WORLD NEWS

THE GUARDIAN  - Dec 12, 2006

Iran shuns criticisms, holds Holocaust conference

DESPITE international outcry, a two-day conference which aims to examine whether the Holocaust actually happened yesterday opened in Iran.

Foreign Ministry in Tehran said that 67 researchers from 30 countries are attending the conference in Iran, which is home to 25,000 Jews.

The organisers insist the event will offer a chance to discuss "questions" about the Holocaust without taboos.

Several countries have condemned the conference, including Germany where Holocaust denial is a crime.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who backs the event, has publicly questioned the scale of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed.

Participants at the conference include a number of well-known "revisionist" Western academics. American David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who is to present a paper.

But a number of Jewish rabbis were also there. One, British Rabbi Ahron Cohen, said he had come to the conference to put the "Orthodox Jewish viewpoint" across.

"We certainly say there was a Holocaust, we lived through the Holocaust. But in no way can it be used as a justification for perpetrating unjust acts against the Palestinians," he said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki opening the conference, however said the aim of the forum was "not to deny or confirm the Holocaust".

"Its main aim is to create an opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely in Europe about the Holocaust," he said.

But earlier, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, Manouchehr Mohammadi, said the conference would examine fundamental questions about the Holocaust.

"The first question to be posed is: Did the Holocaust actually happen or not? And the second one is: If it did happen, what was the scale of it?

"The allegation that six million Jews were killed or burnt in this event, is it true or not?"

The Iranian president has repeatedly downplayed the extent of the killing, describing it as a myth used to justify the existence of Israel and oppression of the Palestinians. He has called for Israel to be dismantled.

But in a number of European countries, including Austria and France it is illegal to deny the Holocaust. An Austrian court jailed Briton David Irving for three years on charges of Holocaust denial.

The United States (U.S.) state department described the conference as "yet another disgraceful act on this particular subject by the regime in Tehran".

Iran's one Jewish parliamentarian, Morris Motamed, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that he opposed the conference.

"Holding this conference after having a competition of cartoons about the Holocaust has put a lot of pressure on Jews all over the world and it can give nations and governments a very negative impression of Iran," Motame said.