(13 Jun 2000) Eng/Ger/Nat
XFA
U-S and German negotiators have moved one step closer to resolving the issue of compensating Nazi-era slave labourers.

On Monday, they created the German Foundation which will be a tool of reimbursing Second World War slave labourers.

At the same time, the German Foundation protects German companies from further lawsuits by survivors.

German industry and the German government agreed last year to set up a 10 (b) billion Deutsch-mark (U-S dollars five (b) billion) fund to compensate people forced to work for little or no pay in support of Hitler's war machine.

In exchange, companies wanted protection from lawsuits mounting in the United States.

But the final agreement was stalled because German business leaders were not happy with the "statement of interest" the Clinton administration offered to submit to U-S courts whenever such a case is filed.

After a 10-hour negotiating session on Monday, they agreed on what had been a major sticking point - wording of the statement the U-S government will submit to courts to discourage the hearing of further suits.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The German Foundation, to be set in German law and based on the U-S commitment in an Executive Agreement to file statements of interest in support of dismissal, will be part of a half century U-S effort to bring justice for Holocaust and other victims of the Nazi-era. Our goal is for the German Foundation to be the exclusive remedy and forum for the resolution of all claims against German companies arising out of World War II. This exclusive role for the Foundation serves the foreign policy interests of the United States. The alternative to this mechanism would be years of litigation that lasts beyond the life-spans of the large majority of survivors."
SUPER CAPTION: Stuart E. Eizenstat, Deputy Treasury Secretary , chief U-S negotiator

Manfred Gentz, chairman of the German industry fund and chief financial officer of DaimlerChrysler, said he would use the outcome of Monday's session to press more German companies in to contributing to the fund.

Some two-thousand companies have pledged money, but it doesn't come near to the two and a half (b) billion U-S dollars needed for the industry's share of the fund.

Some companies had said it was pointless to contribute unless there was a promise they would be free of lawsuits in the future.

Gentz praised the agreement as a step in the right direction.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think it takes out the uncertainty...It will strengthen our argument to win new participants."
SUPER CAPTION: Manfred Gentz, chairman of the German industry fund and chief financial officer of DaimlerChrysler

German government negotiator Otto Graf Lambsdorff said he would take the agreement back to Germany with a recommendation that it be accepted and passed by parliament into a law setting up the so-called German Foundation Initiative.

SOUNDBITE: (German)
"Fifteen months for the negotiation is not a long time. Of course everybody would have been very pleased if it went faster. But all those circumstances, especially the high number of negotiators, and the fact that the discussion involved a great deal of money, explain the amount of time. Of course we discussed hard about the distribution of money, but we achieved it and that does not justify the accusation that it took too long."
SUPER CAPTION: Graf Lambsdorff


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