Reparations

Roma children at a camp in Mitrovica, north Kosovo, near the Trepca mine complex. Photo: EPA/ Valdrin Xhemaj.

Greece told German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday that it had grounds to pursue a legal claim for billions of euros in reparations for the Nazi occupation of the country in World War II.

Germany has dismissed Athens's demands in the past, but the Greek president raised the issue anew with Merkel, who is on a two-day visit.

Descendants of fighters allied with the Nazis and the collaborationist World War II regime in Serbia have been asking for the restitution of property confiscated after the war, the national restitution agency said.

The debate over the restitution of thousands of African cultural artifacts from France has become heated, but in West Africa conservators prefer to call it "collaboration" and are preparing for their return

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert reiterated on Wednesday Germany's position that the issue of war reparations to Greece has been settled "legally and politically."

"The reparations issue was legally and politically settled," he said at a news conference in Berlin, adding that "nothing has changed" in that position.

Victims of wartime sexual violence in Kosovo have been invited to apply for official verification that will enable them to receive reparations from the state for their suffering.

Kosovo will offer reparations to survivors of wartime sexual violence, but an Amnesty International report warns that the law doesn’t do enough to help them and that access to justice remains limited.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Germany has failed to officially resolve the issue of reparations to Warsaw of World War II.

The United Nations has demanded that China should immediately release prominent human rights activists from detention and pay them compensation, according to an unreleased document obtained by the Guardian.

Berlin has dismissed Warsaw's demands for paying massive World War II reparations, saying the bitter historical issue was fully resolved sixty years ago and that there are no grounds to revive it.

"Poland made a binding decision in August 1953… to relinquish demands for further war reparations," said German government spokesman Steffen Seibert as quoted by AFP.