Durban Conference Ends with Compromise Text

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DURBAN: LAST-MINUTE COMPROMISE ON MIDEAST AND SLAVERY 

DURBAN, South Africa, Sept 8 (AFP)--Round-the-clock negotiating pulled off
last-minute compromises on the Middle East and slavery early Saturday to
salvage an acrimonious UN racism conference.

Delegates talked through the night to resolve strong differences over how
the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, should
tackle the Arab-Israeli conflict and the issue of slavery and
reparations.But the agreements lack the endorsement of the United States and
Israel -- both countries walked out of the conference Monday over what they
deemed "hateful" anti-Israeli language in an original disputed draft.

European Union negotiators stayed in Durban and the fruits of their efforts
paid off. The conference's main committee adopted the final declaration
Saturday, paving the way for its endorsement by the full plenary session
later in the day."There is a general agreement on these two texts," said
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who had been active
in trying to bridge positions on the two thorny subjects as chairwoman of
the conference.

The text on the issues of the "past" covers colonialism, reparations, the
question of an apology and the description of slavery and the slave trade as
crimes against humanity, adding they "should always have been so" described.
It also includes recognition of the "need to develop programmes" to help
developing countries and the diaspora and notes that "some states have taken
the initiative to apologise."The Europeans had resisted calls by African
countries for nations that profited from the slave trade and colonialism to
issue an explicit apology, worried that it could pave the way for court
claims for monetary compensation.

Reed Brody, of Human Rights Watch, hailed the agreement, calling it a
"historic recognition of the criminality of slavery and moral obligation to
repair the lasting damage it caused. Campaigners are going to use this
declaration for a long time to come," he told AFP.

The text on the Middle East includes recognition of the "inalienable right
of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the establishment of
an independent state." It also calls for recognition of the "right to
security for all states in the region, including Israel," but refrains from
any explicit condemnation of the Jewish state.

Suleyman al-Herfi, the Palestinian Authority representative in South Africa,
said he believed the agreement on the Middle East was a "good thing for the
success of the conference. But this text does not satisfy everybody," he
commented.

Naser Alkidwa, the head of the Palestinian delegation and ambassador to the
United Nations in New York, said the Palestinians accepted the compromise
because they wanted a successful conference. But he added: "It was not a
question of what we disagreed with [in the text], or we would never have
accepted it."

Countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference expressed reservations
about points in the agreement in a statement to the main committee meeting,
which groups about 20 countries representing different geographical
regions.The countries stressed that the Holocaust had happened in Europe,
and Arab countries bore no responsibility for it, and that a large number of
victims of anti-Semitism were Arabs.

The conference documents also deal with issues including indigenous peoples,
migrants, refugees, Roma, gender discrimination and globalisation.

Copyright (c) 2001 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved

 
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