How far should we go back to correct historical wrongs?
Though the Israeli-Palestinian stand-off and the bitter debate over equating Zionismwith racism have been the most contentious at the current conference, what has received the
biggest applause from the audience has been the condemnation of slavery and the call for
reparations to the victims of slavery. Alongside, there has also been a demand that a formal apology be
made by those who promoted and abetted slavery and that they show suitable remorse.
These demands have mainly been made by African and Caribbean countries, though other nations like
Malaysia have pitched in (ignoring its own discriminatory policy of Bhumiputra - sons of the soil -
against the ethnic Chinese and Indians).
Slavery was admittedly one of the biggest crimes against humanity in recorded history. As one of the
Caribbean delegates reminded the conference, some 15 million black Africans were shipped into the
Why weren't slaves compensated? Good question. And it is at the heart of thereparations debate
T-shirt. " Are we for them against them, or what?"
"Actually," said a delegate, I think the whole of Sri
Lanka is racist."
"And," added, the younger man "I'm a Tamil."
At the Non Governmental Organization (NGO) forum in the Kingsmead cricket ground, national politics
took a backseat to the main issue: racism and its companion problems of discrimination, xenophobia and
intolerance.
But if the theme was singular, the accent was plural, confused and long gone. Try harder to kill racism in Durban
woman quoting Salman Rushdie on "institutional racism" in England, and in the other ear a Mexican
speaking in Spanish, describing suppression of indigenous people. A dozen meetings in a dozen fixed
venues drew activists from all over the world, to discuss themes ranging from AIDS to xenophobia, with
the largest being translated simultaneously.
But equally important, according to the participants, were the thousands upon thousands of informal and
impromptu meetings among like-mended people.
The Tamil, King Ratnar, explained to this new friend, Livingston Jacob of Jamaica, "fifty years of
racism against the Tamils have forced them to fight for freedom, but the whole island is racist, and that
certainly includes the Sinhalese, the Tamils and now even the Moslems, who because they are being
threatened, have become a bit racist themselves."
Some 100 meters away Nonkos Kwebeta would agree, but from a different perspective. Kwebeta,
sitting in the Masimanyane Women's Support Group booth in the exhibition area, said she had
participated last June in a grass-roots level meeting on racism in Africa.
"What we found there," she said, "was that all of us there, all of the races represented, suffered from
racism, every one."
The Masimanyane group ? the word means "united" in Xhosa, one of South Africa's three most widely
spoken languages - is preparing a report on the June meeting to be presented this week in Durban.
Across from Kwebeta, in some of the 270 booths set up in the exhibition tents were people working for
the rights of children, representatives of African National Congress (ANC), a thinker from the Kara
philosophy, which he explained was based on hieroglyphic readings, some Tibetans working for a Free
Tibet, a woman looking for donations for the University at Fort Hare, the oldest black college in South
Africa, and scores of other persons interested in eliminating racism -- plus a few vendors of African
handicrafts, including a jeweller from Niger who was doing a land office business in necklaces.
The uniform was definitely casual, with more sandals and sneakers (tennis shoes, trainers, plimsolls, and
tackies) than leather-soled business shoes, and more T-shirts, preferably with propaganda, than anything
else. The aroma of Afrikaner traditional "boerewors" sausages of pork, beef and spice cooking on open
"braais" or barbecue pits, wafted over the open-air lunch area.
Seemingly everywhere were grey headbands reading "Dalit rights are Human rights" worn by folks
interested in getting better treatment for India's untouchables."
In what might have been the largest single group meeting of the day, some 200 of the 316-member Dalit
group gathered in a white tent to co-ordinate their lobbying of the delegates to the UN racism
conference later in the week.
"Let's not overlap," said one co-ordinator to the group of activists who could be mistaken for a martial
arts society. "For instance, let's not have everybody lobby the ANC!"
Outside the meeting Jothi Raj, who wasn't wearing a headband, " said we are not only unseeable and
untouchable, but we are the unapproachables." She put the headband on for a photo.
Second in popularity might have been Palestinian T-shirts in several languages with the single message:
get Israel out f the occupied lands. A youth with a huge Palestinian flag walked past a group of rabbis
wearing traditional black hats and coats. Had he stopped by for a chat he might have found some
common ground. The black clothed rabbis, suffering in the warm sun, were from the "Jews United
Against Zionism," a New York-based group.
Also with a New York accent was a woman who, strolling towards the main cricket pitch, told her
colleagues about a meeting she had back home:
" What got me mad was when they told me they didn't think it (South Africa) was safe. And they said
they weren't coming because it wasn't safe. I told them 'yeah, sure, and that's why Hadassah had their
meeting here, and brought 560 people'." Hadassah is a women's group.
*************
of unhappy nongovernmental organization (NGO) delegates Friday, told them exactly what she
thinks they did wrong, and what they did right - and walked out to a standing ovation, but with at
least one rebuke ringing in her ear.
Robinson was invited to the NGO caucus to explain why she publicly disassociated herself from the
final declarations produced by representatives of some 7,000 activists after a week of deliberations and
three preparatory meetings around the globe.
So she told them, firmly.
Robinson, who entered the room with a disarmingly bright smile and looking fresh despite a punishing
schedule, said a paragraph in the NGO document asking for the reinstatement of along dead UN
resolution equating Zionism with racism, was "not helpful language."
She said a paragraph accusing Israel of genocide "was not helpful language. " She called the two items
"hurtful" terminology, which she said, "undermined what I was trying to do as secretary general."
She said she understood that the strong language may have come from the "depth of passion" felt by the
writers on the Palestine occupation, but challenged the audience to look into her own writings and
reports on Palestine "if you want to see my views." She said she publicly and repeatedly has called for
international observers to be sent to the region, a proposal that Israel rejects.
On the positive side, she said, the described NGO document as" extremely well written" and had "very
good language" on migrants, indigenous people, hate crimes and the specific identification of exactly
who are victims of racism.
She said from the reports she had received, she believed that the government declarations will have
"generic language" on some of those issues, and "I don't expect it will be all that exciting."
She added that the NGO document contained the "extraordinary richness of the voices of the victims.
Robinson also said the Durban conferences had served as vehicles to "mobilize a global alliance," on the
racism issues "that are best represented in the NGO document."
She said that although she could not "commend" the entire document to the WACR, she would tell them
"there are very good recommendations in it. Please look at those recommendations."
Robinson said she had to rush back to the ICC for meetings and left to a round of applause from the
audience a little more than half of whom stood. She returned the gesture, standing and giving the
audience an Indian-style bowing pranam.
As she was leaving Rana Nashashib of a Palestinian human rights legal group, said over the floor
microphone that Robinson's language itself was "hurtful" to her.
Nashib felt that it was also not helpful language "to not call things by their real names" referring to the
debate on topics such as genocide.
"We call on you," she said, "to call things by their real names."
******************
African President Thabo Mbeki told the NGO Forum of the World Conference Against Racism
Tuesday that they had to monitor closely the performance of governments to ensure that
decisions taken in coming days are implemented.
In keynote speeches to an estimated 7,000 delegates at the opening of the NGO Forum, President
Mbeki praised them for the role many played in helping liberate South Africa itself from apartheid
discrimination. Robinson reminded the audience that the world conference was not an end, but the
beginning of a new worldwide movement for diversity and non-discrimination.
"Neither I nor anyone else can say anything more challenging and demanding than that all of us must act
to ensure that the vision represented in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in our countries and
throughout the world is translated into a movement towards the universal achievement of these human
rights," Mbeki said. "It is to define and agree on the ways and means by which we can, practically,
move all humanity towards the realization of this goal that we meet here today, at this historic NGO
Forum against Racism. The central question that you, the delegates and participants will have to answer
in the clearest way possible is ? what is to be done!"
He pointed out to them that they were gathering in a city where they would be exposed to the legacy of
a centuries long experience of slavery, colonialism, and racial domination.
"The critical importance of this matter should be particularly clear to those who not only recognize the
objective reality of the process of globalization, but also celebrate this process as a force for human
emancipation from poverty and underdevelopment. Put starkly, where this process of globalization has
had negative consequences, its worst victims . have been those who are not white. For these countless
black people, this has not only meant that the development gap has grown even wider. It has also meant
the further entrenchment of the structural dis-empowerment of billions of people, making it even more
difficult for them to break out of the trap of poverty and underdevelopment," Mbeki said.
The forum is gathering in a series of large white tents in the Kingsmead cricket ground across the road
from the conference center in the east coast South African city of Durban. It started four days of
deliberations on Tuesday to address issues related to racism, xenophobia and other intolerance and
make recommendations to the representatives of world governments gathering for the week-long
conference racism conference starting Thursday.
"You have come from all corners of the globe," Robinson said. "From the Peruvian Andes and the
Australian outback, from the Niger Delta, the Russian steppe, from great metropolitan centers and from
small farming and fishing communities. You have come here to Durban because everyone of you knows
that, within your own communities and countries, within your own social groups and societies, problems
of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance persist. And you know that progress
won't be made in combating these global evils unless all parts of society rise to the challenge."
She said the efforts of civil society groups during the preparatory process had helped ensure the topics
to be addressed by the conference would be broad. "Equally important, perhaps even more important,
your ideas a bout what needs to be done when we leave Durban and go back to our communities have
played a critical role in shaping the draft program of action that will be adopted here," she added.
Robinson also said: "I would ask you all to help repair the loss of human dignity and self-respect that has
resulted from past mistakes; to create a climate of reconciliation and forgiveness to help heal humanity's
deepest wounds and to promote a shift in consciousness and attitude in order to build a world based on
universal values and awareness of our common identity as members of the one human family."
Moshe More, Director of the World Conference Secretariat of the NGO Forum, said the aim of the
forum was to help raise the consciousness of individuals and communities to deal with racism on a daily
basis. The forum will produce a 10-year action program to serve as a blueprint for corrective action by
governments and civil society as they strive to eliminate racism worldwide.
"We see the forum as a platform for all people to come and air their views in a productive and congenial
atmosphere consistent with our young, but strong democratic tradition," More said referring to his native
South Africa. "We recognize that there are a number of contentious issues, many of which may lead to
serious disagreements and possible conflicts. However, we would like to encourage organizations to find
creative and constructive ways of registering their concerns."
In an illustration of some of the controversy and the irony, young Palestinians, draped in their national
flag, marched through the grounds ? within sight of a group of bearded orthodox Jews ? while outside
the cricket ground, a group of a half dozen white Afrikaner farmers protested the murder of an
estimated 1,000 white farmers in South Africa, killed, according to their union, by blacks in attacks
during the past seven years on remote farmsteads. The murders, a spokesman told this newspaper,
were racially inspired.
"It is a human slaughter taking place and neither the government, nor the police, nor the church, nor the
international community experience it as a big enough crisis to actually intervene or get involved," he
said. There were also Tibetans, Roma people, and other minorities ready to explain the discrimination
they live with daily to anyone who cared to listen.
The NGO forum will also discuss the effects of globalisation, gender and religious intolerance, ethnic
cleansing, indigenous people, reparations, caste-based discrimination in India, slavery, bondage and the
slave trade, as well as hate crimes and hate groups.
**************
From 'The Earth Times: A Quote: Racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance? At first glance, it might seem that
racial prejudice has little if anything to do with economic development that preserves natural
resources for present and future generations, a succinct definition of sustainable development.
A more in-depth look, however, might reveal that both principles,tolerance and respect for our fellow
humans and respect for our natural resources, are in fact interdependent. If we do not acknowledge the
importance of cultural diversity, then the struggle to preserve biodiversity in the plant and animal
kingdoms is doomed to failure.
When we look at the detrimental impacts that humans have on the environment we sometimes forget
that the harm we cause is often fueled by armed conflicts that stem from racial, ethnic and religious
intolerance. Such conflicts, which result in senseless death and increased poverty, are directly linked
with deforestation and pollution.
We need to foster economic development to reduce poverty, which lies at the heart of racism.
¨********
forum Wednesday as pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted meetings and got into shouting matches
with Jewish groups.
Armed south African police thrust themselves between the two shouting groups at the Kingsmead
Cricket Grounds in the morning, and the shouting from the floor in the afternoon forced an Israeli youth
leader to leave the podium, and the chairwoman to break the meeting down into more manageable
groups.
In the morning incident some fifty persons, many wearing the traditional Palestinian black and white
Kefiyah scarf confronted youths from the South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS) who were
distributing leaflets at the cricket club. The pro Palestinian group shouted "free Palestine now" and the
SAUJS members responded with "give peace a chance"
The shouting became heated and ever-present South African Police called for reinforcements. A
platoon of armed policemen arrived and separated the groups.
In the afternoon incident pro-Palestinian protestors repeatedly interrupted a meeting on anti-Semitism,
attended by some 125 people. A man identifying himself as Hassam Asli, who said his children were
killed by Israelis repeatedly interrupted speakers, as did Yoav Bar who said he was a Palestinian Jew.
Peleg Reshef the chairman of the World Union of Jewish Students was forced to terminate his speech,
and the meeting broke down into pockets of shouting matches in five or six areas of the tent.
Reshef, angered when a woman with whom he was arguing left without hearing him out, shouted at he
calling her a "coward." Moderator Karen Mock called a recess, followed by a re-organization of the
meeting into six smaller groups. A woman in Arab dress walked around the room with pictures
apparently showing dead and wounded Palestinian children, and shouted "human beings, human beings"
Committee co-chairman Shimon Samuel of France said the decision to end the open panel discussion as
caused by "an invasion of this hall by people who are undemocratic."
Not all the confrontations were heated. Just outside the cricket pitch, Imtiaz Jhetam of the South
African National Consultative Forum for Palestine, argued strongly but politely with Ramon Widmond of
the South African Board of Jewish Deputies over points of Mideast history.
A third man in a summit T-shirt held a hand drawn map of the Mideast, with dates scribbled on it going
back several years, and the two men referred to it, but with differing interpretations.
Widmond, who was wearing a yarmulke, complained that earlier in the day a man had told him he
wouldn't talk to him while he was wearing the Jewish skullcap.
After both men decided that "party hacks" were to blame for much of the heat in the Arab-Israeli
debate in Durban, Jhetam, who was wearing a Kefiyah, said "If someone tells you to take off that hat,
come and get me I'll take care of that person."
The men exchanged cards and promised to meet for a more quiet discussion.
***********
The Jewish groups briefly chanted "all we are saying is give peace a
chance" and the pro-Palestinians chanted, "Zionism is racism," and " Israel is Apartheid"
A South African conference organizer managed to quiet the conference for a moment and Cooper took
two questions. When a reporter wearing an official UN press credential started to ask a question,
Cooper asked him where he was from. When he said "Palestine," Cooper declared the meeting over.
When approached by Conference News Daily, the questioner refused to identify himself saying only
that he represented a Palestinian newspaper.
Immediately after the first conference, Motiar and Dr. Purandokht Fazelian of the Moslem Women's
Research Center of Iran, held their own news conference saying that they had planned to use the
facility at the same time and found the previous conference violated their right to be heard. Motiar also
said charges of anti-Semitism are used "to silence the criticism of the partition of Palestine and Israel."
*************
Conference against Racism was found dead early Friday morning at the Killarny hotel in Durban.
Cleaners came upon his body under the bed in a room that was formerly inhabited by four women. The
women, who were believed to be prostitutes, had checked out before the murder was discovered. Their
room was two floors above the delegate's room.
Police found personal belongings of the delegate that included his passport, luggage and a conference
bag. He was Sicilian and about 32-years old. His name has yet to be released. Where is a Mafia Connection. Brother, bye, it must have been a mistake. Bye, brother, why did you do this sisters, on a lovely day and lovely night and lovely argument at the conference to end all racism. Do you believe that. From the depths of the world, we wtite no news for you and we implore you to come to the aid of brother next time. This is the result of orgasmic sex at the heart of raXXXcism.Net time, brother, there will be a next time in future. If we live without God and if racism is real and weill go befor ewe leave. Trust us as we trust progress from a society to a city. Durban Citzy Sissy City and Italian Brother Can't Help a Zulu Yansh.
Although investigators from Durban's Serious and Violent Crimes Unit gathered evidence at the crime
scene on Friday, other details of the crime have not been released. A security guard who saw the body
said that there were no immediately visible wounds, which has led the Durban newspapers to speculate
that he was strangled.
A postmortem has been scheduled for Monday. The hotel has refused to comment on the incident.
The Italian diplomat was in Durban to attend the NGO Forum that is to end Sunday. The Killarney hotel
is in close proximity to the Cricket Stadium where a majority of the NGO meetings are held. Other
delegates, attending both the NGO Forum and the World Conference Against Racism, are staying in the
hotel.
******
Conference against Racism to protest the violence in Sri Lanka.
July 24th was the 18th anniversary of the conflict that has claimed an estimated 64,000 lives. The
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), known commonly as the Tamil Tigers, are a group of
militants that are fighting for Tamil rights in Sri Lanka.
The protest was peaceful and many of the South African police indulged in the free food being passed
out by the protesters. The protestors carried signs, some which read, "Viva Tamil Tigers LTTE," "Proud
of your heritage," and "No medicine for Tamil victims in Sri Lanka!! Stop killing Tamils!"
Durban has the highest concentration of Tamils in South African. There are roughly 1.1 million people
from the Indian subcontinent living in South Africa, more then half of who are Tamil. "There are people
who are getting killed in Sri Lanka," said Prebashni Govender, 24, a costing coordinator at a Durban
company. "There is also racism here. Any time people are judged by their color it's not good, but we
protest for the Tamils in Sri Lanka who are dying."
One of the organizers of the protest, Kisten Chinappen, an educator, said that they had not met with the
Sri Lankan delegation to the WCAR. "But they would say that there is no problem, all the Singhalese
would always deny everything, no genocide-only terrorism," he said.
>From under a "Viva Tamil Tigers" banner, Rajen Pillay, 37, an educator said, "I support the Tamil
Tigers, they are not a terrorist group, they are freedom fighters. The Tamils never colonized Sri Lanka,
they were born there. The Singhalese are oppressing the Tamils, they have no access to education, job
opportunities, it is basically another form of apartheid."
Many groups were represented at the protest. Sandy Moodley, 25, was born and bred in Durban. She
was there on Sunday to protest the fate of Tamil women and children in Sri Lanka. "We're fighting
against the rape and abuse of women and Tamil children in Sri Lanka," she said. "They are being
repressed and we in South Africa want to show our support for them."
Many families brought their children along to protest. Ceri Madura, 12, a student at Erica Primary
School in Durban was there to protest as well saying, "It's genocide-ethnic cleansing of the Tamil
people. Tamils have been there for 3,000 years, now they're telling them to go away."
*****************
*************
The following statement was made by Rabbi Michael Melchior at World Conference against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, September 3, 2001:
I have the honour to represent Israel at this important gathering, and I am proud to deliver this
statement, which was to have been presented by Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Rabbi Michael
Melchior. Rabbi Melchior is not participating in this conference because of the negative developments
which appear to be materializing.
"Why, when the world was created, did God create just one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve? The
Rabbis answered: so that all humankind would come from a single union, to teach us that we are all
brothers and sisters.
"This Conference was dedicated to that simple proposition. We, all of us, have a common lineage, and
are all, irrespective of race, religion or gender, created in the divine image. Indeed, this single idea,
unknown to all other ancient civilizations, may be the greatest gift that the Jewish people has given to
the world, the recognition of the equality and dignity of every human being.
"The foremost right that follows from this principle is the right to be free, not to be a slave. It is
imperative that international community address and duly acknowledge, already far far too late, the
magnitude of the tragedy of slavery.
"The horror of slavery is profoundly engraved in the experience of the Jewish people - a people formed
in slavery. For hundreds of years the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt until, as the Book of
Exodus recounts, the call: 'Let my people go' heralded the first national liberation movement in history,
and the model for every liberation which was to follow.
"The Jewish response to slavery was remarkable. Rather than forget or sublimate the suffering of
slavery, Jewish tradition insisted that every Jew must remember and relive it. And to this day, on
Passover, every Jewish family reenacts the experience of slavery, eats the bread of affliction, and
appreciates once again the taste of freedom. Through the ages of our exile this psychodrama has had a
profound impact on the Jewish psyche: making sure that every child born into comfort knows the pains
of oppression, and every child born into oppression knows the hope of redemption.
"But remembrance of our suffering as slaves has a more important function - to remind ourselves of our
moral obligations. The experience of oppression brings no privilege, but rather responsibility. We have a
responsibility to protect the weak, the widow and the orphan and the stranger, because as the Bible
says: "You yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt." Even God, in the first and most fundamental
of the 10 commandments, identifies Himself not as 'Creator of the World' or 'Splitter of the Red Sea',
but as 'the One who freed you from slavery'.
"And indeed in every country in which they have lived, Jews have been in the forefront of the battle for
human rights and freedom from oppression. The same urge for national liberation, that led to the
Exodus, and that led to the Zionist dream that Jews could live in freedom in their land, was intrinsically
bound up with the belief that not just one people, but all peoples must be free. It was this conviction that
Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, expressed in his book Altneuland, as early as 1902:
'There is still one problem of racial misfortune unsolved. The depths of that problem only a Jew
can comprehend. I refer to the problem of the Blacks. Just call to mind all those terrible episodes
of the slave trade, of human beings who merely because they were black were stolen like cattle,
taken prisoners, captured and sold. Their children grew up in strange lands, the objects of
contempt and hostility because their complexions were different. I am not ashamed to say,
though I may expose myself to ridicule for saying so, that once I have witnessed the redemption
of Israel, my people, I wish to assist the redemption of the Black people.'
"As Herzl understood, remembrance of slavery is integral to the Jewish experience. A Jew cannot be
truly free if he or she does not have compassion on those who are enslaved.
"Madame Chairperson,
"If slavery is one form of racist atrocity, anti-Semitism is another. And by anti-Semitism, let us be clear,
we mean the hatred of Jews. The word 'anti-Semitism' was deliberately coined in 1879 by Wilhelm
Marr, an anti-Jewish racist in Germany, to replace the term judenhass, Jew-hatred, which had gone out
of favor. It has always, and only, been used to describe hatred and discrimination directed at Jews.
Attempts to eradicate the plain meaning of the word are not only anti-Semitic, indeed they are
anti-semantic.
"Those uncomfortable recognizing the existence of anti-Semitism not only try to redefine the term, they
try to deny that it is different from any other form of discrimination. But it is a unique form of hatred. It
is directed at those of particular birth, irrespective of their faith, and those of particular faith, irrespective
of their birth. It is the oldest and most persistent form of group hatred; in our century this ultimate hatred
has led to the ultimate crime, the Holocaust.
"But anti-Semitism goes far beyond hatred of Jews. It has arisen where Jews have never lived, and
survives where only Jewish cemeteries remain. And while Jews may be the first to suffer from its
influence, they have rarely been the last.
"Anti-Semitism reveals the inner corruption of a society, because at its root it is fueled by a rejection of
the humane and moral values the Jewish people bequeathed to the world. As Anne Frank, the Jewish
schoolgirl in hiding from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam, wrote in her Diary:
'If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of
being doomed, will be held up as an example. Who knows, it might even be our religion from
which the world and all peoples learn good, and for that reason only do we now suffer.'
"Anne Frank was murdered by the Nazis in Bergen-Belsen for being a Jew, just one of over one million
Jewish children to be killed in the Holocaust.
"Those who cannot bring themselves to recognize the unique evil of anti-Semitism, similarly cannot
accept the stark fact of the Holocaust, the first systematic attempt to destroy an entire people. The past
decade has witnessed an alarming increase in attempts to deny the simple fact of this atrocity, at the
very time that the Holocaust is passing from living memory to history. After wiping out 6 million Jewish
lives, there are those who would wipe out their deaths. At this Conference too, we have witnessed a
vile attempt to generalize and pluralize the word 'Holocaust', and to empty it of its meaning as a
reference to a specific historic event with a clear and vital message for all humanity.
"Could there be anything worse than to brutally, systematically annihilate a people; to take the proud
Jews of Vilna, Warsaw, Minsk, Lodz; to burn their holy books, to steal their dignity, their freedom, their
hair, their teeth; to turn them into numbers, to slaves, to the ashes of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek
and Dachau? Could anything be worse that this? And the answer is yes, there is something even worse:
to do such a thing, and then to deny it, to trivialize it, to take from the mourners, the children and the
grandchildren, the legitimacy of their grief, and from all humanity the urgent lesson that might stop it
happening again.
******************
21 people testified to the racial discrimination that they had experienced at the Voices Special
Forum, a special six part meeting at the World Conference against Racism (WCAR). The
sessions were held in the Main Hall of the International Convention Center because organizers said that
it was important for delegates to hear directly from the people most affected by racial discrimination.
"I think these voices tell us a great deal, they tell us shocking stories," said High Commissioner for
Human Rights Mary Robinson. "But they by no means represent individuals singled out, sadly no, the
represent millions. This is our world."
"Everybody's story is about is a horror-you listen and you feel sad and very sorry," said Saikou A. Diallo,
President ot the Amadou Diallo Educational Humanitarian and Charity Foundation. Diallo spoke at the
first day of the Voices Special Forum about police brutality and the death of his son at the hands of 4
New York City police officers. "I have managed to speak here about it and I will continue to speak
about the police brutality in New York, not only for my son but for other people who lost their loved
ones," he told Conference News Daily.
Reyhas Yalcindag shared her experience of life in Turkey as a Kurdish, where she was subject "life
long discrimination." "There are 20 million Kurdish people with similar, if not worse, experiences." In
Turkey, Kurds comprises 20 percent of the population, yet their language is prohibited in education,
politics, and the broadcast media. They are persecuted for any expression of their culture, language or
identity. Yalcindag said that throughout her lifetime, she has been attacked and abused by racist groups.
She spoke of the torture she experienced at the hands of the Turkish government: "They put a plastic
bag over my head and deprived me of oxygen until I fainted... I was exposed to sexual violence and
threatened with rape and death...the torture lasted for 11 days, I wanted to die during these days of
detention."
Yalcindag currently takes cases on behalf of the Kurdish people to the European Court of Human
Rights, and is the only Kurdish lawyer who makes English presentations to the Court on behalf of
victims. "All I demand is that the Kurdish language, culture, and identity are no longer discriminated
against," she said.
Ana del Carmen Martinez was choked with tears, and at times could not get the words out to tell her
story of displacement in Columbia. In 1997 she was forced out of her home and made to live with a
thousand others in a municipal stadium for four years.
To get her village to flee, Martinez said the military dropped bombs on them, while armed civilians
threatened them with violence. "10 of our brothers were killed," she said. Describing the murder and
torture of one man she said: "While he was still alive they bound him up, but of his arms, joint by joint,
then cut off his legs and testicles and last his head, which they then used as a football."
Martinez asked for the support of the international community in monitoring events so that new
massacres can be avoided in the future, and for help in fulfilling "our dream of life, dignity, and our life
project."
Griffiths Aaron Molefe is an 84-year-old sharecropper, who after working on the same farm for 40
years was evicted without reason. "Mr. Minnie (the farm's owner) told me to go, he wouldn't give me
any money because he said that I was a dead man already," he said. For the last year and a half,
Molefe has been living in a shack on the side of the road where police through his belongings after he
was evicted. He said that after working since the age of 7 he has nothing to show for it. At the last
farm he worked on he earned 50 rand per month, or the equivalent of about 5 dollars. "I have just
worked and worked, and now I cannot even afford a pen."
At the Voices Special Forum a total of 21 voices were heard. The forum was organized by the UN
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the International Human Rights Law Group and
the South African Human Rights Commission. On Thursday, the last day of the forum, the speakers
presented a statement to High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, making their
statements part of the official proceedings at the WCAR.
"No, I will never forget your voices, none of us who heard you will forget your voices," said Robinson.
"And better still, your voices will inspire us in the follow-up to this Durban conference."
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examine the delicate discussions of racism, discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.
Few of them realized that their role in the impact on racism, and even the very tally of their
presence would likewise be scrutinized.
The presence of the press, or lack thereof in the case of most major American television networks, has
been a subject of discussion at the World Conference against Racism (WCAR), most notably at a panel
on media's role in racism cosponsored by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
and Unesco.
CNN is the only major American broadcast company to send a team with a high-profile
reporter--Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who lives in South Africa. CBS maintained a minimal presence as expected. And the Reuters or the APS and the CIa, The fruits of their labours at this time, we shall see in the beginning of the end, again?
NBC has been relying heavily on The Washington Post to fill their website since they had no reporters
of their own here. ABC had one local producer and camera crew here. The New York City ABC
affiliate sent two correspondents, Gil Noble and David Ushery, a producer and two camera crews.
In comparison, the Daily News, a South African paper, reported that 260 South African Broadcast
Company (SABC) journalists are in Durban to cover the conference, and that BBC TV has a staff of
39 people here, 25 of whom came from London. The two most popular wire services in America--AP
and Reuters-- have significant staffs on site. The Times Publications in London and The Post Express in Lagos sent 'Timi Onayemi, Swiss and UN Correspondent.
The room at the panel on "The Media's Role and Impact on Racism" was packed. Many of the issues
that have dominated the WCAR crept into the discussion: the "hijacking" of the conference by the
Middle East debate, the demands for slavery reparations, and the walkout by Israel and the United
States earlier this week. But complaints about the US withdrawal and virtual non-involvement in the
conference were expanded to include the lack of major US media coverage of the conference.
"Yes, there has been good coverage by television stations," said panelist Mary Robinson, Secretary
General of WCAR and the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights. "I would say that from the US
maybe CNN gave very good coverage, but there is not the presence of many serious journalists from
the US that one would expect to cover such an event as this. And I think one can ask why? And those
that have come have taken a very skeptical attitude all along, why? In other words are they independent
from the sort of political pressure that is influencing them?"
There were several reasons offered for the absence of what Robinson called, "serious journalists." Is
the dominance of the corporate culture--the hunger for profits dominating the search for the good story?
"While money is the focus, journalism takes the back seat," said Riz Khan, the former CNN host who
served as the panel's moderator, in an interview with Conference News Daily. "That's why there was a
call in the hall for people to fight this sort of corporate culture that destroys the news world, the news
industry, and actually stand by doing proper news."
While the profiteering of media CEO's may well be the underlying reason for the poor press coverage
of this conference, other journalists said the chaos at the press center didn't help.
"This was the most disorganized conference I've ever been to," said Anthea Garmon, editor of the
Rhodes Journalism Review, a newspaper put out by the journalism students at Rhodes University in
South Africa, which was held up as an example to be followed by a Unesco representative at the panel
for their special issue on racism and the media.
"It was the greatest obstacle to coverage here, nobody knew anything about where the conferences
where being held, who was on the panels, how to contact them. People would go to meetings only to
find that they had been cancelled and rescheduled for that morning, so they were already over," said
Garmon. "It was a mess."
The journalists who did locate events tended to descend en masse. On Thursday the Arab-Israeli NGO
press briefing was filled with people chasing the major story. Only one man stayed to cover the
Cameroonian press briefing that was held immediately after. Many of the panelist complained that many
significant discussions were being overshadowed by the intense coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
For example, The New York Times, America's most prestigious and comprehensive newspaper, has
focused most of their coverage on this issue.
"It is the first time I've been in a place where people who are the direct victims of racism have had an
open democratic forum," said Harry Belafonte, Unicef Goodwill Ambassador and one of the panelists.
"There is so much from which to draw here. We have a real future together; we can beat this thing. I
can't believe that South Africa wouldn't be free today, that the US would never have had a civil rights
movement, that Gandhi would never have had his peaceful resistance in India. These people did not let
detractors set the pace."
Most of the time it is the media's job to be critical. "It's not right, mind you, to expect journalists to take
responsibility when big important governments are using the conference in a political way, because
that's the story and journalists have a responsibility to get the story," said Aidan White, General
Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists. "I do feel that, sometimes, you have to lower the
temperature in terms of criticism. I think you have to look at complexities that are facing the media, and
look at what can be done to strengthen the professionalism, the independence, and the capacity of
journalist to work honestly.
Working "honestly" presents a conundrum: how can a journalist make money and not pander too much
to their audience and employers? During the extensive question-and-answer session at the panel, a
journalist from Namibia asked, "How can the media balance its economic necessities and at the same
time ensure the majority of people are included in coverage?"
"We would like to think of the media as being free and fair, but we must dismiss the myth, said panelist
Jesse Jackson, US civil rights leader. "Media, more and more, controls the information rather than
exposing the information. Those Americans who own Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, whose politics are against
this conference... attempt to make a mockery of it."
The panel didn't generate many solutions to the problem. Several panelists suggested that racial diversity
should start in the news rooms in each country. "Media has to become more diverse, and that diversity
has to be reflected," said panelist Maria Victoria Polanco, president of the World Association of
Community Radio. "Participation of women, for example, in the media, we see only two percent. If we
look, for example, at Brazil, sixty percent of the population is black, only ten percent of media reflects
the black population, and they are not high-level people such as presenters, or journalists."
Mohammad-Mahoud Mohamedou, research director at the International Council on Human Rights, also
said that having more ethnically balanced newsrooms might be an important first step.
But perhaps the first step has already been taken. As Melissa Baumann, co-editor of the Rhodes
Journalism Review wrote in their special issue on race: "One of the biggest challenges in combating
racism in the media worldwide is getting enough media to acknowledge its existence.
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population, human rights, habitat, social development, food, and human rights, there should have
been this world conference against racism (there were others, always raiXXXist intent and purposes and here are the results, dogs eating people in South Africa and a gang coming back to kill the son of the family of a farmer after the farmer and his wife forced a 17 year-old Xhosa farm-worker to eat his shit. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Nigerian Saxophonist and Pianist and HEqual Rights Activist (1938-1997) sand in "HE NO PASS MATTER"- That anyone who gives us shit, we shall give him shit. No matter which summit... the
most affected people seem to be the same. People of color as the fool says... would benefit most from positive outcomes
of any of these historic and critical gatherings...
This is why some in civil society put little stake in declarations and plans of action the summits produce
and subsequently ignore.
Our aspirations, (talk about them) and techniques for wielding influence (whow!) The Civil Society here are the talk of the day and we can have a nice day looking at them from the WINDOWS OF THE KIOSK FOR CHEAPER FOOD THAN THE MAIN CONFERENCE HALL.
We met like minded souls and we are happy for little mercies. Off to the Jazz Club in Durban.
UN summits, the men and women of Nongovernmental organizations look as if they are performing at
their peak. A Dominican Woman living in Switzerland said: If Kofi can look at my age and resolve this issue before I die. I want to goi back to my country, he must kick out the Europeans, they make life miserable for us and there is little I can do for those left behind.