Leader says sorry for remarks on Holocaust

A former native American leader apologised yesterday for comments made last week suggesting that Adolf Hitler was justified in trying to rid the world of Jews.

"I am ashamed and truly sorry for my conduct," said David Ahenakew, a former chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and the Assembly of First Nations. He made the comments last week to a reporter from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix newspaper.

"The Jews [expletive] near owned all of Germany prior to the war," Mr Ahenakew told the reporter on Friday. "That's how Hitler came in. He was going to make [expletive] sure that the Jews didn't take over Germany or Europe.

"That's why he fried six million of those guys, you know. Jews would have owned the (expletive) world. And look what they're doing. They're killing people in Arab countries."

His comments evoked sharp criticism and led the Saskatchewan government to ask the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate possible hate crime charges.

Mr Ahenakew apologised to the Jewish community. "I'm deeply sorry for the pain I caused you," he said.