Durban, South Africa — The host president of the World Conference against Racism, South Africas Thabo Mbeki, opened the conference Friday with a stark portrayal of a divided world and a widening racial gulf, separating white people from what he described as "browns and blacks".
"It became necessary that we convene in Durban because, together, we recognized the fact that there are many in our common world who suffer indignity and humiliation because they are not white," said the South African leader.
Mbeki did not mince his words and did not apologise for dispensing with discreet language. His speech continued: "Their cultures and traditions are despised as savage and primitive and their identities denied. They are not white and are deeply immersed in poverty. Of them, it is said that they are human but black, whereas others are described as human and white."
Mbeki told thousands of delegates from one hundred and fifty countries that he was speaking "in these terms, which some may think are too harsh and stark, because I come from a people that have known the bitter experience of slavery, colonialism and racism."
Heads of state from more than a dozen countries, most of them African, listened to the inaugural speeches by Mbeki and the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, which opened the UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) in the South African port city of Durban.
President Fidel Castro of Cuba and the Palestinian chairman, Yasser Arafat, are among other non-African dignitaries attending the conference. The Cuban leader has criticized the attitude of the United States to the Conference. America downgraded its delegation because of anti-Israeli language in the draft declaration of the WCAR conference.
Israel announced Friday that it would not boycott the Racism Conference, but kept its top diplomats away, saying it would be sending a low-level delegation to Durban.
Arab states and pro-Palestinian supporters have been insisting that Zionism, the movement that lead to the creation of Israel, should be equated with racism in the Durban declaration. But the American social activist, Rev Jesse Jackson, told reporters on Friday that the Palestinian delegation had written a statement which agreed not to equate Zionism with racism, or label Israel a racist state. After an impromptu press briefing, Jackson distributed what he said was a copy of the statement, written in Arabic. He said he had informed the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, about his discussions with Arafat.
Later Palestinian officials said Jackson might have been "a little overzealous in what he said. Arafat himself, addressing the conference floor, called on the assembled delegates to condemn Israels "colonial, racist plot" against Palestinians.
The Palestinian Minister for International Cooperation, Nabil Shaath, told journalists they might still seek condemnation for what he called Israeli "racist practices". Shaath said "Anti-Zionist is out, definitely. We have taken out any attack on Zionism as such, and we are not labeling Israel a Zionist state. We are only against practices by Israel, as an occupation authority, that discriminate against the Palestinian people."
This issue has dominated the build-up to the Durban Conference, with the Atlantic slave-trade and reparations playing second fiddle.
After the opening days proceedings started in earnest, thousands of marchers demonstrated in Durban, near the International Convention Centre, where the Racism Conference is being held. The protest had a distinctly pro-Palestinian flavour with marchers carrying anti-Zionist, anti-(George) Bush, anti-IMF and even anti-Mbeki banners and t-shirts.
One hand-written banner called the South African president a liar, in a section of the demonstration that seemed to represent landless people. Pretoria is under pressure to provide homes for millions of underprivileged South Africans.
Police in full riot gear were on standby with tear gas canisters and water cannon. They briefly stepped in to shield a UN official who approached the surging crowd. Some of the protestors, who began to break down a wire mesh barricade to try to gain access to the Durban conference venue, were prevented by the police. A siren activated to warn off the marchers caused brief panic and sent demonstrators racing off in all directions.
The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, struck a conciliatory note on the Middle East in his opening address to the conference. Annan described the Holocaust, in which six millions Jews were wiped out by the Nazis during the 2nd World War, as the ultimate abomination".
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But Annan warned that the Israelis must consider how they used the tragedy and legacy of the Holocaust. "We cannot expect Palestinians to accept this (the Holocaust) as a reason why the wrongs done to them - displacement, occupation, blockage, and now extra-judicial killings, should be ignored, whatever label one uses to describe them," said the UN secretary-general to loud and persistent applause in the conference hall.
Annan told delegates that they must not fail and that no person could be born a racist. "Let us rise above our disagreements. The wrangling has gone on long enough.If we leave here without agreement, we shall give comfort to the worst elements in every society."
This message was echoed by the South African leader in his speech. Mbeki thanked the world for helping his country shake off the yoke of racist apartheid, "that crime against humanity". But he warned that there was much more to do all over the world.
Mbeki said that people all over the world, oppressed by racism, entertained the hope that brown and black ghettoes of poverty, despair and human degradation must no longer exist".
