BERNE - Switzerland announced yesterday that it would create a $5 billion foundation to help victims of poverty and injustice, in a sweeping gesture aimed at silencing critics over its Nazi era acts and restoring its battered reputation.
President Arnold Koller made the announcement before a joint session of both houses of parliament early yesterday. It was convened especially for the occasion for the fourth time in the country's history.
The project, named the Swiss Solidarity Foundation, will be financed through interest earned on a portion of gold reserves set aside by the Swiss National Bank (SNB). "The total assets of the foundation would probably amount to about seven billion Swiss francs," said, Mr Koller, who is also justice minister.
"With careful management [of the gold reserves] the average return per year would result in the long run to several hundreds of millions of Swiss francs," half of which would be distributed in Switzerland, and the other half abroad, he said.
"Such money is then to be destined to victims of poverty and catastrophies, of genocide and other severe breaches of human rights, such as of course victims of the Holocaust," Mr Koller said.