Austria Government Officials

President Kurt Waldheim, elected five years ago despite an international controversy over his World War II past, said in Vienna that he will not run for a second six-year term next year. Waldheim, 72, has faced growing pressure not to run again due to concern that his reelection could hurt Austria's attempts to join the European Community. The former U.N.

Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider, who drew strong criticism for his visit to Iraq, said Friday that he would quit national politics and focus on his role as governor of Carinthia province. Haider, whose meeting with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday was described as inappropriate by the United States, said he had quit his position on the policymaking committee of Austria's coalition government.

Thomas Klestil, a conservative veteran diplomat, was elected Sunday to succeed President Kurt Waldheim, whose alleged Nazi past put Austria under six years of international isolation. Klestil, candidate of the conservative People's Party, had nearly 57% of the vote in the runoff against Social Democrat Rudolf Streicher, preliminary results showed. The presidency is mostly a ceremonial post but has two main tasks: naming the head of Austria's government and representing the country abroad.

Undaunted by driving rain or mounting resignation, opponents of Austria's far-right Freedom Party thronged the scene of Adolf Hitler's triumphant 1938 arrival here to vow Saturday that fascists will "never again" threaten democracy in this country at the heart of Europe.

Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky said Monday that the "wait and see" posture some Western governments are taking toward economic assistance for Eastern Europe is "a wrong attitude." "If we in the West just wait and see," the former Communist nations in the East "will not succeed in building solid economic foundations for their ambitious political goals" for democracy, Vranitzky said in an interview during a four-day visit to Los Angeles.

Kurt Waldheim's televised speech defending his World War II record failed to stem a dramatic loss in Austrian public support for his continued presidency, an opinion poll indicated. In his address, Waldheim acknowledged mistakes but said his conscience is clear in regard to his service with a German army unit that committed war crimes in the Balkans. He also claimed that the public supports him.

Austria has opened a global public relations campaign to regain international acceptance of President Kurt Waldheim, who has been barred from the United States because of war crimes he allegedly committed as a German army officer during World War II.

President Kurt Waldheim of Austria said Tuesday that he did nothing wrong as a German army officer during World War II and that the U.S. decision to bar him on grounds of involvement in Nazi atrocities is incomprehensible. "I have a clear conscience. . . . You can trust me," Waldheim told the nation in a five-minute speech on radio and television. On Monday, the United States put the former U.N.

In an unprecedented action, the Justice Department on Monday barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, citing evidence that "clearly demonstrates" that he took part in persecuting Allied prisoners and Jews and other civilians as a German army officer during World War II. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, with Secretary of State George P. Shultz concurring, placed the former U.N.

Austrian right-wing politician Joerg Haider was rebuffed when he tried to visit Montreal's Holocaust Center during an unannounced visit to Canada this week, a Jewish leader said. Moshe Ronen, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said his group questioned Haider's motive in asking for the tour and had recommended the center turn him away. "Our advice to the museum was not to accommodate this bizarre request," Ronen said Wednesday. "They did not accommodate the visit."

Joerg Haider, the telegenic rising star of Austrian right-wing politics, was touring Los Angeles' Simon Wiesenthal Center when he spotted his own picture on the wall--alongside the likes of Idi Amin and David Duke. He was outraged. Haider called on a fellow Austrian, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, to use his influence to get the picture removed, but to no avail. The photograph remained, and Haider lost this skirmish in his battle to change his image abroad as he climbs to power at home.

Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, who has headed the Austrian government for more than 10 years, resigned Saturday, raising serious questions about the survival of this Alpine nation's ruling coalition. Vranitzky announced his resignation after an emergency meeting of his center-left Social Democratic Party, which marked its worst showing ever in elections last October.

Kurt Waldheim's controversial presidency ended Wednesday, six years after he was elected amid allegations that he was involved in war crimes. He expressed regret at "not having found the right words" appropriate to the immensity of World War II atrocities in which "unfortunately not a few Austrians" collaborated with the Nazis. In a somber inauguration ceremony, his successor, Thomas Klestil, pledged that Austria will not shirk the burden of its Nazi past as it looks to future challenges.

Thomas Klestil, a virtual unknown when he began his political campaign barely a year ago, will be sworn in Wednesday as Austria's president, thus closing the books on the controversial six-year term of his predecessor, Kurt Waldheim. Waldheim's refusal to deal forthrightly with questions about his actions as a junior officer in Hitler's Wehrmacht during World War II exposed him and his country to repeated condemnation and accusations of refusing to face the past.

Early next week, one of the most painful chapter's of Austria's postWorld War II history comes to a close: The Waldheim era is ending. The Tuesday presidential inauguration of Thomas Klestil, a 59-year-old career diplomat and political unknown, effectively closes the books on the six-year term of his controversial predecessor, Kurt Waldheim. Waldheim, former U.N.

Thomas Klestil, a conservative veteran diplomat, was elected Sunday to succeed President Kurt Waldheim, whose alleged Nazi past put Austria under six years of international isolation. Klestil, candidate of the conservative People's Party, had nearly 57% of the vote in the runoff against Social Democrat Rudolf Streicher, preliminary results showed. The presidency is mostly a ceremonial post but has two main tasks: naming the head of Austria's government and representing the country abroad.

A far-right party whose leader has praised German Third Reich labor policies and promised to protect "Austria for the Austrians" won a surprising 23% of the vote in Vienna city elections Sunday. The Freedom Party of Austria posted its third electoral gain in as many months by capitalizing on anti-foreigner and anti-Semitic sentiments that have flooded across Austria with the influx of refugees from war-torn and economically devastated areas of Eastern Europe.