Non-governmental organizations gathering on the sidelines of a UN racism conference in the South African city of Durban have accused Israel of racist crimes and genocide.
In a declaration presented to the main meeting, the NGOs say that Israel is an apartheid state which practices ethnic cleansing, reported BBC.online.
A BBC correspondent at the conference pointed out that the NGO declaration was bound to be stronger in its language than anything the 130 countries represented in the main conference would produce.
Earlier, African leaders at the conference proper agreed that the West must apologize for slavery and colonialism, but were divided over the issue of reparations.
AFP reported that the participants' battles to bridge widely divergent demands on Israel and slavery reparations continued Sunday, despite appeals for calm to allow other issues to be discussed.
The UN-sponsored talks have entered their third day, still facing uncertainty over whether the United States will boycott the meeting over what it considers objectionable language on Israel.
Although proposed language implying an equation between Zionism and racism is "dead,” as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan underlined at a press briefing on Saturday, the United States' participation is still in question.
Other language referring to Israeli policies towards Palestinians, urged by Arab and Islamic countries, is still proving problematic, with the United States, Europe and others arguing against singling out any one country.
"I would hope that we would come up with language, whether in a generic form or whatever, that will speak to every situation and will respond to the feelings and the pain that vulnerable people are feeling around the world," Annan told reporters.
He was responding to a question on whether he favored all specific references to Israel being removed from the draft declaration.
A team of US diplomats is in Durban trying to renegotiate the texts to be adopted by the UN conference, but officials in Washington have warned that the delegation could still walk away early if they fail in their mission.
"This is an important conference and it is incumbent on all governments and organizations to come here and defend what they believe in ... and push for common ground in the right language," Annan said.
Thirteen foreign heads of state have come to Durban, all from impoverished nations.
Annan also appealed to UN delegates not to allow the Middle East, or the other key issue here, demands for reparations for transatlantic slavery, to "derail" the conference.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, one of the few Western ministers in the week-long line-up, also urged the meeting not to allow "one-sided" condemnations of Israel to wreck the talks.
"Polarizing the debate on the Middle East conflict, or even singularizing Israel directly or indirectly here in Durban is, in the current situation, not conducive to building confidence and reviving the peace process," he said.
"One-sided condemnations will also jeopardize this conference, perhaps cause its failure," he added.
But, said the agency, Cuban President Fidel Castro renewed calls for reparations for slavery and condemnation of Israel.
He even linked reparations to the Jewish people.
"Cuba speaks of reparations, and supports this idea as an unavoidable moral duty to the victims of racism, based on a major precedent, that is, the indemnification being paid to the descendants of the Hebrew people which in the very heart of Europe suffered the brutal and loathsome racist holocaust," he said, in an official translation of his speech.
The UN conference is scheduled to run until September 7.
According to the BBC, a number of European delegations have said they are ready to see strong language adopted on the slavery front, but none that would open them up to major claims from countries that suffered in the past.
One of the speakers at the conference, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, has come out against reparations.
Obasanjo told the delegates an apology would recognize the wrong that was committed against Africans and constitute a promise that such an atrocity would never happen again.
With an apology, "the issue of reparations ceases to be a rational option,” he said during his formal address to the conference on Saturday.
But President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo said reparations were necessary to compensate for the horrors of the slave trade and colonialism.
Reparations could come in the form of a cancellation of African debt and greater development aid, some African delegates hope, said the BBC report – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
