven for people who have committed crimes against humanity.

In their various remarks, they highlighted the cases of six suspected
war criminals who are still living in Canada despite being found to
have acted as Nazi enablers by Canadian courts.

Helmut Oberlander, Vladimir Katriuk, Wasyl Odynsky, Jacob Fast,
Jura Skomatchuk and Josef Furman – whose alleged activities range
from being an SS guard to involvement with an elite killing unit –
all allegedly entered Canada by lying about their wartime pasts.

"It is long past time for them to be removed from this country," said
Ian Sadinsky of the communications and community relations committee
of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa. "Canada’s failure to do even
this small action is an insult not only to the victims of Nazism,
but also to the many other communities who have known the terror of
homicidal hatred.

"Canada should offer no haven for the enablers of genocide. Killing
machines depend not only on the hands that guide them, but also on
the cogs that move and mesh and yield death as their product."

Bernie Farber, CEO of Canadian Jewish Congress, said that "only a
handful of Nazi enablers remain in this country. These are individuals
like the collaborators Vladimir Katriuk and Jacob Fast or the labour
camp guards Wasyl Odynsky, Josef Furman and Jura Skomatchuk. They are
the men without whom the Nazis could not have done their bloody work.

"And when they came to Canada to start new lives, they lied about
their war-time activities in order to gain the precious privilege of
Canadian citizenship."

Farber said that the "need for urgency on the part of the government
of Canada is nowhere clearer than in the case of Helmut Oberlander.

Here you have an individual who was a translator for a mobile killing
unit responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews. He has lived
in this country for more than 50 years. His continued residency in
Canada is shameful."

Oberlander’s case, as well as those of the other five, "require only
political will to be resolved," said Leo Adler, director of national
affairs for the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust
Studies. "They dishonour the privilege of Canadian citizenship."

Jean-Paul Nyilinkwaya, a spokesperson for PAGE-Rwanda, said,
"We are also here because we have a debt of gratitude towards the
Canadian Jewish Congress and other advocacy groups, because they
started this battle for justice before the genocide happened in
Rwanda. It is because of their groundbreaking work that when we first
began noticing the presence [in Canada] of Rwandans suspected to be
genocide perpetrators around 1996, that there was a war crimes unit
at the RCMP to receive our complaints."

Aris Babikian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee
of Canada, said that "Armenians all over the world believe in
accountability and responsibility. The punishment of the guilty is
imperative, because it will help the civil society of the perpetrator
to atone for the crimes of its leaders and to reconcile with the
victim nation. As we have seen, without recognition of the crime and
punishment of the guilty, there can be no reconciliation."

Adler added that it’s "time for Canada to send those who lied about
their roles with the Nazis back to where they belong."

Miloslav Slavchev spoke on behalf of the Roma Community Centre. Also
in attendance was Liberal MP Susan Kadis.

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