Kurt Waldheim dies aged 88 in Vienna (Roundup)

Jun 14, 2007, 13:51 GMT

A file picture dated 29 October 2004 shows former Austrian president and United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kurt Waldheim at his flat in Vienna, Austria. Waldheim died at the age of 88, it was announced on 14 June 2007 in Austria. Waldheim\'s tenure as UN chief from 1972-82 and his election as Austrian president in 1986 were overshadowed by revelations that he belonged to a German army unit that committed atrocities in the Balkans during World War II. EPA/ROLAND SCHLAGER

Vienna - Kurt Waldheim, the politician who involuntarily forced Austria to face its Nazi past, died aged 88 on Thursday.

The former Austrian president and UN Secretary-General suffered a cardovascualar failure, the Austrian press agency said, quoting Othmar Karas, Waldheim's son in law.

Waldheim, whose election isolated Austrian internationally owing to his adamant refusal to discuss his past in the Nazi Wehrmacht, served as Austrian president from 1986 to 1992.

In his role as UN Secretary General from 1972 to 1981, the career diplomat - born on 21 December 1918 in the village St Andae near Vienna - was one of Austria's leading post-war figures.

Waldheim joined the German Wehrmacht at the beginning of World War II after concluding his law studies and served as an officer, first in Russia and later on the Balkans and in Greece.

When running for the Austrian presidency in 1985 questions arose over his role as officer in the Wehrmacht, and potential implication in war crimes, claims he refused as a campaign to smear his character until the end.

Waldheim remained internationally isolated during his whole six- year-term. The US-government in 1987 put Waldheim on its 'watch list' effectively banning him from entry into the country. After his term of office he did not play any further role in Austrian political life.

The Waldheim affair however triggered profound changes away from Austria's self-image as 'Hitler's first victim' to an admission of complicity in Nazi crimes.