DURBAN--Although Europe and
Africa are minimizing it in public, a wide gulf
separates the two continents on the slavery issue
at the World Conference against Racism (WACR),
according to several inside sources.
Oulai
Siene of the Ivory Coast said the Africans are "working
closely with the Europeans on this important issue," and
Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi of South Africa denied published
reports that the Africans were sticking to a "hard
line." But the differences exist.
The African draft text calls for reparations to
be paid to the victims of slavery and their descendents.
The European draft doesn't even have the word reparations
in it.
The African text calls for specific apologies,
from specific countries, for slavery. The European
draft suggests an apology to be issued in the name
of all of humanity.
The African version of reparations would be in
the form of debt forgiveness or development aid,
but some North American and Caribbean Nongovernmental
organization (NGO) members, are reportedly favoring
a system of payments, and at least one Caribbean
delegation is looking for repatriation.
"Apologies from individual countries are
very important. It is the essence of what this
conference is about," said Fraser-Moleketi,
South Africa's minister of Public Administration. "We
seek reparations as a pledge of intention, as remedial
measure, as a pledge of a developmental nature.
It is important for our relationship with the developed
world. We are talking of a partnership, not simply
looking for handouts."
Although European diplomats were reluctant to
go on the record, sources close to the negotiations
said that the European objections are based on
the claim that slavery was too far in the past,
and that all states, not just colonial countries
in some way committed the crime or benefited by
the institution.
The inside sources said the European tack would
be to attempt to settle the apology issue at the
Durban conference and leave the reparations issue
for another venue.
The objection to individual apologies from individual
nations stems from an attempt to diminish exposure
to future law suits, observers said, especially
in a climate where European countries are accepting
liability for 20th century genocide and paying
reparations.
A document produced by the NGO forum last week
calls for the establishment, within one year, of
an international organization to deal with reparations.
The Europeans are unlikely to adopt that language,
the sources said.
Barbara Blake Hannah of the Jamaican Rasta Information
Service she had been lobbying the official Jamaican
delegation to push the Rastafarian position calling
for repatriation of the descendants of slaves to
Africa.
"I am the first person in my family in 350
years to set foot on African soil," she told
Conference News Daily. "I cried when I arrived."
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