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["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Anti-racism Conference Expected to Reach Agreement on
Slavery Compensation: Official

Xinhua News Agency
2001-08-14

Sipho Pityana, director-general of the South African
Foreign Affairs Department, said on Tuesday he was
certain the World Conference Against Racism would find
an agreement on the issue of apology and compensation
for slavery and colonialism.

"The divide between the different parties has been
narrowed substantially," he told reporters in Pretoria,
briefing them on the outcome of the third preparatory
committee meeting recently held in Geneva, Switzerland.

"If we had more time in Geneva, we would probably have
agreed on more issues. On one of the most difficult
issues, that of the reparation and compensation for
slavery, we came very close to an agreement," he said.

The United States earlier threatened it would not
attend the conference if the issue of reparation for
slavery and that of equating Zionism with racism were
put on the agenda.

On the latter issue the preparatory committee had
agreed to abide by a decision of the United Nations not
to equate Zionism with racism, Pityana said.

However, the conference still had to find a way to
reflect on the situation in the Middle East in a way
acceptable to all parties concerned, he added.

According to the director-general, as far as he knew,
the U.S. government was sending a delegation of about
50 people to the Durban conference, which will be held
from August 31 to September 7.

The preparatory committee invited and encouraged all
countries to take part in the conference, but did not
try to persuade anyoneto do so, Pityana said.

Those gathering in Durban had different views which
they could express there. If all agreed, there would be
no need for such a conference, he explained.

At the Geneva meeting, 60 of the 131 paragraphs of the
declaration and 85 of the 106 paragraphs of the program
of action for the conference were adopted. The rest
remained to be resolved,according to Pityana.

But Pityana said the groundwork done so far had laid a
good basis to reach agreement at the conference.

"We are looking forward to a successful conference," he
said.

The two issues dogging the process were that of the
Middle Eastand of slavery and colonialism.

Pityana said there was a reluctance from former
colonial powersto extend an apology for slavery and
colonialism on the grounds ofthe legal implications, as
well as implications for compensation and reparation.

In a so-called non-paper -- a document which could be
withdrawnif agreement is not reached on it -- the
African countries excluded demands for individual
compensation, but elaborated on trans- national
compensation.

The African non-paper played a central role in bringing
partiestogether, Pityana said.

The African bloc, he said, wanted an acknowledgment
that slavery, slave trade and colonialism played an
important part in laying the foundation for the kinds
of racial discrimination stillseen today.

Colonialism, which was often down-played, involved the
take-over of countries, dispossessing and displacing
people and their regimes, segregating communities and
creating inequality among them, he said.

"The legacy of this persists," Pityana noted, adding
that "colonialism was also the take-over of resources
which contributed to the enrichment of the developed
North."

"It is not just about aid; but about altering the
structural relations between Africa and the developed
world," he said.

As it now stood, the former colonial powers were
willing to express themselves in language of regret and
remorse, in what cameclose to an apology, the South
African official said, adding "the debate is whether
that constitutes sufficient apology. That debatewill
continue in Durban."

Another debate is on whether slavery, slave trade and
colonialism can be regarded as crimes against humanity.
Some hold the view that at the time these actions were
committed, they were not regarded as such, but now they
are.

"I am certain we will reach agreement on all of these
issues," Pityana said.