Political sectarianism mars African Descendants antiracist meeting -- Cuban, South African delegates walk out over exclusion of non-Africans

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is an example example of how ultrasectarianism (probably with a strong
undercurrent of anticommunism), passing itself off as an expression of
revolutionary nationalist consciousness,  can damage the fight for
reparations and Black rights. -- Fred Feldman

Cuba, S. Africa Abandon Racism Talk
By BERT WILKINSON Associated Press Writer

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Oct 04, 2002
(AP Online via COMTEX) --

Saying they'll have no part in discrimination, delegations
from Russia, Cuba, South Africa, Colombia and France's
overseas territories on Friday abandoned an anti-racism
conference that voted to exclude whites.

The walkout, on the fourth day of the six-day African and
African Descendants World Conference Against Racism,
came after a day of negotiations failed.

Some 200 delegates voted Wednesday for whites and Asians to
leave the deliberations, saying slavery was too painful a
subject to discuss in front of non-Africans.

"Cuba will never support any action aimed at segregating a
group of people. Furthermore, Cuba believes that such a
decision is intolerant and contrary to the purposes of this
conference," Maria Morales, the spokeswoman for Cuba's
delegation, told the conference reading from a prepared
statement.

The South Africans said that the conference had gone adrift
and that they could not endorse the decision to exclude
non-blacks. It was unclear how many delegates left the
conference late Friday.

But most of the 250 delegates at the meeting hosted by the
Barbados government whistled and cheered their approval as
chairwoman Jewel Crawford of the United States stood by the
vote.

"The motion of exclusion was the will of the majority
because there are sometimes when we feel that we just want
to have a meeting of our own," Crawford said. "

Also Friday, delegates heard an impassioned plea from
Mauritanian Bakary Tandia for the conference to denounce
slavery in the African countries of Mauritania and Sudan.

He said such conferences lay too much emphasis on demands
for reparations from former white colonizers and "hardly
focus on what is happening on the continent, where slavery
is alive in some places."

Human rights groups say slavery is continuing in both those
African nations. In Mauritania, though the practice has been
outlawed, estimates of the number of people currently in
bondage - most of them blacks - range up to 100,000.

Human rights groups have accused the Sudanese government of
abducting civilians and forcing them into slavery. There are
also claims that the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army is
involved in abducting people.

Conference organizers said they planned a resolution of
condemnation before Sunday's end to the meeting, billed as a
follow-up to last year's U.N. anti-racism conference in
South Africa.




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