Waldheim Swears He Won't Step Down

VIENNA, Austria--President Kurt Waldheim yesterday rejected the "slanders, hateful demonstrations and wholesale condemnations" of those who want him to resign and urged the nation to unite behind him.

His televised speech appeared certain to deepen divisions caused by the report of an international panel of historians last week. The report questioned Waldheim's moral integrity and said he did nothing to stop Nazi atrocities during World War II despite being "in close proximity" to them.

Waldheim yesterday claimed without giving specifies that "parts of the report do not correspond to the facts but are built on presumptions and hypotheses. For that reason, the conclusions drawn cannot be upheld."

The Austrian government appointed the panel of historians at Waldheim's request in September, after the United States put him on a "Watch list" of undesirable aliens.

Waldheim, 69, used highly emotional language in appeals to both to World War II compatriots and those too young to know "the horrors of this war."

He said he might have erred in not discussing his wartime past but said he never tried to conceal it. "I have a clear conscience," the former secretary-general of the United Nations told Austria's 7.5 million citizens.

In their 202-page report, the historians concluded that Waldheim tried to cover up his service as a German army lieutenant in the Balkans in 1943-45.

Chancellor Franz Vranitzky said in a televised interview Sunday, which was praised even by conservative critics, that Waldheim "did not deal exactly with the truth" and must restore his credibility.

Vranitzky said he would consider resigning if the conflict over Waldheim continued to occupy time the government should devote to other matters. The Socialist chancellor leads a coalition with the conservative People's Party, which supported Waldheim's election campaign in 1986.

A petition drive for Waldheim's resignation has obtained more than 2000 signatures, including those of most leading intellectuals, according to an employee of the news magazine Profil. The magazine printed the first 1496 signatures on three pages in yesterday's issue.

About 5000 opponents of Waldheim demonstrated in downtown Vienna on Sunday, and about half of them marched to his office in the Hofburg palace, calling on him to step down.

The president has consistently denied wrongdoing since Austrian and U.S. media first disclosed his Balkans service in March 1986, during the election campaign. As the controversy continued, he has refused all demands for his resignation.

Waldheim reiterated his stand yesterday, arguing that resignation would undo a decision fundamental to Austria's democracy.

"In the course of the renewed discussion, the question was also put about my premature departure from the office of federal president," he said. "I want to take a stand in all clarity: You, my dear Austrians, have elected me federal president with a convincing majority in a secret and direct election for six years.

"Thus it is no longer a matter of the man Kurt Waldheim. In view of the slanders, I have often asked myself in the last two years whether I should carry on," he said. "It is a fundamental principle of our democracy that an election result cannot be subsequently corrected. A head of state must not retreat in the face of slanders, hateful demonstrations and wholesale condemnations."

In a runoff election in June 1986, Waldheim won with 53.6 percent of the vote.

In a magazine interview published yesterday, Hans Rudolf Kurz, the Swiss chairman of the historians' commission, said he thought Waldheim would do Austria a service by resigning.

Alois Mock, deputy chancellor of Austria and head of the People's Party, reiterated his support for Waldheim but Economics Minister Robert Graf, another leading conservative, expressed impatience.

Graf said Waldheim "must take a decision which is very important for our country."