The Washington Post

1 September 2001

DURBAN, South Africa, Aug. 31 -- Representatives of 166 nations gathered here today to launch an ambitious UN conference on combating racism and discrimination. But divisions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict threatened to undermine the meeting, and conference organizers pleaded with participants not to let that happen.

Welcoming the delegates, South African President Thabo Mbeki spoke confidently of their common resolve to "ensure that every human being leads a life of dignity," and that no one should be "despised" or impoverished, denied statehood or turned into a "permanent refugee," simply "because they are not white."

The goal of the week-long conference in Durban's sleek convention center, planned for well over a year, is to identify the sources and victims of racism and discrimination in contemporary life and to recommend ways for governments, civic groups and international organizations to prevent and combat them.

The meeting's writ is so broad that it has attracted an extraordinary variety of minority groups, who traveled here this week to promote their causes. They include Indian untouchables, HIV/AIDS patients, South African Bushmen, Tibetan refugees, Afro-Latinos and European Roma, or gypsies.

But inside and outside the convention center, the first day of the U.N. conference was dominated by the divisiveness and finger-pointing over the Middle East that already have prompted the United States, Canada and Israel to decline to send high-level delegations. In fact, only a few heads of state are attending, mostly from African countries, and many are from states that have questionable records on discrimination and human rights. They include the leaders of Algeria, Togo, Rwanda and Gabon, as well as Bosnia and Cuba.

In his opening remarks, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urged conference participants to refrain from "mutual accusations" and instead to unite against all forms of discrimination. He said that as victims of anti-Semitism in history, "many Jews deeply resent any accusation of racism" on the part of Israel, but that the "wrongs" done to Palestinians also should not be ignored.

"Mutual accusations are not the purpose of this conference," Annan said. "Rather than pick on any one country, let us admit that all countries have issues of racism and discrimination to address."

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat delivered a blistering attack on Israel, accusing it of carrying out a "colonial, racist plot" against the Palestinian people. Arafat, who received warm applause, said he was looking to the conference "to stand by us" against what he called Israeli aggression and discrimination.

Outside the spotlight, however, Arafat reportedly met for three hours with Jesse L. Jackson, the American civil rights leader who is a private delegate to the conference, and agreed not to press for inclusion in the conference's final declaration of controversial language that would equate Zionism, the movement for creation and support of Israel as a Jewish state, with racism.

"We are not interested in raising any ideological issue against Israel. Therefore, we will not support statements against Zionism, nor statements equating Zionism with racism," said a handwritten message in English and Arabic that Jackson said he had received from the Palestinians and then distributed to journalists.

Palestinian diplomats tonight acknowledged writing the statement, which also expressed respect for Jews and condemned the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. At the same time, however, they said Jackson was being "over-zealous" and that they would continue to press for the conference to adopt language opposing Israeli discrimination against Palestinians.

Outside the conference center, meanwhile, demonstrators from South Africa, India and other countries marched and chanted slogans against Israel. Many held up placards that equated Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories with South Africa's system of racial segregation, or apartheid, which ended in 1994.

Riot police patrolled the area on horseback and with water cannons to keep the protesters away from the meeting. But the march was largely peaceful, and demonstrators danced arm in arm to the rhythm of Indian and African drummers.

Dozens of Indian untouchables, or dalits, who have traveled here to highlight their plight as the lowest members of the Hindu caste system, marched with South African students and activists demanding land reform and jobs. Both groups said they identified with Palestinians because they too had faced discrimination.

"We should all support each other, all who feel marginalized and invisible and voiceless," said Annie Namala, an Indian woman from the untouchable movement. "Palestine is a small country, and its people have the same right as anyone else to live in peace and security."

Many of the demonstrators were South African Muslims, who stopped the march at one point, took off their shoes and knelt for a lengthy prayer session. Islamic clerics exhorted them to champion the Palestinian cause.

"We South African Muslims don't hate the Jews, but we have problems with Zionism and with American support for Israel's nefarious and hegemonic policies toward Palestine," said Maulana Mohammed Rafiq Shah, a Muslim cleric from Durban and a leader of the march. "If the conference cannot raise this issue inside, we will continue to raise it outside."

It remained far from clear how the Middle East issue would play out over the next week, as conference delegates debate a final statement and plan of action. Despite the reported conciliatory message by Arafat, some observers said the conference has already been fatally undermined.

Analysts who followed the months of preparation for the conference, the third U.N. session on racism since 1978, said Western governments had failed to take the meeting seriously while Arab and Muslim states, along with radical Western nongovernmental groups, had worked hard to promote their causes in preparatory meetings.

"It is already a disaster. It has been taken over by fringe issues that cannot be handled at such a conference, and that can only lead to grandstanding," said Ravi Nair, who directs a human rights study center in India. "This was supposed to be a conference to set new world standards for dealing with racism, but the only leaders here are heads of authoritarian states."