Washington, DC — As the Third Preparatory Committee meeting of the World Conference against Racism got underway in Geneva, Monday, to work on a draft Declaration and Program of Action, United States participation in the Durban, South Africa conference remained in doubt, although efforts to reach a compromise are underway.
In a speech at the National Urban League Conference in Washington DC, Monday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for "common ground" to be found. Although the past should not be forgotten, the U.N. leader said, "the conference must help heal old wounds without ignoring them."
The United States objects to references equating Zionism with racism and to inclusion on the agenda of reparations for colonialism and slavery.
White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer told reporters Friday that the US position was that the conference "should be focused on the future on combating racism that exists in the world today," instead of trying to "revisit a very tangled issue."
These were "serious concerns" a State Department spokesperson said after Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Marc Grossman, met with some 40 foreign ambassadors to explain the US position on Friday last week.
The US has threatened to boycott the meeting and to deny it funding if planners insist on placing the two issues on the conference agenda.
"The President is committed to going and to attending this conference," said Fleischer. "The representatives of the United States government have their bags packed and they're ready to go and attend this conference. The only thing stopping them from going will be if the conferees divert the conference from its important mission of fighting racism and get into issues such as equating Zionism with racism, or engaging in issues facing backwards on reparations that serve to divide nations."
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At a roundtable discussion last week, black lawmakers in the US Congress criticized the Bush administration for not taking the lead in putting reparations on the table. Calling slavery one of the greatest crimes of all time, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) said; "Our nation has refused to confront the enormity of this crime." Such a position, "is not radical," added Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), "it's right."
Many observers think that the 'Zionism as racism' item will be dropped but that the reparations issue may remain on the agenda in some modified way. Few think that President Bush will attend the conference.
