The World - News from March 20, 1987

Member nations of the defunct U.N. War Crimes Commission have rejected Israel’s request for public access to its secret files on people suspected of Nazi war crimes, a U.N. spokesman said. Last May, Israel asked Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar for general access to all files, which have been held in the U.N. archives since the commission disbanded in 1948. But he insisted on consulting with representatives of the 17 governments that served on the commission. A U.N. statement said that the secretary general informed Israeli Ambassador Benjamin Netanyahu that 16 of the 17 former members opposed opening the files.