Hussein Flies Waldheim on Tour of Jordan Valley

King Hussein took the controls of a camouflaged military helicopter and flew visiting Austrian President Kurt Waldheim on a tour of the Jordan Valley with a clear view of Israel today.

The king flew the former U.N. secretary general over Jordan’s richest farmland, giving Waldheim a look at Israel and the West Bank that Israel captured from Jordan in 1967.

Waldheim has been shunned by some countries because of allegations that he was involved in Nazi war crimes during his World War II service in the German army in the Balkans. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Jordan has provided an unusually warm welcome for Waldheim, who settled into the routine of a state visit on the second day of his visit. It is only the second trip abroad Waldheim has taken in the year since he was elected.

Klarsfeld Tells of Detention

Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld said Jordanian security officers detained her today before she could protest Waldheim’s presence. Klarsfeld said the agents searched her luggage and confined her to her hotel room.

Waldheim began the day with a visit to the martyrs’ monument in Amman, where he poured water onto the roots of a “tree of life” and viewed museum scenes of Arab struggles against the Turks in World War I and against Israel since World War II.

Klarsfeld said she was detained at the monument moments before Waldheim arrived.

After the royal helicopter tour of the Jordan Valley, Hussein took Waldheim to the heights of Umm Qais, about 50 miles north of Amman, for a view of the strategic point where the borders of Israel, Syria and Jordan meet.

‘Justice and Peace’

“Security comes from justice and peace,” the king told reporters at the site, indirectly referring to his efforts for an international peace conference.

Klarsfeld reported her detention in a telephone interview.

“They took out my passport and took me to the police station,” where she was told not to talk to reporters and to stay away from Waldheim, she said.

She said security men then took her back to her hotel and searched her room, confiscating reports implicating Waldheim in war crimes and two T-shirts reading “Waldheim Resign” and “Waldheim Go Home.”

During Waldheim’s trip to the Vatican last week, Klarsfeld raised a placard denouncing his presence and shouted condemnation of his audience with Pope John Paul II.