ROMANIAN SENATE PRESIDENT DENIES ROMANIAN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000899

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR EUR/NCE - WILLIAM SILKWORTH; EUR/OHI - JOHN
BECKER

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI RO
SUBJECT: ROMANIAN SENATE PRESIDENT DENIES ROMANIAN
ANTISEMITISM, MINIMIZES ROMANIAN ROLE IN HOLOCAUST



1. (SBU) Summary. Social Democratic Party (PSD) Senate
President Nicolae Vacaroiu denied the existence of anti-
Semitism in Romania and downplayed Romania's role in the
Holocaust during an April 7 meeting with visiting U.S
Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
Chairman Warren Miller. Vacaroiu recognized the role of
Romania's World War II dictator in atrocities and pledged
support for establishment of a Holocaust remembrance
memorial in Bucharest. However, many of his comments
indicated a failure to acknowledge core facts presented by
the Wiesel Commission and mainstream commentators on
Romanian anti-Semitism and participation in the Holocaust.
Charge is sending Vacaroiu a letter correcting the latter's
fallacious assertions. End Summary.


2. (SBU) U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's
Heritage Abroad Chairman Warren Miller traveled to Bucharest
April 5-8 for a series of meetings with key figures to
discuss efforts to help protect sites of historical and
cultural importance to Jews and other groups who were
victims of the Holocaust in Romania. Senior officials in
the Liberal-Democratic (PNL-PD) alliance led government,
such as Presidential Advisor Andrei Plesu and Minister of
Culture Mona Musca, expressed strong support for Romanian
efforts to redress its Holocaust past and commitment to
implementing recommendations found in the Wiesel Commission
report. These include establishment of a Holocaust memorial
in a prominent location in Bucharest. However, discussions
with center-left Social Democratic Party (PSD) Senate
President Nicolae Vacaroiu on April 7 raised concerns about
lingering unwillingness to confront the country's past among
prominent members of the political class.


3. (SBU) Vacaroiu, a longstanding PSD leader and power
broker within the party, initiated the conversation by
asserting that Romania began redressing its past involvement
in the Holocaust immediately after the 1989 revolution. He
lauded the GOR's "positive relations" with Israel. He also
acknowledged the role of Romania's World War II era dictator
Antonescu in the 1941 Iasi Pogrom, in which some 15,000 Jews
were killed. After that discussion, however, much of the
conversation focused on Vacaroiu's attempt to diminish
Romania's role in the Holocaust or effort to deny the
existence of anti-Semitism in Romania today. He also
claimed that 95 percent of the atrocities committed against
over 400,000 Romanian Jews during World War II occurred in
the occupied territories of Bessarabia and Transnistria,
with limited--if any--involvement of Romanian soldiers. He
inaccurately stated that atrocities were committed almost
exclusively by members of the Iron Guard and Legionaire
movement, both associated with extreme nationalism before
and during the War. The view that only a few Romanians
participated in atrocities - and not the Romanian army - is
dismissed by mainstream historians and, conversely,
typically expressed by extreme nationalist Holocaust
deniers. Vacaroiu's focus on Bessarabia and Transnistria
has also been used by extreme nationalists who claim that
the Holocaust did not happen in Romania, although the
territories were part of Romania at the time and it is a
fact that numerous Jews resident in the traditional Romanian
territories were expelled to Transnistria and were there
subject to various atrocities.


4. (SBU) When Chairman Miller asked his views about the
existence of anti-Semitism in Romania today, Vacaroiu
unequivocally replied that it "absolutely is not a problem."
When pressed, Vacaroiu retorted that over half of Romania's
communist government was Jewish (again, a view rejected by
mainstream historians). He further stated that observers
would find it difficult to find more than "a handful of
individuals" in Romania who espouse anti-Semitic views.
This view disregards the continued presence of the many
members of the extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party
(PRM),a party which has been a strong anti-Semitic movement
for most of its post-1989 history and which gained some 13
percent of the vote during fall 2004 elections.


5. (SBU) Chairman Miller pushed back and cited the
controversial 1997 and 1998 rehabilitation by Romania's
Supreme Court of two Romanian Generals, Radu Dinulescu and
Gheorge Petrescu, who were lead perpetrators of Holocaust
atrocities. He also took note of growing anti-Semitism,
wrapped in anti-Israel discourse, throughout Europe.
Vacaroiu responded that he had no knowledge of the court
decision on Dinculescu and insisted that the Romanian
people, as a whole, "accept Romania's past" and hold "no
trace of anti-Semitism."


6. (SBU) Vacaroiu conceded that continuing education on the
Holocaust is needed, in line with recommendations by the
Wiesel Commission. Chairman Miller conveyed that the Wiesel
Commission urged Romania to establish a national Holocaust
memorial, funded by the GOR and located in a prominent place
on government property. Chairman Miller noted that the U.S.
also urges this important step and Vacaroiu pledged support
for the memorial, while remarking that some parliamentarians
may hold "somewhat differing views" on the topic. Vacaroiu
did not relent when pressed on his earlier comments on anti-
Semitism and the Romanian role in the Holocaust, even when
queried as to how Romania's Jewish population was reduced
from some 750,000 before World War II to roughly 300,000
immediately after.


7. (SBU) Comment: Aside from Vacaroiu, all other officials
in Chairman Miller's meetings acknowledged Romania's role in
the Holocaust and the fundamental importance of education on
the issue. This included often enthusiastic support for a
Romanian Holocaust memorial. Their general attitude was a
sign of the tremendous progress Romania has made in
acknowledging its role in the Holocaust, a historical truth
that was largely suppressed under communism. Nonetheless,
Vacaroiu's comments -- sometimes couched in language that
seemed to support efforts to redress the past -- demonstrate
there are still influential pockets where old attitudes
prevail. Vacaroiu's assertions were similar to public
statements made in 2003 by former President Iliescu and
former Culture and Religion Minister Razvan Theodorescu
denying the Holocaust occurred within Romanian borders and
diminishing the participation of the Romanian government and
army in atrocities. Iliescu subsequently apologized and
agreed to establish the Wiesel Commission to compile an
accurate history of the Holocaust in Romania and recommend
steps to improve education on the historic facts.


8. (SBU) Comment Continued: Charge is sending a letter to
Vacaroiu, with a copy of the Weisel Commission report,
refuting the inaccurate assertions Vacaroiu raised during
the meeting with Chairman Miller. More broadly, the Embassy
will continue to press the GOR to establish a comprehensive
program on Holocaust education, not just at the elementary,
secondary and university level, but also programs aimed at
officials and opinion leaders. The mandatory inclusion of
Holocaust education in the curriculum of the National
Defense College, a feature for the past several years, is an
example of "continuing education" targeting officials who,
like Senate President Vacaroiu, are ignorant about Romania's
true role in the Holocaust.


9. (U) Amembassy Bucharest's reporting telegrams, as well as
daily press summaries, are available on the Bucharest
SIPRNET Website: www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/bucharest.

DELARE