Germany's chief negotiator on compensation for former slave laborers under the Nazis, Otto Graf Lambsdorff, called Wednesday for public pressure on some companies that refuse to contribute to a victims' fund.
Lambsdorff told a German radio station that companies that have commented publicly on their decision not to join a 10 billion mark (five billion euro, 4.5 billion dollar) fund for the former laborers should expect public criticism.
He cited the example of Haribo confectioneries, makers of the popular "gummi bears" candy, whose owner has offered the press reasons for his company's decision not to take part in the fund.
A number of German newspapers and a Jewish organization have published lists of companies founded before World War II that have declined to lend support to compensation efforts.
Lambsdorff called such lists "mediaeval" and to be avoided.
Under an agreement with US negotiators, Germany has agreed to provide the 10-billion-mark fund on condition that officials in the US encourage the judiciary to dismiss class action suits by victims.
The federal government and German industry have each agreed to finance half the fund but business has only come up with 3.4 billion of their five billion marks share.
A spokesman for the industry fund, Wolfgang Gibowski, told a German radio station Wednesday that about 5,500 companies had agreed to participate and that it would keep working to raise the full five billion marks in the new year.
The fund has said it hopes to begin making payments to the aging former workers by March -- BERLIN (AFP)
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