Samoan leader apologizes for ‘Heil Hitler’ salute at 2007 family reunion
By Lex Harvey, CNN
(CNN) — Samoa’s prime minister has apologized after an old video of him surfaced performing the Nazi salute while leading a chorus of “Heil Hitler” at a family reunion in 2007.
Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt said his words were “not intended for the public” and apologized in a statement published by the government Monday.
“Whatever the context or intention at that gathering twenty years ago, I recognise that those words and gesture were inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt and I apologise for using them,” said Laaulialemalietoa, who became PM of the Pacific Island nation last year.
The antisemitic remarks were made during a “private family gathering” in Savai’i, the country’s largest island, in 2007, Laaulialemalietoa said, when he was serving as deputy speaker of Parliament.
In the seven-second video clip, Laaulialemalietoa is seen leading about a dozen people in the Nazi-affiliated salute, saying “Raise your right hand, Heil Hitler,” while the group mimics his words and gesture, according to the Samoa Observer newspaper, which first reported on the video Sunday.
Laaulialemalietoa banned the Samoa Observer from all government press conferences last year for what he’s called “unfair” reporting.
Samoa is a tiny nation of about 221,000 people in the South Pacific, near Fiji. It sits to the west of American Samoa, the US territory in the eastern part of the Samoan island chain.
Samoa was colonized by Germany in the early 20th century, and many Samoans have German heritage and surnames.
New Zealand took what was then known as Western Samoa from the Germans in 1914 and retained control of Samoa until the country’s independence in 1962.
In his statement Monday, Laaulialemalietoa said his behavior in the clip does not reflect his personal beliefs or the beliefs of the government or people of Samoa.
“I reject Nazism, antisemitism, racism and all forms of political extremism,” he said, adding that he now considers “this matter addressed.”
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