The United States is threatening to boycott a United Nations world conference against racism in South Africa next month if two contentious issues remain on the agenda.
US State Department officials yesterday informed three dozen foreign diplomats that President Bush's administration wants the issues of reparations for slavery and colonialism as well as Zionism as racism removed from the draft declaration currently being prepared for the Durban conference.
"We need to be really clear about our position," a senior State Department official said. "We don't want anybody to be surprised when they look up on the day of Durban and wonder why we're not there."
A representative for Mrs Mary Robinson, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, who is stewarding the conference, said last night she hoped the US would not boycott the event.
Mrs Robinson hoped a two week long preparatory conference due to start next Monday in Geneva would settle any outstanding differences.
Mrs Robinson believes Durban should acknowledge in a solemn way, and at a high level, the wrongs of the past, including slavery, as a way of moving forward, the official said.
"Durban is not the place for pitting one group of countries against another in bringing up these issues and setting up compensation or reparation schemes. This would be more suitable for states to do bilaterally or within a group. This conference is about looking for global consensus," the official added.
The absence of the US would be a severe blow to the Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which will run from August 31st to September 7th.
The State Department official's statement was the latest warning about the conference by the Bush administration, which has voiced its displeasure over the agenda for months. A five member State Department team will attend the preparatory discussions in Geneva next Monday. Some African Americans and African nations have said they are entitled to reparations from countries that participated in the slave trade during the 1700s and early 1800s.
The dispute over Zionism goes back to a 1975 UN resolution equating it with racism. The resolution was repealed 10 years ago.