European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 27, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 b the stars and stripes Friday september 27, 1991 Butcher of Lyon Barbie Dies at 77 , Franco apr Klaus Barbie the nazi War criminal known As the Quot Butcher of Lyon Quot who eluded authorities for four decades has died. He was 77. The former Gestapo chief died wednesday night in the penal Wing of the Jules Courmon Hospital where he had been admitted sept. H with terminal leukaemia Rhone regional authorities reported. Quot he was Lucky to reach a Ripe old age. His victims died horrible deaths Quot said nazi Hunter Beate Klaus Felti who traced Barbie to South America in i972, preparing the groundwork for his arrest forcible return to a Ranee and War crimes trial. Barbie was convicted of crimes against humanity in 1987 and sentenced to life imprisonment. There were unconfirmed reports he would be buried by the Graves of his wife and son in Bolivia where he lived in exile under an identity provided by . Intelligence part of a cold War calculus that allowed nazis valued for their information on communists to slip from the hands of Justice. For France. Barbie was a living Symbol of the brutality of the 1940-44 German occupation of the wartime collaboration and the persecution of jews in world War ii in which the French themselves played a role. A what is there to regret Quot he once told a reporter. Quot i am proud to have been a commanding officer of the Best military outfit in the third Reich and if i had to be born a thousand times again i would be a thousand times what 1 have  Nikolaus Barbie or. Was born oct. 25, 1913, in bad Godesberg Germany near Bonn. A dedicated nazi since his youth. Barbie acquired infamy As the Gestapo officer who in 1943 arrested Jean Moulin the greatest hero of the French resistance. Barbie also was charged with ordering the april 1944 arrest of 44 jewish children living in an orphanage in Zieu a Village cast of Lyon. The children taken in that Gestapo raid w arc deported to the German concentration Camp at Auschwitz and killed. Pierre Marcel Wiltzer. President of a memorial for the children said barbies death meant that a Fate has pronounced the final punishment against this Man who was so  commander of the Gestapo in Lyon Between 1942 and 1944, Barbie was convicted of War crimes and sentenced to death in absent a by French military tribunals in 1952 and 1954. He was accused of ordering or participating in the murder of 4,000 people and the deportation of about 8.000 resistance members and jews. Barbie had a reputation As a brutal interrogator who personally executed prisoners. After the War. Barbie was listed by the allies As a War criminal. Despite this however he was hired in april 1947 As an intelligence informant by the . Army counterintelligence corps. Barbie in March 1951. Barbie was Given the alias of Klaus Altmann. With the Aid of a . Intelligence Section that protected sources deemed helpful for the anticommunist struggle he was smuggled to South America. Accompanied by his wife and his two children Ute Maria and Klaus Georg. His True identity was revealed when the Klners folds tracked him Down in Lima Peru where he had temporarily shifted his base of activities. Barbie fled to Bolivia where he was protected by the bolivian military and held the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel. Barbie became deeply involved in Bolivia s violent political affairs during the regime of Gen. Luis Garcia Meza who came to Power in a military coup in july 1980. Barbie advised the military regime on political repression. But when civilian Herman Siles Zuazo took office in october 1982, French authorities renewed their efforts to obtain Barbie s extradition and he was sent Back to France. Barbie refused to attend his eight week trial in the summer of 1987 to hear evidence brought against him by survivors of his reign of terror he invoked Between 1942 and 1944. Barbie was diagnosed As having leukaemia in 1990, and the government turned Down several requests by his lawyer Jacques verges to free him on humanitarian it rounds. Romanian Premier quits amid mounting protests protesting Coal miners Chase an armoured personnel Carrier while scuffling with police in Bucharest on wednesday. Bucharest Romania apr Premier Pere roman bowing to pressure from protests against reforms intended to build a Market Economy in one of Europe s poorest countries resigned thursday. Roman who emerged As Premier after the bloody revolution against Nicolae Ceausescu almost two years ago had presented his resignation to president Ion Iliesiu a to solve a political crisis Quot according to a government statement read on official radio. He said the government and police had not been Able to a function properly to prevent violence and defend the state and citizens  at least three people were killed and 140 police and soldiers were injured in rioting that erupted wednesday after about 4,000 club wielding miners commandeered trains in Central Romania and descended on Bucharest. The rompers news Agency reported thursday that 2,000 More miners had arrived at the City a Vaneasa train station and an undetermined number of others arrived at the main North station. More trains were reportedly on their Way. Thousands of miners gathered once again outside the neoclassical government building where the Premier s office is located. They shouted. A resign resign a to Iliesiu they shouted a a Iliesiu. Your time has come a romans Western backed reforms aimed at ending decades of communist mismanagement have sliced standards of living widened the Gap Between Rich and poor and sent inflation soaring to 17 1 percent. Romanian leaders ordered the army to intervene and moved to form a new coalition government. State radio said Iliesiu had accepted the resignation. However the radio quoted him As saying it was not forced by pressure from the streets hut a the governments inability to solve actual problems of the National  a government statement said the Cabinet would continue functioning until parliament chooses a new  no held in mutilation murder by the stars and stripes Karlsruhe Germany a ail airman from Rhein main a is being held in connection with the murder of a woman whose mutilated body was found burning in a Forest near Here a spokesman for the German police said thursday. The airman identified by the German police As sgt. James Angell 1 Homas. 27, is being detained at the . Confinement enter in Mannheim while the investigation continues said Werner pro Kopp a spokesman Lor the German police. Frankfurt police look Thomas into custody at the air base wednesday. Charges have my been filed. The victim has been tentatively identified Only As Jolanda p., 27, a philippine citizen. Efforts to identify the body in the Forest have been difficult because its head and hands were Cut off. However a forensic examination of the body revealed that the size and weight of the victim were similar to that of Jolanda  Remnants of clothing also identified As belonging to Jolanda  Were also found. A a Thomas and Jolanda  Had been very close friends for a Long time. In fact he has been described As her Only close Friend he people who knew  pro Kopp said. According to Prokopp Thomas wife and 4-Vear-old daughter live in the a hit de states. Police Learned that Jolanda  Had been in Germany five years and worked most of that time As a Nanny for americans and German families in the Frankfurt area. She was unmarried and lived with a family in Ober Ursel on the outskirts of Frankfurt. Jolanda  Has been Missimi since 9 30 . Sept. 7. When she left a party at a girlfriends House in Frankfurt. The victims burning body was found at 8 20 . Sept. 9 by a Forest Ranger in Woods Between Karlsruhe and Leidel Herg. Police said the body had been drenched with some Type of Tuel and ignited. Police Are still Uncertain about where the crime look place and its motive Prokopp said. The decision on whether the ease will be handled by German or american Legal authorities has not been made