> White House threatens to boycott UN racism talks
> By Richard Wolffe in Washington and agencies - Jul 27 2001 19:43:02
> The Bush administration is threatening to pull out of a United Nations
> conference on racism if the agenda includes discussion of Zionism and
> reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.
> The White House said on Friday that President George W. Bush wanted US
> officials to attend the conference in Durban at the end of next month.
> But it confirmed that it was taking a hard line in limiting the
> conference agenda, in order to defend Israel and avoid an examination
> of the 18th- and 19th-century trade in African slaves.
> Ari Fleischer, a White House press secretary, said: "The only thing
> that would stop the US from going and playing an important role in
> combating racism around the world is if the planners hijack their own
> meeting into anti-semitism."
> Mr Fleischer said the US refused to enter the debate on slave
> reparations in part because it would open up the issue of reparations
> by West African nations for their role in the slave trade.
> "This conference should be focused on the future on combating racism
> that exists in the world today," he said.
> The White House threat to withdraw from the UN conference is the
> latest in a series of hardline approaches to multilateral talks.
> It was made just days after it in effect killed an international
> agreement to enforce the 1972 ban on biological weapons. US opposition
> to the draft agreement left the administration isolated from its
> European and Asian allies. It echoed the international rift over the
> Kyoto Protocol on global warming, which the Bush administration also
> opposed. This month the administration took a single-minded approach
> to a UN conference on small arms, refusing to sign any agreement that
> could limit the supply of arms to rebel groups or the rights of
> Americans to own guns. An agreement was reached last week that excised
> both measures and concentrated instead on voluntary export controls.
> The State Department said on Friday it had not yet decided whether to
> attend the UN conference on racism, as negotiators start their final
> work on drawing up an agenda for talks.
> Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, has come under pressure from
> civil rights leaders to attend. The Leadership Conference on Civil
> Rights wrote to Mr Powell two weeks ago to underline the commitment to
> fighting racism at home.
> Mr Powell has also made extensive efforts to build closer ties with
> Africa in his first six months in office, including meetings with
> three West African leaders last month. Many African states are arguing
> for the conference to issue a strong condemnation of the slave trade,
> while some are pushing for compensation talks.
> Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, admitted
> that the conference would fail if Zionism remained on the agenda. "If
> there is an attempt to revive the idea of Zionism as racism we will
> not have a successful conference," she told reporters in Geneva. Mrs
> Robinson said the issue was resolved 10 years ago when the UN repealed
> a resolution equating Zionism with racism.
>
> © Copyright The Financial Times
> <http://globalelements.ft.com/Common/Copyright/copyright_global.html>
> Limited 2001.
>