Posted on 09/10/2001 11:22:37 PM PDT by Utah Girl
Meeting descended into near farce
It was a bitter end to the conference that was supposed to foster racial harmony around the world.
A hapless moderator tried to restore order as Islamic states bashed Israel and unruly African activists cried "Shame, Canada, shame!" in the final moments of the World Conference Against Racism.
"Disgraceful!" African non- governmental delegates hollered from the back of the auditorium as Paul Heinbecker, a Canadian representative, explained that, however repugnant the TransAtlantic slave trade was, descendants have no legal right to reparations today.
"Boo, Canada!" the crowd cried.
By the time the United Nations meeting stumbled to its confused close on Saturday -- a full day behind schedule -- the all-important interpreters were threatening to walk off the job, dancers for a closing "cultural show" had long gone home, and auditorium seats for more than 80 nations sat empty.
Even most of the 6,000 activists who converged on Durban to protest everything from caste discrimination to military spending had packed their placards and left.
There was only a half-hearted smattering of applause when Mary Robinson, the UN Human Rights Commissioner presiding over the meeting, donned her spectacles and delivered a final speech. She declared the conference a success.
"The language will resonate around the world," Ms. Robinson told a near-empty auditorium. "That's an achievement of which we should all be proud."
Diplomats did ultimately reach a compromise deal on the two most contentious issues -- the Middle East and slavery -- but Canada was among several nations to kill any semblance of consensus by disassociating itself from key sections of the document.
The final session had opened with a desperate plea from Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa's Foreign Minister and the sleep-deprived president of the conference. "Please, can we just focus," she begged. "I am really appealing to you ... We are trying to get to the close of this conference."
It was no use. Trouble began the moment the moderator attempted to remove three paragraphs that condemn the "racist, ethnic, settler ideology" behind "foreign occupation" -- a thinly veiled attack on Israel.
After nine days of all-night negotiations, delegates thought everyone had agreed to delete the sections but, suddenly, the Syrian representative was banging his white card on the table.
We never agreed to remove these paragraphs, he shouted. We agreed to remove the brackets around the paragraphs.
Brackets were used to identify sections of the document that were still under debate when the conference began last week. Removing the brackets would mean the paragraphs had been adopted by the global conference -- not rejected.
There were groans from the auditorium as Malaysia suggested everyone retreat to their working groups to hammer out a new agreement on the paragraphs.
Glum-faced, Ms. Zuma adjourned the meeting and diplomats scurried outside with their cellphones. Ms. Robinson sat on stage with an uncomfortable smile.
"This is just crazy," a Canadian negotiator grumbled on her way to a washroom.
Anne Byafesky, a Jewish Canadian who teaches law at Columbia University, was apoplectic. "If you need any proof that this conference was hijacked, this is it," she railed, her cheeks red with anger. "Here we are, at 1 o'clock on the final day and this conference still won't come to an end" because of debate over the Middle East.
She argued Canada should walk out -- just as Israel and the United States had done earlier in the week -- since other anti-Israel language had already been adopted.
"Canada has totally capitulated. They will register some reservations, but that's a total sham. Those reservations have no status whatsoever."
Ms. Zuma tried to settle the dispute with Syria for two agonizing hours while, outside, bleary-eyed delegates munched on grilled-cheese sandwiches or frantically dialed cellphones in attempts to change flight tickets.
When the meeting was recalled, it descended into near farce as some of the world's most notorious human rights abusers complained about an "undemocratic" moderator who was desperately trying to end debate.
"We really wanted that democracy prevail at this conference," griped the representative of Libya -- a country where a military dictatorship rules. "We are here to be fair to the oppressed people of the world."
In the end, delegates voted to close the debate and leave the three remaining contentious Middle East paragraphs out of the document. The vote itself was an embarrassment, because more than half of the 160 nations that will be named in the final documents were marked as "absent."
In apparent haste to end the ordeal, Ms. Zuma declared the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action adopted before any of the delegates had a chance to register reservations, sparking even more anger.
Hedy Fry, head of the Canadian delegation, was too sick with laryngitis to speak but she sat at Mr. Heinbecker's side as he took the floor. He condemned attempts to "de-legitimize the state of Israel and dishonour the history and suffering of the Jewish people."
Furthermore, he said, Canada stresses "there is no right to a remedy for historical acts that were not illegal at the time they were considered."
There is a plan to monitor results of the Durban plan to combat world racism, but it is not at all clear delegates would be willing to return to a conference floor any time in the future.
As a German delegate walked out of the hall, he muttered to a colleague: "Let's just hope they don't try to do this again."
BLAME CANADA! (go to song 4 and click on it to play, Amazon won't let me link directly to the file)
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