Belgian minister in SS reunion row

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The interior minister of Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region is facing calls for his resignation after he attended a weekend reunion of World War II SS veterans.

Johan Sauwens has acknowledged that he made a "clear error of judgment" by attending Saturday's meeting of former Belgian members of Hitler's Waffen SS.

He admitted that he had been misinformed about the true nature of the meeting, and said he walked out after one speaker called for the re-creation of a "greater Germany."

Sauwens has been a member of the Sint Maartens Trust in Antwerp for 30 years, which is made up of former members of Hitler's Waffen SS and others who fought with the Nazis in World War II.

According to Belgian news reports, Sauwens joined the group believing it to be a "nonpolitical organisation acting above all to help ex-volunteers from the eastern front."

The Sint Maartens Trust staged the Antwerp gathering, which was attended by SS veterans from around Europe, far-right politicians and uniformed neo-Nazis.

His attendance has provoked domestic and international outrage, with Flemish Prime Minister Patrick Dewael seeking "some explanation."

In a statement from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organisation in Los Angeles, Rabbi Abraham Cooper said: "If the minister of the interior cannot commit to totally disassociate himself from further contacts with those countrymen who wore the SS insignia, he should immediately resign or be removed from his post."

Sauwens, a member of the Flemish Volksunie party, has promised to "think twice" before going to another meeting.

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