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N. Camerota spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited Observer site and thought you
should see it.
To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited Observer site, go
to http://www.observer.co.uk
Africans back down at UN race talks
Special report: UN conference against racism
Chris McGreal, Durban
Saturday September 08 2001
The Guardian
European intransigence forced African states to back down yesterday on virtually every
demand over an apology and reparations for trans-Atlantic slavery in order to save the
United Nations anti-racism conference in Durban from total collapse.
Last-minute wording on the Middle East crisis was also agreed after Arab countries
bowed to pressure from the South African hosts and dropped their demand that Israel be
called a 'racist state'.
As the conference belatedly closed after a week of often bitter negotiations, the
final agreement reveals a fudged text that carefully skirts all direct reference to
European culpability.
South African Cabinet Minister Geraldine Frasier-Moleketi, one of the negotiators,
still called the agreement a 'major' victory for the Africans. But the chairman of the
Africa bloc, Eugene Gasana, was closer to reality when he said the deal fell short of
his expectations. 'We were really not so satisfied,' he said. 'The most important
point is that it lays the basis for the future.'
In the final wording of the declaration, adopted by the conference yesterday when it
was reconvened a day after it was officially to have closed, almost all the text
matches the original European Union positions, put most forcefully by the British.
'We acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade, including the trans-Atlantic slave
trade, were appalling tragedies in the history of humanity, not only because of their
abhorrent barbarism, but also in terms of their magnitude, organised nature and
especially their negation of the essence of victims,' the text says.
The Europeans also won on their insistence that only modern slavery can be called a
crime against humanity because the trans-Atlantic trade was legal at the time.
But perhaps the greatest victory for the Europeans was over the issue that the
Africans were most insistent on at the end - reparations. The best the Africans get is
a call for support for the continent's Marshall Plan - the New African Initiative -
and in a host of areas such as debt relief, funds to combat Aids, the recovery of
stolen government funds transferred to the West by former dictators and their cohorts,
and an end to the trafficking in people. But nowhere does the word 'reparations'
appear.
African-American groups, in particular the US Congressional black caucus, will be
bitterly disappointed that the African bloc gave ground. For their own domestic
reasons, the Americans were most interested in acknowledgement that reparations are
due. One Chicago group hoped to use the issue to back its claim for $20 trillion in
compensation for 'post-traumatic slave syndrome'.
European diplomats believe that the Africans overplayed their hand just when they had
the EU divided and ready to make concessions. Early last week Britain was virtually
isolated among its European partners in objecting to the use of the word 'apology'.
Eleven nations, led by the Belgians, believed that there was no moral alternative to
saying sorry. The UK - backed by three other former slave-trading nations, Holland,
Spain and Portugal - officially objected on the grounds that an apology could leave
the Government open to a lawsuit.
But the US walkout from the conference over criticism of Israel and heavy lobbying by
the African-American caucus fired up the African contingent and it upped its demands.
It was a fatal error. The Africans - led by Nigeria and Zimbabwe - wanted individual
apologies from each of the countries responsible for slavery, recognition of it as a
crime against humanity and reparations called as such.
It was too much for the EU, and the Europeans found common ground again with the
British position.
The final text drops all direct criticism of Israel, but does recognise the
Palestinians' right to self-determination and expresses concern at their plight 'under
foreign occupation'.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
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