Indexing for the UN_list. Click the silly logo to see the list.
Posted on 09/07/2001 5:35:18 PM PDT by sarcasm
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) -- European negotiators at the U.N. conference on racism agreed to a carefully crafted statement Friday that they termed an apology for slavery, a move aimed at fending off lawsuits seeking reparations.
But delegates remained deadlocked beyond the conference's scheduled closing Friday night, struggling over how to address the Middle East conflict and African demands for some kind of compensation for slavery.
Formal negotiations wound down around midnight and were to resume later in the day Saturday. Officials said informal talks would likely continue through the night.
The chief Arab negotiator denied there had been a breakthrough on the Mideast but held open the possibility the session would be extended to try and reach a compromise.
``The concrete results of this conference are essential to the fight against racism around the world,'' said Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who is leading the European Union negotiators at the conference.
The European Union agreed earlier Friday to a compromise calling on those responsible for slavery to find ways to restore the dignity of victims, resolving a key issue deadlocking the World Conference Against Racism.
The statement amounted to an apology, said EU spokesman Koen Vervaeke, but would block any lawsuits seeking reparations. While the conference's documents are not legally binding, once adopted all countries promise to fulfill the applicable pledges made.
Meanwhile, the issue of how to deal with the Middle East conflict in conference documents also remained in limbo Friday.
Muslim countries were considering whether to walk out of the global meeting because they said proposed language on the Middle East was too weak. The United States and Israel walked out Monday after the Arab states rejected a compromise proposed by Norway.
African countries still were pushing for slavery and colonialism to be labeled ``crimes against humanity'' and for Western countries to pay reparations. The EU rejected both calls, said Vervaeke.
``There was a breakthrough on the notion of an apology,'' said Vervaeke, a spokesman for Michel. ``In the way it's drafted now there can't be any legal consequences.''
The European Union has been unwilling to issue an apology because it felt that would leave it open to lawsuits.
The text on slavery to which the parties agreed to on Friday read:
``The World Conference Against Racism further notes that some have taken the initiative of regretting, or expressing remorse, or presenting apologies, and calls on all those who have not yet contributed to restoring the dignity of the victims to find appropriate ways to do so, and to this end we appreciate those countries that have done so.''
But the issues of reparations and declaring the slave trade a crime against humanity remained stumbling blocks, said Zimbabwean Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa.
``They cannot deny the slave trade was a crime against humanity,'' Chinamasa said, adding that the reparations issue was still the biggest problem. ``They are more worried about their wallets than moral issues.''
The European Union, however, remained firm in its refusal to accept that language.
``Slavery today is of course a crime against humanity, slavery yesterday, in the past, was of course ... a very grave thing, a very horrible thing,'' Michel said. ``It is very difficult to consider that you can compare slavery today to slavery in the past.''
Mary Robinson, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights and the secretary-general of the conference, had said Friday morning that the likely final declaration from the conference would be nothing to get ``very excited about'' because of the compromises needed to reach consensus.
``This is very difficult for (the delegates),'' Robinson said. ``The great achievement will be to get an agreement at all.''
If negotiations continued past the scheduled closing of the eight-day gathering, the conference could be extended into Saturday and beyond to allow the talks to continue, said Sue Markham, spokeswoman for the conference.
Arab states rejected a South African proposal on wording on the Middle East conflict that sought to find a compromise between the Arabs' call for the conference to condemn Israeli practices as racist and the European Union's refusal to allow the conference to take sides in the conflict.
The EU had accepted the proposal offered Thursday, Vervaeke said. He said the proposal was the EU's bottom line.
``The ball is now in the Arabs' court,'' he said.
Nasser al-Kidwa, a Palestinian and top Arab negotiator at the conference, said talks Friday night with the European Union were going ``nowhere,'' denying reports that there had been a breakthrough.
``We have repeatedly said the text was unacceptable,'' said al-Kidwa, the Palestinians' representative to the United Nations. But he added that a deal might still be obtainable and that the talks would probably go into Saturday.
``I smell the possibility of movement,'' he said.
The rejected proposal recognized the Holocaust and condemned anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
A copy of the text, obtained by The Associated Press, also expressed concern ``about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation'' but did not specifically criticize Israel or mention Zionism.
If a consensus cannot be reached on any part of the conference's final documents, delegates hold a vote, with a two-thirds majority of nations needed to adopt a substantive paragraph.
Delegates from the Organization of Islamic Conference, an umbrella group of 56 Muslim countries, were disappointed the compromise proposal did not discuss Palestinian suffering and Israel's policies in the occupied territories, a delegate at a meeting of the organization said.
Yes, but you have to pay yourself.
Nawwww, too easy.
FReegards,
They got paid once for the people they captured and sold into slavery. What more do they want????
Like, dude, did the EU even exist back then? I thought, they were, like, born yesterday?
Maybe they are, like, apologizing for the slavery going on today in the Sudan and that...other place in Africa. Otherwise, its just, like, you know, a real mind bender.
Maybe the EU has time travel technology, or something. Like, maybe, the EU is run by Bill and Ted? That'd be, like, totally excellent, dude!
Be excellent to one another!
The Excellence Union.
Think again.
Dream on. An apology will be seen as a sign of weakness, and they will intensify their demands for reparations.
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