2/08/2001
Middle East Conflict Could Derail Racism Conference, UN Admits

Preparations for the major World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which begins in Durban, South Africa on 31 August, are proceeding apace. Governments are now entering the final stages of the preparatory sessions that will prepare the text of the conference discussion.

The UN has been candid in its disappointment that two critical issues have bedevilled the talks so far. First is the legacy of slavery and colonialism; the second is the equating of Zionism with racism. Speaking this week, the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan went so far as to refer to "deep fissures on a number of sensitive issues." If the Conference was to succeed, he stressed, common ground must be found. "The Conference must help heal old wounds without reopening them; it must confront the past, but most importantly it must help set a new course against racism in the future."

Acknowledging that while prejudice could be found around the world, its effects were particularly stark in Africa. "From the genocide in Rwanda to the conflict in the Sudan to the tensions in Burundi, the continent is living with the most devastating consequences of division and intolerance," he observed.

Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland and now the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights also sounded distinctly edgy when she opened the final session of the preparatory talks in Geneva on Monday, even conceding the possibility of a failure to reach agreement on a draft declaration.

She urged countries not to dwell on past wrongs such as the effects of mass slavery, lest the conference lapse into recriminations. The world must come to terms with the past in order to move forward, she said. "I need hardly say that it would send an extremely negative signal if agreement could not be reached on a worthwhile Declaration and Programme of Action."

The UN is clearly concerned about the difficulties that surround the issue of Zionism. Mary Robinson said that she herself had spoken to the Palestine Authority President Yasser Arafat about the matter. In remarks to the press she admitted that if there were an attempt to revive the idea of Zionism and racism, "we will not have a successful conference in Durban."

She doubted whether any country or group would walk away from the conference completely satisfied, but the time for staking out positions and laying down markers had passed. "We are now at the stage where we need to begin reaching agreements," she said.

According to the High Commissioner, the Durban meeting would be nothing less than a conference to discuss the core principles that should underpin this new century. "It is an important opportunity for the world community to commit, for the first time in the post-apartheid era, to a truly global effort to address the ancient and the modern manifestations of this evil."