Durban: U.S. presence hinges on agenda

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, AUG. 2. The Bush administration has once again maintained that the participation of the United States in the World Conference on Racism depended on the outcome in Geneva at the final preparatory round.

``We are very concerned about these statements about interjecting the Middle East conflict into this conference, equating Zionism with racism or almost in effect doing that. And those are the issues we are working on in Geneva'', the State Department spokesman, Mr. Richard Boucher, said.

The Republican administration has made it known that it will sit out the conference in Durban, South Africa, this month if some nations insist on bringing up the Zionism issue or an apology with reparations for slavery as some African nations say the West must do.

At the United Nations, both the Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, and the top person in charge of Human Rights, Ms. Mary Robinson, have said the conference will be a non-starter if a common ground is not reached on divisive issues. The argument has been that in coming to grips with what happened in the past, nations must not become a hostage to the past either.

If slavery, the apology and reparations are issues that the Bush administration is hanging tough on, the subject of Zionism and its equation with racism is another strong point of contention here. In fact, the point has been made that more than a decade ago, the United Nations deleted the reference and linkage and, therefore, it is nothing but a futile exercise to start it all over again.

The Bush administration is not going to lose much sleep if there is world criticism for staying out of the Durban meet. Right from the beginning, the Republican administration has been making the point that it is less interested in popularity contests and more in the way of securing the interests of America and its allies. Seen in that perspective, Washington will continue to hang tough on references to Zionism and racism or any criticism of Israel that is deemed offensive.

Diplomats and officials have been making the point that certain Arab nations have been insistent on having paragraphs in major international meetings that are highly critical of Israel even if they may be totally extraneous to the gathering. For instance, it is being pointed out at the United Nations that in a recently concluded special session on the Habitat, a few West Asian nations held up the final draft for several hours insisting on a reference to Israel with condemnation of its settlement policies.

The argument is being made in some political circles that the increasing frustrations in West Asia as a result of unmet expectations is contributing to a hardening of the stance of some Arab nations. But what is also being said is that the attempt to hijack important meetings by raising marginal issues is not only creating larger political problems but taking the focus away from the immediate problems - in this case, on fighting discrimination globally.

The Bush administration received a shot in the arm for its stand on the Durban meet when the House of Representatives by a 408 to 3 non-binding resolution called the U.N. Conference on Racism and Xenophobia ``a unique opportunity to address global discrimination''. That said, the resolution also made the point that efforts by some to ``resuscitate the divisive and discredited notion equating Zionism with racism... would undermine the goals and objectives of the conference''.

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Section  : International
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