TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2013 INTERNATIONAL Nazi murderer Heinrich Boere dies at 92 BERLIN: Heinrich Boere, who murdered hit squad - a unit of largely Dutch SS volun- Boere remained unapologetic to the Dutchmen at the recruitment office and Netherlands in 1949 - later commuted to Dutch civilians as part of a Nazi Waffen SS teers responsible for reprisal killings of end for his actions, saying that he had was one of 15 chosen. “I was very proud,” life imprisonment - but the case always hit squad during World War II but avoided countrymen who were considered anti- been proud to volunteer for the SS, and Boere told the court. After fighting on the seemed to fall through the legal cracks. justice for six decades, died in a prison hos- Nazi. that times were different then. Born to a Russian front, Boere ended up back in the The Netherlands sought Boere’s extradi- pital while serving a life sentence, German He sat through the proceedings in a Dutch father and German mother in Netherlands as part of the “Silbertanne” hit tion, but a German court in 1983 refused justice officials said Monday. He was 92. wheelchair and was regularly monitored Eschweiler, Germany - on the outskirts of squad. on the grounds that he might have Boere died Sunday of natural causes in by a doctor. He spoke little, but told the Aachen - Boere moved to the Netherlands According to statements Boere made to German citizenship, and Germany at the the facility in Froendenberg where he was court in a written statement he had no when he was an infant. Dutch authorities after the war, he and a time had no provision to extradite its own being treated for dementia, North Rhine- choice but to obey orders to carry out the In testimony during his trial, Boere said fellow SS man were given a list of names nationals. Westphalia Justice Ministry spokesman killings. he remembered his mother waking him slated for “retaliatory measures.” A state court in Aachen ruled in 2007 Detlef Feige said. He had been the state’s “As a simple soldier, I learned to carry up the night in 1940 that Germany invad- Boere killed pharmacist Fritz Hubert that Boere could legally serve his Dutch oldest prisoner. out orders,” Boere testified. “And I knew ed the Netherlands and seeing Stuka dive- Ernst Bicknese with a pistol in his pharma- sentence in Germany, but an appeals court Boere was on the Simon Wiesenthal that if I didn’t carry out my orders I would bombers overhead. Instead of fearing the cy, then he and the accomplice killed bicy- in Cologne overturned the ruling, calling Center’s list of most-wanted Nazi war crim- be breaking my oath and would be shot German bombs, he said his family was elat- cle-shop owner Teun de Groot when he the 1949 conviction invalid because Boere inals until his arrest in Germany and con- myself.” But the presiding judge said there ed as the attack unfolded. answered the doorbell at his home. They was not there to present a defense. viction in 2010 on three counts of murder. was no evidence Boere ever even tried to “(My mother) said ‘they’re coming’ now forced the third victim, Franz Wilhelm It was after the appeals ruling that a “Late justice often sends a very powerful question his orders, and characterized the things will be better,” he told the court, Kusters, into their car, drove him to another prosecutor in Dortmund quietly reopened message regarding the importance of Nazi murders as hit-style slayings, with Boere before later adding: “It was better.” After town, stopped on the pretense of having a the case, beginning from scratch and and Holocaust crimes,” the center’s top and his accomplices dressed in civilian the Germans had overrun his hometown flat tire and shot him. charging Boere with the three murders in Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, said in a tele- clothes and surprising their victims at their of Maastricht and the rest of the “Kusters fell against the garden door ... 2008. phone interview from Jerusalem. “It’s a homes or places of work late at night or Netherlands, the 18-year-old Boere saw a and sank to the ground,” Boere told investi- During his trial, Boere told the court he comforting thought to know that Boere early in the morning. recruiting poster for the Waffen SS, signed gators. “Blood shot out of Kusters’ neck.” was aware of the possibility he would be ended his life in a prison hospital rather “These were murders that could hardly by Heinrich Himmler. It offered German cit- After the war, Boere managed to escape pursued by authorities, so much so that he than as a free man.” be outdone in terms of baseness and cow- izenship after two years of service and the the prisoner-of-war camp where he was never married. “I always had to consider During his six-month trial in Aachen, ardice - beyond the respectability of any possibility of becoming a policeman after being held in the Netherlands and eventu- that my past might catch up with me,” he Boere admitted killing three civilians as a soldier,” the judge said in his ruling. “The that. ally return to Germany. said. “I didn’t want to inflict that upon a member of the “Silbertanne,” or “Silver Fir,” victims had no real chance.” He showed up with 100 other He was sentenced to death in the woman.” —AP Bangladesh opposition boycotts Jan 5 polls Dozens of rail services suspended DHAKA: Bangladesh’s opposition alliance yesterday confirmed its boy- cott of a January general election, failing to register candidates before a deadline for nominations and plung- ing the country into renewed politi- cal uncertainty. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) announced KABUL: Afghan Foreign Minister Zarar Ahmad Osmani, right, shakes hand the decision amid growing street vio- with the Foreign Minister of Iraq Hoshyar Zebari, at the Foreign Ministry in lence that has left 52 people dead Kabul, Afghanistan, yesterday. Iraq’s foreign minister said yesterday that he since late October and a series of shared his country’s experiences in negotiating an American security deal strikes and blockades that have with Afghan officials, who have delayed signing their own agreement with paralysed large parts of the country. the United States. —AP “There is no question of us filing nominations for the January 5 elec- tion under the present circum- Pakistan envoy sees ‘light at stances. We’re not going to take part in the January 5 elections,” Shamsher end of tunnel’ with India Mobin Chowdhury, a BNP vice presi- dent, told AFP. NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s outgoing envoy to towards Islamabad. Nominations closed at 5 pm (1100 New Delhi said yesterday he saw “light at the But Bashir said the outcome of the Indian GMT) yesterday and officials said no end of the tunnel” in diplomatic relations and elections was “not material” to Pakistani Prime BNP officials had filed their papers. predicted the improvement would survive Minister Nawaz Sharif’s stated goal of improv- The announcement on November 25 next year’s Indian elections. ing ties. “The improvement in relations with of the election date further fuelled High Commissioner (ambassador) Salman India is very emphatically a state policy. We unrest, with 22 of the 52 deaths Bashir said calm had returned to the neigh- believe it’s in our interest and we believe it’s in occurring since then. bours’ de facto border in disputed Kashmir the interest of the region,” said the high com- Two people died yesterday in after a deadly flare-up earlier in the year and missioner. “Our prime minister is on record as western Bangladesh during clashes DHAKA: Bangladeshi commuters cross a river by boat during a blockade organised by Bangladesh both sides were committed to improving ties. having very emphatically stated that improve- between hundreds of BNP support- Nationalist Party (BNP) activists and their supporters in Dhaka yesterday. Bangladesh’s 18-party opposition “I do not want to sound over-optimistic or ment of relations with India is a priority. “An ers and ruling party activists, police coalition confirmed it would boycott a general election scheduled for January, making the announcement exaggerate but what I am saying is that there improvement in relations with Pakistan is also said. Opposition activists have also hours before the nominations deadline and plunging the country into renewed political uncertainty. —AFP is light at the end of the tunnel,” Bashir told a something that is of importance to India and tried to force a shutdown of public farewell press conference in the Indian capital. the Indian leadership.” transport. change their minds on the election elections officials said. weeks on suspicion of instigating vio- “We have constantly worked for the Bashir refused to be drawn on the impact Dozens of rail services have been boycott “if the polls are organised by Bangladesh has witnessed at least lence, police said. improvement in relations between the two of a Modi premiership, saying Pakistan would suspended after the activists uproot- a non-party, neutral government”. 19 coups since August 1975 when Chowdhury said the eight along countries and at this point of time I am per- “respect whatever is the decision of the peo- ed tracks, torched coaches and The BNP, led by two-times ex-pre- Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur with hundreds of grassroots opposi- sonally optimistic that we will be on the ple of India”. Sharif and Singh both pledged to attacked trains with petrol bombs, mier Khaleda Zia, demands that Rahman, the country’s founding tion activists were detained on “false upward trajectory in the coming months.” ensure calm along their border in Kashmir officials said.