Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 15 April 2009 — Page 29

The Muncie Times • April 16,2009 • Page 29

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News Briefs

Compiled by Andre Scott U.S. to boycott Geneva antiracism meeting WASHINGTON, D.C.--Unhappy with the Obama administration's decision not to attend an April meeting of the Durban Review Conference, which is connected to an international race gathering, activists plan to hold a Harlem rally to protest the action and urge the United States to participate in the important meeting. “We want to get the message to President Barack Obama and his administration that we are demanding U.S. participation in Durban II,” Roger Wareham, of The December 12th Movement, told The Final Call. The 4-day Durban Review Conference begins April 20 in Geneva, Switzerland. It is an outgrowth of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, which was boycotted by the Bush administration. Controversy arose over demands for reparations for blacks and anti-Zionist positions that offended Israel at the 2001 meeting in Durban. South Africa. The review conference, dubbed Durban .II, will evaluate

progress toward goals to eliminate racism set in 2001. Significant United Nations conferences are often accompanied by parallel conferences by advocacy groups and government officials. The Obama administration announced Feb. 27, through a U.S. State Department spokesman, that no delegation would be going to Geneva. The spokesperson said a report back from State Department envoys said the conference's draft document “had gone from bad to worse.” The administration believes the draft document is “unsalvageable” because of language that demonizes Israel, reconstructs free speech rights and highlights a call for reparations for slavery, the spokesperson added. Obama, in a break with his predecessor, had sent a delegation to a preparatory meeting for the review conference on Feb. 19. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, welcomed the decision. “The U.S cannot provide the leadership nece>sary to promote and protect human rights by sitting on the .sidelines.” ,,. ,.said

Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch executive director, at the time. Dr. Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters Feb. 19 it was “critical to show the world that we are willing to engage in a global platform to denounce the remnants of slavery and colonialism.” Days later, the administration's position shifted to an emphatic rejection of the conference. The State Department spokesman left a window open, saying the U.S. “would be prepared to re-engage” if deliberations were based on a text that met various criteria— including not singling out “any one country or conflict.” In early March, Obama was reassuring Jewish groups that the administration was still holding fast to its plan not to attend Durban II. The right wing Heritage Foundation said the president's decision not to participate was a “welcomed recognition of the limitations of multilateral engagement.” Lawmakers representing the Congressional Task Force on AntiSemitism applauded the decision,, as. did the chairman of the House

Foreign Affairs Committee, who predicted the administration's announcement would push nations sitting on the fence not to attend. On March 12, the Italian foreign minister announced his nation would not be attending. A week before, the Dutch foreign ministry withdrew, saying “the document is unacceptable.” IRIN News reported March 2 that Australia was still uncommitted on whether it would boycott, while the 27member European Union was attempting to get all of its members not to attend. “One-hundred and sixty nations participated in the 2001 WCAR and. they approved an outcome document declaring the transAtlantic slave trade and colonialism as crimes against humanity,” said Dr. Conrad Worrill, chairman of the National United Black Front, and a reparations advocate. “Also included in the Program of Action was the resolution that the remedy for the repair of these acts was reparations. And if President Obama is not sending a delegation, he is out of step with the world and the United Nations; and he .will ;suffer.-the. con-

sequences of a political embarrassment because of the backwardness of his action,” Worrill added. Cynthia McKinney, former Green Party presidential candidate, participated in the 2001 conference as the head of the Congressional Black Caucus task force for the World Conference Against Racism. She explained to a radio audience listening to WPFW-FM's Jazz & Justice Show March 9 that she also felt the administration was out of step on Durban II. This “certainly calls for self-mobilization of the African American community to get the president's attention and to let him know that the U.S. must attend this review conference,” she said. McKinney insisted that the Congressional Black Caucus must send a delegation, despite what the president decides. The “issues of racism here must be placed into the international arena once again.” she said. Joni Palmer, C communications dii tor, told The Final Ca. the caucus is in discussion with the Wh te House. “We remain optimistic there could be a change in the* a. euntnoieu oji page 3JL