September 4, 2001
U.S. delegates abandoned the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, after hours of intense negotiations failed to produce an acceptable compromise over a harshly worded condemnation of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, reports the Wall Street Journal (A12, 9/4). Israel swiftly followed Washington's lead, announcing in Jerusalem that it, too, was withdrawing from the meeting, which runs until Friday.
The pullout cast a pall on an event that post-apartheid South Africa had hoped to make a showcase for its efforts to create a nonracist society. But the dispute over the language regarding Palestine had poisoned the gathering from the day thousands of diplomats and representatives of nongovernmental organizations began streaming into the city more than a week ago.
But Arab leaders in Durban said that the United States and Israel were to blame for allowing the conference to be sidetracked by Middle East politics. Some also suggested the United States was using the issue as a pretext to avoid dealing with others at the conference, such as African demands for reparations for slavery, reports the Washington Post (A1, 9/4).
Meanwhile, government delegations were racing against the clock Tuesday to salvage a global conference on racism after the US and Israel walked out over harsh wording [in the text of the meeting's draft communiqué] against Israel, reports Agence France-Presse. Hopes are pinned on attempts to draw up a completely new text, in a move announced late yesterday by the EU after the US and Israel's exit from the talks in Durban.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson expressed regret at the pullout, but said the conference must go on "with a view to achieving a successful outcome."
African delegates to the conference on racism are demanding that reparations for slavery take the form of a "broad commitment" in support of new development initiatives on the continent, an official said today. Africans are maintaining the position they adopted ahead of the conference that countries that benefited from slavery and colonialism should apologize and make reparations, said Organization of African Unity (OAU) Assistant Secretary-General Assi Djinnit at the end of a meeting of African delegates.
"We have adopted a common paper deriving from discussion on the way reparations can be made within the framework of initiatives taken by Africa (for development)," he said. "Developed countries in general and those that benefited from slavery in particular should show a broad commitment behind African initiatives."
Western countries, who fear that agreement to an explicit apology for slavery would open the way to lawsuits for compensation and set a precedent for the proposed international criminal court, have been awaiting the African paper on slavery, one of the issues dominating the conference. Amina Muhamed, head of the Kenyan delegation, said the paper would now be presented to other delegates, particularly from Western countries. "There will be plenty of work," she noted.
Also reporting, the Financial Times (9/3, p.2) notes that African nations led by South Africa and Kenya had pressed for an apology during the conference's preparatory talks, with the intention that this would be a first step towards deepening rich country development commitments to the continent rather than launching individual or national claims.
Most African leaders have generally agreed that supporting the goals of the New Africa Initiative-a range of development programs drawn up by African leaders-would be the best way to make up for past injustices. But many are not clear about reparations, the story says, noting that some leaders, such as President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, still harbor the desire for more direct compensation. And President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said African countries had not intended the New Africa Initiative as a tool of reparations.
European nations are also at odds over whether to agree to an apology in the conference's resolution, the story notes. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the EU did not have a common position on the wording of an apology "as they had different histories." The UK refuses to recognize historical slavery as a crime against humanity-anxious that a legal admission may lead to legal indictment in international courts. France, by comparison, has acknowledged that the trade was a crime of this magnitude.
Le Figaro (France, 9/3, p.2) reports French Development Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin, noting that it is poverty that nurtures the fear and hatred of the other that gives rise to racism, said more needed to be done in terms of international aid. Official development assistance should be increased and made more efficient, he said, adding that better use should be made of the debt relief already granted to several African countries.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said reparations had no place in the conference's discussions, the FT notes, although he had earlier acknowledged that individuals and companies should be held to account.
In a separate report, the FT (p.4) notes that contemporary slavery has not received as much attention as past wrongs at the conference in Durban. Yet slavery is on the rise today, in spite of its designation as a crime against humanity by many countries, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said yesterday. Slavery and abduction are to be found in Liberia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Sudan, the ILO has found. Other countries in which forced labor persists are Brazil, Burma, India, Nepal and China.
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