New York Times - 07.31.2001

 

The New York Times

Annan Says Race Conference Must Chart Way for Future

By ELIZABETH BECKER

WASHINGTON, July 30 — The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, told the National Urban League today that the world conference against racism next month is aimed at preventing future problems, not becoming mired in old ones.

Though he did not explicitly say so, Mr. Annan seemed to be supporting the stance of the Bush administration, which warned last week that it may not attend the conference, which is organized by the United Nations and will be held in Durban, South Africa, because the agenda includes discussion on viewing Zionism as racism and on demands for compensation for slavery.

In his speech here today, Mr. Annan acknowledged that those two issues had "opened up deep fissures" and asked organizers of the conference to reach an understanding that would encourage all nations including, by implication, the United States, to take part.

"If this conference is to succeed, there is an acute need for common ground," said Mr. Annan. "The conference must help heal old wounds without reopening them; it must confront the past, but most important, it must help set a new course against racism in the future."

The issue of the conference today occupied the House of Representatives, which overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution supporting the conference but urging the sponsors to omit from the agenda the issue of considering Zionism as a racist idea.

The secretary general, a Ghanaian, concentrated on Africa in his speech to the largely black gathering, centering his remarks on United Nations efforts to fight AIDS and to end conflicts on the continent. But he said prejudices and ethnic or racial hatred are widespread.

"That is why it is essential that nations of the world come together to exchange experiences in their local struggles against a global enemy," he said, referring to the conference, formally called the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

In his keynote speech on Sunday, Hugh B. Price, president of the Urban League, asked the administration to send Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, the first African-American to hold that position, to lead a delegation to the conference.

In preparatory meetings, other nations have quarreled about the aims of the conference, with developing nations raising the issue of reparations for colonialism as well as for slavery.

In testimony before the Senate, Secretary Powell raised the idea that the conference could be derailed by those questions.

But pressure from civil rights and human rights groups has been growing, and the United States sent a representative to Geneva this week to negotiate the conference's formal agenda.

Trying to answer some of the United States' concerns, Human Rights Watch issued a statement today saying it, too, was troubled that many countries were trying to single out Israel for condemnation.

"If the conference were going to name countries that practice severe forms of racism, its list should be much longer," said the statement.

The advocacy group has been a leading critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

In his speech today, Mr. Annan avoided mentioning any country by name and suggested that the conference would not look for a single remedy or "one size fits all solution" that would pit one group of countries against another.

"No country is immune from the costs inflicted by prejudice and intolerance," he said. "What works in one place will not necessarily work somewhere else."