Fundamental legacy of The Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials (1945-1948)

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Fundamental legacy of The Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials (1945-1948)

Picture Nuremberg trials.

By Wedyan AlMadani .

These – rather unfortunate – days some voices in Europe are trying, in a quite ahistorical fashion, to question the very fundaments of the antifascist legacy. Dangerous and highly destructive equitation attempts are on the way. Still, this legacy is what finally made the Old continent human and peaceful – a role model to admire and for the rest of us to follow. 

Such regrettable equitations make it worth to revisit the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, which are essential pillars of the Human Rights charter brokered right after under the OUN auspices. Consequently, a very legacy of these trials is extraordinary and far reaching. It represents a core building material of the house called Modern Europe – something that the Director of International Institute IFIMES, Dr. Zijad Becirovic repeatedly stresses in his media appearances, as one of the bold but rather rare voices of the right direction and historical responsibility awareness today. 

Conclusively, the importance of tribunals is hard to overstate. Its reaffirmation today is needed like never since the very end of the WWII.

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Noam Chomsky once said, “For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.” This was not the case for Germany and Japan post-World War II. The victorious Allied powers established the first international criminal tribunals to prosecute political and military officials for war crimes and other atrocities committed during wartime. The four major Allied governments; the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union, set up the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg trials) in Nuremberg, Germany, to prosecute and punish the major war criminals of the European Axis. 

The tribunal presided over a combined trial of senior Nazi political and military leaders, as well as several Nazi organizations. The less-recognized International Military Tribunal for the Far East was created (Tokyo trials) in Tokyo, Japan, soon after. The tribunal presided over a series of trials of senior Japanese political and military leaders to prosecute and punish Far Eastern war criminals. The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials differed in several important aspects including their origins, compositions, and jurisdictions. 

     The Allied powers established the policy that international tribunals in Europe and in the Far East after World War II would focus on, most importantly, a decision on individual criminal liability for crimes against peace. It will be a bold step toward organizing an international legal system for discouraging future aggressors and averting the sort of war devastation that the Axis aggression had caused. 

     In June 1945, the day of the signing of the United Nations Charter at the San Francisco Conference, delegations of the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union, negotiated in London on the regulating principles for prosecuting war criminals. 

In August 1945, the four major Allied governments signed the 1945 London Agreement, which established the International Military Tribunal. The Nuremberg Charter stipulated prosecution of the following crimes: Crimes Against Peace (planning and making war), War Crimes (responsibility for crimes during war), Crimes Against Humanity (racial persecution), and Conspiracy to Commit other Crimes. 

The tribunal held its opening session in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, and the trials lasted from November 1945 to October 1946. Twenty-two Nazi political and military leaders were indicted, including Hermann Goering, Rudolph Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alfred Rosenberg, and Albert Speer. The tribunal found nineteen individual defendants guilty and sentenced them to punishments that ranged from death by hanging to fifteen years of imprisonment. Three defendants were found that they are not guilty, one committed suicide before the trial, and one did not stand trial due to physical or mental illness.

     Unlike the International Military Tribunal, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was not created by an international agreement, but it nonetheless emerged from international agreements to prosecute Japanese war criminals. By spring 1945, the war in Europe had ended but the war with Japan was continuing at the time the Potsdam Declaration was signed. 

     At the following Moscow Conference, held in December 1945, the US, the UK, and the Soviet Union with affirmation from China agreed to a basic structure to occupy Japan. 

     In January 1946, the US issued a special proclamation to establish the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Similar to the Nuremberg Charter, it outlined the composition, functions, and jurisdiction of the tribunal. The Charter provided for the US to assign judges to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East from the countries that had signed Japan’s instrument of surrender: Australia, Canada, China, France, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US, as well as British India and the Philippines. 

     From May 1946 to November 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East oversaw the prosecution of twenty-five Japanese political and military leaders. The Emperor of Japan Hirohito and his family were not indicted (he even retained his position on the throne, albeit with diminished status). The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found all defendants guilty and sentenced them to punishments ranging from death to seven years’ imprisonment.

     The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials contributed significantly to the development of international criminal law and served as models for a new series of international criminal tribunals that were established in the 1990s.  The conclusions of the Nuremberg trials also served as models for the Genocide Convention 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and paved the way for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. 

In conclusion, the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials legacy itself is extraordinary, and its importance is hard to overstate. We cannot forget that the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials and, fifty years later, the establishment of the International Criminal Court aimed to safeguard peace in all regions of the world. The achievements of these great trials in elevating justice and law over inhumanity and war give promise for a better tomorrow by paving the way to deal with international crimes. 

About the author: Wedyan AlMadani is a Saudi scholar. She is Jeddah-based Legal Advisor, and specialist in international law and relations.

References

Bard, M. G. (2002). The Nuremberg trials. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.

Brook, T. (2001). The Tokyo Judgment and the Rape of Nanking. The Journal of Asian Studies, 60(3), 673-700. doi:10.2307/2700106

Carnegie Endowment for international peace. (n.d.). The Potsdam declaration: August 2, 1945. New York.

Cho, J. M., Roberts, L. M., & Spang, C. W. (2016). Transnational encounters between Germany and Japan: perceptions of partnership in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Crawford, J. (2012). Brownlies Principles of Public International Law. Oxford University Press.

Janis, M. W., & Noyes, J. E. (2006). Cases and commentary on international law. St. Paul, MN: Thomson/West.

Piccigallo, P. R. (2011). The Japanese on Trial: Allied War Crimes Operations in the East, 1945-1951. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Reydams, L., Wouters, J., & Ryngaert, C. (2012). The Politics of Establishing International Criminal Tribunals. International Prosecutors, 6–80. doi: 

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554294.003.0002

Taulbee, J. L. (2018). War Crimes and Trials: A Primary Source Guide. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC.

United Nations, the Charter of the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg Charter) retrieved from: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.2_Charter%20of%20IMT%201945.pdf

United Nations, International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Charter) retrieved from: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.3_1946%20Tokyo%20Charter.pdf

[1] Reydams, L., Wouters, J., & Ryngaert, C. (2012). The Politics of Establishing International Criminal Tribunals. International Prosecutors, 6–80.

[2] Bard, M. G. (2002). The Nuremberg trials. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.

[3] Piccigallo, P. R. (2011). The Japanese on Trial: Allied War Crimes Operations in the East, 1945-1951. Austin: University of Texas Press.

[4]Carnegie Endowment for international peace. (n.d.). The Potsdam declaration: August 2, 1945. New York.

[5]See as in reference 2. 

[6]See as in reference 1.

[7] Taulbee, J. L. (2018). War Crimes and Trials: A Primary Source Guide. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC.

[8] United Nations, International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Charter).

[9] The former Yugoslavia in 1993 and Rwanda in 1994.

Dr. Draheim welcomed Ambassador But

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Dr. Draheim welcomed Ambassador But

Plenipotentiary Dr. Antje Draheim and Ambassador Franc But – Picture by Embassy of Slovenia to Germany

Thursday, 30 January 2020, Representation of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Berlin, Germany: Slovenian Ambassador Franc But encountered Dr. Antje Draheim, Plenipotentiary of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to the German Federation, at the premises of the Land’s Representation. 

During the tête-à-tête both parties expressed the mutual interest in cooperation in the fields of tourism, logistics, shipbuilding, medicine, health care, digitisation and start-ups.

For further information:
Representation of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to the German Federation: https://www.regierung-mv.de/Landesregierung/stk/Landesvertretung/2.-MV-Sommerabend

Ambassador Hasanov introduced to the Saarland

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Ambassador Hasanov introduced to the Saarland

Ambassador Hasanov and Premier Hans – Picture by Embassy of Azerbaijan to Germany.

Tuesday, 28 January 2020, The Saarland: Premier Tobias Hans received the Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ramin Hasanov, for an inaugural visit to the State Chancellery.

After the official photo session and the entry in the guest book of the Saarland, the head of the Saarland government and his Azerbaijani guest held a discussion on current political and economic topics. Prior to this, Ambassador Ramin Hasanov visited the German Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).

Afterwards he attended a business lunch at the invitation of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Afterwards he paid a visit to the Historical Museum Saar and took a look at the current exhibition “The 1920s”.

After studying at the Faculty of International Relations and International Law at the University of Baku, Ramin Hasanov began his diplomatic career in 1999 as an attaché in his country’s Foreign Ministry.

This was followed by posts at the Azerbaijani embassies in Germany and Switzerland. Before his appointment as his country’s ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, Ramin Hasanov was head of the Department of International Law and Treaties in the Foreign Ministry in Baku until 2016.

For further information:


Government of the Saarland: https://www.saarland.de/SID-EE4E320D-32C96C9E/6767_253302.htm

Embassy of Azerbaijan to Germany: http://berlin.mfa.gov.az/news/4/3640

Tanger meets Bremen

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Tanger meets Bremen

Delegation of Morocco welcomed by State Counsellor Dr. Olaf Joachim (Bremen, in the middle) – Picture by Bremen Senatpressestelle.

20-23 January 2020, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Germany: A delegation from the region of Tangier, Kingdom of Morocco, paid a working visit to Bremen and Bremerhaven. The group from the North African state visited upon the invitation of the Chamber of Commerce in the two-city state.

The programme included a visit to the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DKFI), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the container terminal and the Thuenen Institute of Sea Fisheries and Fishery Ecology in Bremerhaven. Bremen’s representative to the federal government, State Councillor Dr. Olaf Joachim, welcomed the group for a meeting at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Bremen City Hall.

The State Councillor: “It is part of Bremen’s self-image to maintain diverse contacts with various partners near and far. Bremen companies are already active in the Tangier region. Finding ways to intensify these contacts for the benefit of the people is our goal”.

On Monday, 20 January, the delegation had met with State Councillor for Economic Affairs Sven Wiebe. The meeting was about mutual ideas of the regions and their economic structure. The Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceima region has good contacts with France, Spain and China and is now looking to diversify. The North-West Region, Bremen and the Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceima Region have several similar industries (logistics, port, aviation, automotive, food) – therefore Bremen was chosen for this visit.

The hope of the four-day visit, organised by the Bremen Chamber of Commerce – Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Bremen and Bremerhaven, is to identify concrete project ideas for cooperation at the end of the visit and to agree on how to proceed. Possible options would be, for example, a return visit, projects in the field of training and skilled workers as well as research and development activities.

For further information:
Government of Bremen: https://www.senatspressestelle.bremen.de/detail.php?gsid=bremen146.c.329493.de&asl=bremen02.c.730.de&fbclid=IwAR0AeLAxkh7cG40_tRKLMetJgBqjhJ7tS_nRO1kVqTOxhesRWg7jP5s9R9s

Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco to Germany: http://www.botschaft-marokko.de/front

Bavaria solidifies ties to Russia

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Bavaria solidifies ties to Russia

President Vladimir Putin and Premier Dr. Markus Söder – Picture by Bayerische Staatskanzlei.

28-29 January 2020, Moscow, Russian Federation: Premier Dr. Markus Söder travelled to Moscow for a working visit. He was accompanied by Federal and European Affairs Minister Dr. Florian Herrmann and Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger from the Munich Security Conference. 

On Wednesday, 29 January, Premier Dr. Markus Söder paid a visit to the tomb of the unknown soldier, and laid a wreath at the memorial site (Aleksandrovsky sad, 125009 Moscow).

Mayor of Moscow Sergej Sobjanin and Premier Dr. Söder – Picture by Bayerische Staatskanzlei.

At 11.00 a.m., Dr. Söder encountered the Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, in the City Hall for a discussion on bilateral affairs. 

In the framework of the visit Dr. Markus Söder met the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, for a meeting on intensifying relations between the two countries. 

For further information Government of Bavaria: https://www.bayern.de/ministerpraesident-dr-soeder-reist-nach-moskau/https://www.facebook.com/bayern/videos/211887533307707/

Qatars appoints chief of government

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Qatars appoints chief of government

Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani – Picture by Qatar News Agency.

Tuesday, 28 January 2020, Doha, State of Qatar: HH The Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani issued the Emiri decree number two of 2020 appointing his former Chief of Diwan, HE Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani as the country’s novel Prime Minister and Minister of Interior. 
The new prime minister was born in 1968. Since 2014, he had been Chief of the Amiri Diwan, an office that liaises interactions between the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, government ministries and non-government entities. In fact, he began working for the then Sheikh Tamim since March 2006, when he joined his office at the Diwan.

At the sworn-in ceremony, Qatar’s Deputy Emir, HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani, was likewise present. 


For further information:

Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani: https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/خالد_بن_خليفة_بن_عبد_العزيز_آل_ثاني

Diwan Al Amiri: https://diwan.gov.qa/briefing-room/news/general/lg/january/28/lg07

International Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague

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International Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague

The Ambassador of Israel, H.E. Mr. Naor Gilon.

By John Dunkelgrün.

For the second time the Stichting Chaj together with the Embassy of Israel and the City of The Hague recognised International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a very special lecture at the Peace Palace to highlight the influence of the Holocaust on the development of international law.

The organisers succeeded in lining up several most impressive speakers, like the acting mayor of The Hague, H.E. Mr. Johan Remkes, the President of the International Court of Justice, H.E. Judge Abdulqami Ahmed Yusuf, Mr. Arie Sznaj, the Ambassador of Israel, H.E. Mr. Naor Gilon, H.E. Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova, and the keynote speaker Professor Philippe Sands QC.

Dr Ekaterina Trendafilova, President of the Specialist Chambers.

Mr. Remkes welcomed everyone by stressing that one lesson from the Holocaust is that we should never let those who initiate or participate in atrocities escape judgment and that education is the key to democracy. He quoted Maria Montessori in saying that all politics can do is keep us out of war, but establishing lasting peace is the work of education.

The Mayor of The Hague, H.E. Mr. Johan Remkes.

Judge Yusuf in his usual quiet and considered way, all the more impressive because of his evident deep concern with the subject, pointed at the danger of dividing humanity into “us” and “the Other”. During the Holocaust, the “Other” were the Jews, the Sinti and Roma, Gays, and the mentally infirm. It is almost impossible now to imagine a group of men sitting quietly planning the murder on an industrial scale of millions, only because they were the “Other”. The many genocidal atrocities against other groups since 1945 shows that we haven’t learned much.

Among the selective guests, Belgium’s Permanent Representative to the OPCW, H.E. Mr. William Roelants de Stappers.

That is why we must remember and always take action against racism and prejudice, We should never allow the denial of the right of existence of entire groups. It not only denies the humanity of the victims, but it diminishes the humanity of the perpetrators and bystanders equally. We must act against the precursors of genocide. It is only through our actions that we can honour the victims.

Remember your humanity in times of inhumanity.

Mr. Arie Sznaj gave a moving account of how his grandfather as the only one of his large family escaped the razzias and murders in Lviv (then called Lemberg). In 1939 over one-third of Lembergs 350,000 inhabitants were Jews and almost all perished.

Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova in her introduction to Professor Sands told how she became a jurist because she dreamt of a society where the rule of law prevails. And to protect this rule of law citizens sometimes have to take a stand against their government for what is right. Sometimes that requires lying down on the train tracks, as the Bulgarians did when the government wanted to deport Bulgarians Jews by train.

Philippe Sands, an internationally renowned lawyer, educator, writer, actor, and descendant of Holocaust survivors spoke partly about the history of the concepts Genocide and Crimes against Humanity, partly about his family history and partly about the tension between the two concepts.

Contrary to intuitive thinking the two concepts are not age-old fundamental aspects of the law. They were formed in the twentieth century by two men who -incidentally- came from and were educated in the same city, Lemberg. A further coincidence is that the grandfather of Professor Sands also hailed from the same place and was educated by the same teachers. Background matters. Background directs who initiates laws, what laws are developed, how they work and how they come into being.

One of these men, Hersch Lauterpacht, escaped the horrors of the Holocaust by fleeing first to Sweden and then to the U.S., where he was offered a chair by Duke University in Durham. He developed the concept of Crimes against Humanity. The other, Rafael Lemkin, escaped to England, where he worked first at the London School of Economics and later in Cambridge. He developed the concept of Genocide (and coined the phrase). It is a subset of Crimes against Humanity in that it is intended to target a specific group of people, racial, religious, ethnic or cultural. These concepts were first used in the Nurnberg trials, where for the first time a supranational legal concept was considered more powerful than the national law.

They helped to convict people like Seyss Inquart for his crimes in The Netherlands and Hans Frank who was directly responsible for the deaths of the families of Lemkin and Lauterpach. No longer should people be able to hide behind national laws to protect themselves from persecution. The power of the sovereign state was no longer absolute.

Professor Sands spoke at length about the tension between the two concepts. “Genocide” is seen as it were as the crime of crimes and gets front-page news, Crimes against Humanity much less so. Yet, there is a drawback to the concept of Genocide. By definition it divides the actors involved into perpetrator groups and victim groups, making the segregation stronger. But since 1945 most of the horrific events have been acts against groups. Primo Levi held that ‘Many people -many nations- can find themselves holding, more or less wittingly, that “every stranger is an enemy”. Only education and information can counter that. 

Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp.

International law now reigns supreme over national laws, when we care to use it. The Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in Britain on the indictment of a Spanish prosecutor for acts committed in Chile. The country of Myanmar was ordered to act swiftly to protect the Rohingya or face the Security Council. And so today, in the City of Peace and Justice, there is not only the International Court, but the International Criminal Court, and various special tribunals that confront both sovereign states and individuals with laws that are crafted to protect both individuals and special groups. It isn’t perfect, but it is working and growing in power and experience.

Dr. Jurist Alfred Kellermann with other guests.

Later this year Professor Sands hopes to publish the sequel to his successful East-West street.

It was a packed auditorium where the 350 attendants, ambassadors, judges, lawyers and those lucky enough to get registered listened riveted to their chairs by the quality and importance of the speeches. To represent the many Dutch jurists that were killed during the Holocaust, six children lighted candles to six jurists, while their names and a brief c.v. were read.

One can only hope that this event, held this year for the second time, will become a tradition so fitting for this city and the Peace Palace.

Photography by Arnaud Roelofsz.

Visit Rwanda Networking Evening

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Visit Rwanda Networking Evening

H.E. Mr. Jean Pierre Karabaranga, Ambassador of Rwanda.

By Roy Lie Atjam.

The Hague, “Visit Rwanda” hot on the heels of successfully participating in the annual Vakantiebeurs (14-17 Jan) the Embassy of Rwanda in the Netherlands organized a networking event with the theme  Visit Rwanda.

It was at the  Hotel Hilton, on 20 January 2020. A concise group of Dutch travel media professionals and celebrities had been invited.

Son and spouse of Ambassador, Mr de Wit, Ambassador Karabaranga and Louis van Gaal.

Special guest was the Football personality Mr. Louis van Gaal who visited Rwanda in 2019 and had the honour to be one of the name givers at Kwita Izina, the annual gorilla naming ceremony.

H.E. Ambassador Jean Pierre Karabaranga, flanked by his spouse welcomed the honourable guests and thanked each and everyone for their contribution since they have experienced Rwanda as a holiday destination. The Ambassador invited all to share experiences and provide information to the RDB – Rwanda Development Board and the Embassy, in order to improve the quality of the cooperation with the media & travel industry.

Mrs Linda Mutesi, marketing manager at RDB.

RDB’s marketing manager Mrs Linda Mutesi gave a presentation, her focus was on where the destination Rwanda stands today and  the marketing strategy for the coming years.

Mr Greg Bakunzi of Amahoro Tours and a guest.

The special guest Mr Louis van Gaal remarked, “It has been an honour for me to name a baby Gorilla. My advice to Dutch people is the following, If you intend to visit Rwanda, don’t look at t\its tragic past, but look at how Rwanda is today!

Ambassador Karabaranga, Louis van Gaal, Harry Betist from Travelproof.

 It’s unbelievable how in only 25 years President Paul Kagame has managed to changed Rwanda. People of Rwanda are friendly and polite. Its nature is incredible! Rwanda is clean, hotels and food very good.”

Louis van Gaal with Ambassador and Embassy team: Willem Versteegh, Joy Uwanziga, Ambassador Karabaranga, Louis van Gaal, Lydia Sibo and Herbert Ndahiro

Without any doubt, it has been a Rwandaful evening !

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Uzbekistan, Agro- Industry Presentation

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Uzbekistan, Agro- Industry Presentation

In the picture H.E. Mr Dilyor Khakimov, Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

By Roy Lie Atjam.

The Ambassador of Uzbekistan in the Netherlands H.E. Mr Dilyor Khakimov, organized a presentation and a networking coffee event to promote Uzbekistan Agro-industry. The presentation took place at the Provinciezaal of Nieuwspoort The Hague on 20 January 2020.

The keynote speaker was to be the Minister of Agriculture of Uzbekistan, H.E. Mr Jamshid Khodjaev. Unfortunately, Minister Khodjaev had to call off the visit as he had to attend to urgent matters at home. However, Minister Khodjaev will be coming to The Hague ulteriorly.

Mr Ulugbek Khusainov, Chief Inspector of the President’s Administration, Madam Kamila Irgasheva, Ambassador Dilyor Khakimov and Mr Boy Frank, representative of the Uzbek commerce chamber in the Netherlands.

The presentation went ahead, Madam Kamila Irgasheva, Head of the Division of the Ministry of Agriculture delivered a lively and informative presentation. There was a panel composed of: Mr Ulugbek Khusainov, Chief Inspector of the President’s Administration, Madam Kamila Irgasheva, Ambassador Dilyor Khakimov and Mr Boy Frank, representative of the Uzbek commerce chamber in the Netherlands. Scores of potential Dutch investors attended the event as well as Ambassadors and diplomats. Among them the Ambassador of Turkey and the Charge d ‘Affaires a.i of Belarus.

The evening proceeded with testimonials of companies already active in Uzbekistan and a two minutes each pitches of companies envisaging to leap into the upcoming Central Asia market of Uzbekistan.

A distinguish guest, Ambassador Khakimov and H.E. Ambassador Şaban Dişli, Ambassador of Turkey.

Uzbekistan is open for dialogue and is interested in expanding pragmatic cooperation with all partners based on equality, mutual benefit, respect and consideration of each other’s interests. Uzbekistan does not develop relations with one country or organization by restricting cooperation with the other side.

Agro Uzbekistan

The Government of Uzbekistan has institutions in place to facilitate prospective investors. For instance, there are investment protection and support schemes: Government guarantees investment protection, Government bodies don’t have the right to interfere in investor activities, investors activities are not subject to nationalization.

Investment stimulation activities :

Granting tax and customs benefits, as well as preferences for terms determined to depend on the type of activity and volume of investment.

A 24/7 Call Centre, tax facilities and so much more has been put in place. The Ministry of Agriculture contact data http//www.agro.uz

Already investing in Uzbekistan are Coca Cola, Hyundai, Boeing. Samsung, Hyatt and others.

Export, main outlet markets for Uzbek products are Russia, Kazahkstan, Baltic countries and even China. The phenomena Green Corridors, a simplified customs clearance system is gaining ground. Uzbekistan is vying the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

The Uzbek diaspora in the Netherlands presented tokens to Ambassador Dilyor Khakimov and some others in the Uzbek community.

Ambassador Dilyor Khakimov, can look back on a successful evening, good exposure of the Uzbek Agro-industry. Bravo.

Viennese Coffee Culture Recreated!

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Viennese Coffee Culture Recreated!

The Ambassador of Austria, H.E. Dr. Heidemaria Gürer and The Ambassador of Chile, H.E. Dr. Maria Teresa de Jesus Infante Caffi.

Photography and text by Catherine Dailey.

Her Excellency Ambassador Dr. Heidemaria Gürer transformed the “salons” of her magnificent residence into an authentic Viennese Coffee House last Friday.  A tribute to  Viennese Coffee Culture, listed as one of Austria’s contributions to UNESCO’s intangible world cultural heritage since 2011, provided a festive occasion to introduce scores of invited guests to centuries old coffee house traditions.  

A Viennese Coffee House at the Residence of Austria.

All of Ambassador Gürer’s guests appreciated her attentiveness to detail in re-creating an authentic Viennese Coffee House on the Koninginnegracht.  Beneath elegant Bohemian crystal chandeliers, classical music performances were given by both a pianist and a cellist throughout the afternoon.  Seated at tables featuring marble tabletops and on authentic bentwood chairs in the style of “Michael Thonet”, guests were offered a selection of famous Viennese patisseries such as mohnstreudel or apfelstreudel (apple strudel), which are typically featured on traditional coffee house menus.

Chilean Ambassador H.E. Ms. María Teresa Infante Caffi and Ambassador María Jesús Alonso Jiménez of Spain were among the many who visited the “Viennese Coffee House” to enjoy Her Excellency’s gracious hospitality.

Reinildis van Ditzhuyzen, the well-known specialist on the Dutch Royal House, etiquette expert, historian, writer, commentator and author of “Hoe hoort het eigenlijk?”

Ambassador Gürer also invited Reinildis van Ditzhuyzen, the well-known specialist on the Dutch Royal House, etiquette expert, historian, writer, commentator and author of “Hoe hoort het eigenlijk?” to give a presentation on Viennese Coffee Culture.

Guests discovered that coffee is always served in a porcelain cup and saucer on a tray together with a small glass of water.  These are essential Viennese coffee culture traditions! Other special features of a Viennese Coffee House are the presence of newspapers – a tradition dating to 1720; professional staff dressed in timeless black and white uniforms; board games such as chess.  Poetry readings and music performances are also often featured. 

Viennese Coffee House at the Austrian Residency in The Hague.

Extended opening hours—often from 7:00 am until 12:00 are also traditions.   One can enjoy an informal inexpensive meal at nearly anytime of the day or night at Viennese Coffee Houses.  When combined, all elements contribute towards creating an inspiring atmosphere which fosters a tradition of free thinking and creativity amongst artists, intellectuals and others.

Van Ditzhuyzen’s also briefly referred to Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) during her presentation. Modern Austrians remember “Sisi” as the “Lady Diana of the 18th Century – one of history’s tragic figures whose life, and death, has inspired countless poems, stories and films.  The empress was even the subject of a recent musical bearing her name – “Sisi.” Even centuries after her death, interest in her life remains strong and today’s visitors to Vienna follow Sisi’s “tourist trail” and visit Habsburg Court landmarks which were part of her life.

When planning a long weekend to visit Vienna, allow time to research and enjoy the city’s coffee house culture. Café Central, Café Landtmann, Café Sperl and Café Mozart are four well established coffee houses boasting more than a century of tradition.  Visitors to the seat of the “House of Habsburg”, enjoy the historic, UNESCO listed capital city for palaces, parks and museums and experiencing life with the locals by participating in Viennese coffee house culture.

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