US Vice President Cheney to head US delegation at Auschwitz observances

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (AFP) - Vice President Dick Cheney will lead a US delegation to Poland for observances marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkinau death camps, the White House announced Monday.
The vice president, accompanied by his wife Lynne, was to join some 2,000 survivors of the Auschwitz extermination camp on Thursday, alongside world leaders and several of the surviving Red Army soldiers who liberated the facility.
Cheney is also to take part in an event honoring survivors of the Holocaust who are now American citizens, and plans to deliver remarks to an international forum. He will also tour the Auschwitz facility, the White House said.
Cheney's agenda is to include meetings with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka, and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, US officials said.
Also in the delegation accompanying the US vice president is Nobel Peace Prize laureate and author Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Auschwitz.

01/24/2005 17:48 GMT - AFP