US embassy cable - 05VIENNA1482

UNCLAS VIENNA 001482 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/OHI AND EUR/AGS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KNAR, PREL, PGOV, AU 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIA REQUESTS U.S. CONTRIBUTION TO GENERAL 
 
 
SETTLEMENT FUND ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified. 
 
1.  (SBU) Ambassador met Parliamentary President Andreas Khol 
 
on May 3, at Khol's request, to discuss progress in claims 
 
processing under the General Settlement Fund (GSF) for 
 
Holocaust victims.  Khol reported that decisions on cases 
 
were moving much more quickly now with the additional staff 
 
and new office space that the GoA had provided.  The new 
 
U.S.-nominated Claims Committee adjudicator, Prof. Vivian 
 
Curran, was also contributing to the acceleration of claims 
 
processing. 
 
2.  (SBU) However, Khol said, Curran's pro bono activity on 
 
behalf of the Fund was now taking so much of her time that 
 
she was no longer able to keep up with her teaching duties at 
 
the University of Pittsburgh.  As a result, the University 
 
had had to hire a replacement for her at an annual cost of 
 
more than $50,000.  Khol conceded that under the Washington 
 
Agreement and relevant Austrian law, the GoA could pay this 
 
amount out of the GSF as administrative costs.  Khol said the 
 
GoA nevertheless wanted to use the GSF funds to pay the 
 
victims, not reduce the total by paying administrative costs. 
 
He thought that some of the victims whom the Fund was 
 
intended to benefit might resent this use of the money, and 
 
in particular, might question why the GoA was paying for the 
 
services of the U.S. Claims Committee adjudicator.   Khol 
 
asked the USG to consider funding either all or part of the 
 
University of Pittsburgh request, as well as professional 
 
liability or errors and omissions insurance for Dr. Curran. 
 
3.  (SBU) The Ambassador responded that Embassy had been in 
 
close consultation with the Office of Holocaust Issues (OHI) 
 
on this subject.  OHI had carefully researched the request. 
 
However, the Department's Legal Bureau had advised that there 
 
was no legal basis for such payments and the Ambassador was 
 
not optimistic that this decision could be reversed.  The 
 
Ambassador urged the GoA to make provision for paying such 
 
administrative costs separately, or failing that, to pay them 
 
out of the GSF.  Notwithstanding, the Ambassador assured Khol 
 
that he would report the Austrian government's request to the 
 
Department and ask the appropriate offices to reconsider the 
 
possibility of a USG reimbursement to the University of 
 
Pittsburgh. 
 
4.  (SBU) Khol said the requirement to reimburse the 
 
University of Pittsburgh and pay insurance would be short 
 
term.  Following establishment of legal peace, the GSF funds 
 
would be paid into an interest-bearing account, and the 
 
interest could be used to pay the University as well as 
 
insurance for Prof. Curran.  He also told the Ambassador that 
 
the GoA was making progress in its talks with the Austrian 
 
Jewish Community (IKG) and that, in his view, the two sides 
 
were "very close" to a meeting of the minds that could 
 
facilitate the establishment of legal peace in the U.S. 
 
(Embassy comment: Khol was almost certainly referring to the 
 
possibility of a settlement or dismissal of the Whiteman 
 
class action suit pending in Federal Court in New York.) 
 
5.  (SBU) In a related development, the subject of an 
 
amendment to the law establishing the GSF came up at a dinner 
 
on May 3 for former Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart 
 
Eizenstat.  Parliament will likely act soon to extend the 
 
deadline for applications for "in-rem" restitution of 
 
publicly owned real property.  The deadline had been December 
 
31, 2004, but some municipal governments have only recently 
 
joined the Austrian states and federal government in 
 
subjecting themselves to the in-rem arbitration process. 
 
Austrian MFA Legal Advisor Hans Winkler did not rule out the 
 
possibility that the amendment might also provide for in-rem 
 
restitution before the establishment of legal peace in the 
 
U.S.  Winkler said he would seek a discussion of the idea 
 
within the GoA.  (Note: the arbitration panel has so far 
 
issued one recommendation in favor of in-rem restitution.) 
 
6.  (SBU) ACTION REQUEST:  Embassy asks that Department 
 
undertake a review of the Austrian government's request that 
 
the U.S. fund all or part of the reimbursement to the 
 
University of Pittsburgh for Dr. Vivian Curran's work on the 
 
Claims Committee of the General Settlement Fund, and all or 
 
part the cost of professional liability and errors and 
 
omissions insurance. 
 
Brown