He was to be promoted to Commandant of the force and would serve for three years before fleeing with the Nazis when the Red Army counter-attacked in 1944.Mr Nutting said that while British law required that only one allegation of murder be mentioned in each of the four counts Mr Sawoniuk faces, the prosecution alleges that he in fact murdered 20 people.”On each occasion, say the Crown, this defendant executed Jewish men and women whose only offence was to be Jewish,” he said. In the summer of 1941, on its push to Moscow, the German army stormed through Belarus, overrunning Domachevo in less than an hour.Within days the Germans were looking for volunteers to serve in a locally recruited police force, or Schutzmannschaft, to keep order, and which in the days to come, would assist in the systematic extermination of the town’s Jewish population.Yesterday at the Old Bailey, John Nutting QC, for the prosecution, said Mr Sawoniuk, 77, was one of the first to volunteer for this force. Moreover, it is said that his victims were people with whom he had lived side-by-side and even worked for during the first 20 years of his life.The crimes are said to have taken place in Domachevo, a town in south- west Belarus, 25 miles south of Brest. The accusations against Anthony Sawoniuk, a limping, white-haired pensioner from south London, are as simple as they are shocking.
It is alleged that between 19 September and 31 December 1942, he murdered 20 Jews, assisting the Nazis in their so-called Final Solution. It is alleged that he did so not only willingly, but enthusiastically, while serving as a police officer in Nazi-occupied Belarus. But more than half a century on, the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust reverberated once again yesterday as Britain’s first Nazi war crimes trial began at the Old Bailey.

THE DATES relate to a different age, the crime to another generation. On occasions we have differed from the conclusions which Legg drew It is important not to be mesmerised by the Legg report theirs is not necessarily the last word in this affair.”. The Permanent Secretary must be held responsible for this unacceptable situation. It represents a serious failure of communication.”SIR THOMAS LEGGAuthor of official report on the affairThe Foreign Affairs Committee’s report says: “Our oral evidence sessions have illuminated a great deal which is not clear from simply reading the Legg report.

three weeks after [Sir John] had learned of customs’ raid on his own department. Our attempts to uncover the structure, ownership and business connections of Sandline were met with extraordinarily evasive answers.”SIR JOHN KERRPermanent Secretary, The Foreign OfficeThe report says: “The Permanent Secretary failed in his duty to ministers The Foreign Secretary was first informed about Sandline… However, he did not tell the whole truth about a UN embargo: “Half-truths are a dangerous commodity in which to trade.” Mr Cook is criticised for refusing to let the committee interview the head of MI6, Sir David Spedding.PETER PENFOLDHigh Commissioner to Sierra LeoneThe report says: “We conclude that Mr Penfold’s relations with Sandline were open to criticism” It also expresses “surprise at Mr Penfold’s ignorance and his lack of due diligence in ascertaining the true legal position on arms supplies”, but criticises the Foreign Office for not providing him with adequate support.TIM SPICERSandline representativeThe report says: “It was an extraordinary omission by Mr Spicer and his legal advisers not to ascertain the position in law about the sale of arms to Sierra Leone.” Sandline was “in essence a company of mercenaries… Its members only discovered during the course of the latest inquiry that the recommendations were never implemented.The Key FindingsArms embargoes should be approved by MPs to prevent Parliament being misled about their scope, as it was in this case.A Green Paper on the control of mercenaries should be published within 18 months, and legislation on arms brokers should be introduced in the next parliamentary session.Britain should seek to strengthen the United Nations’ convention against mercenaries, and if it fails to do so it should lead moves in Europe to control them and also to regulate arms broking.Ministers should respect committees’ demands for information and should take “a more mature attitude” to letting them see intelligence documents and officials.Sir John Kerr, the Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, failed in his duty to ministers and new procedures should be implemented to prevent a reoccurrence.An “appalling failure” in the briefing of ministers should never be repeated.ROBIN COOKForeign SecretaryThe Foreign Affairs Committee’s report says Mr Cook was not told British mercenaries were planning to ship arms to Sierra Leone. Two years ago the same committee called for tighter controls after a British firm shipped arms to Rwanda. But one of its most telling findings may point to the future.