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U.N. Conference on Racism Ends Today

Aired September 02, 2001 - 09:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A human rights forum coinciding with the U.N. Summit on Racism ended in bitterness today in Durban, South Africa. At issue, language that condemns Israel for genocide against the Palestinians and equates Zionism with racism.

CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault joins us now live from Durban with more. Hello, Charlayne.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra. That document does contain that language. Also, this is the document. It also calls for an international war crimes tribunal and Israel to be brought before it.

Now the chaos that has prevailed up until now has been intensified with the issuance of this document, although it won't be presented to the official body until tomorrow morning. But there are many who have applauded the document, even with that language. There are others, like international human rights law groups, that have strongly disassociated themselves from the language and are also -- they are also in the process of considering how further to distance themselves from the document.

The -- as I said, it will be presented to U.N. Secretary General of the conference, Mary Robinson, tomorrow. The document itself has no official standing in this conference, in the official part of the conference. But the atmosphere that it helps to create will definitely be a factor as the conference goes forward. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Charlayne, aside from this document, I know there's many other issues at hand. Any progress made at all?

HUNTER-GAULT: On this particular issue?

PHILLIPS: Other issues.

HUNTER-GAULT: Well, there are many issues before this conference and many delegates are quite angry that this Arab/Israel issue has predominated the discussion and the coverage because there are people from all over the world who have come here with issues; a woman who has just escaped slavery in Niger, catfish farmers from Mississippi, the Dalits, who are known derisively as the untouchables of India.

So many groups have come here with issues that they felt are not being heard and indeed there have been charges that the United States may have provoked more intensity behind this discussion of the Arab/Israeli issue to get away from the issue of reparations for slavery. Now, that is a charge that some delegates have made. That is a charge that the United States has denied.

But because of the chaos and the confusion around so many of these issues surrounding the Arabs and the Israelis, it gives rise to so many charges and rumors, some founded, some not well-founded, but it has caused the atmosphere at this conference to be much more intense and unpleasant than it might ordinarily have been had these other issues been able to be put on the table without this debate. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Charlayne Hunter-Gault, live from Durban. Thank you so much.

And like Charlayne was saying, we want to get into those other issues and get a little more -- get deeper into this summit and the Bush administration has sent, like we said, only a low level delegation to the conference because of the anti-Israel language in that draft declaration that Charlayne was talking about and the U.S. says it will pull out of the conference was not removed before the final declaration.

Now, joining me from Durban are two congressmen attending the conference, California Democratic Tom Lantos -- Democrat, rather -- and Michigan Democrat John Conyers. Gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us.

REP. TOM LANTOS (D), CALIFORNIA: It's a pleasure.

REP. JOHN CONYERS (D), MICHIGAN: Pleasure

PHILLIPS: Charlayne mentioned the issue of this document, and I definitely want to talk about the focus on Israel, and do you think it will threaten the outcome of this conference? Congressman Lantos, let's start with you.

LANTOS: Well, I came to this conference with high hopes. The conference's stated purpose is to deal with discrimination and persecution of all types, and it's high time that we begin this new millennium with a clean slate. That persecution, slavery, discrimination, in all its many ugly forms, is resisted by the nations of the world.

Unfortunately, we are witnessing this conference against discrimination being hijacked by a small group hell-bent on discriminating, and this the American delegation will not accept.

Let me just say with respect to your comment about the low level delegation. It is not a low level delegation. We have seasoned diplomats from the State Department, we have my friend John Conyers, who is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. I am the ranking member of the House International Relations Committee. This is a perfectly capable American delegation.

And it would have been unthinkable to have our secretary of state dignify this conference, which is being hijacked by extremist, with his presence. I fully support Colin Powell's decision. It was the only decision he could take on a matter of principle. No one wanted to be here more than Secretary of State Colin Powell, but they have made it impossible for him to be here.

PHILLIPS: Congressman Conyers, what do you think about that? The fact that Colin Powell, a black man, did not come as secretary of state and as a human being to represent the United States at this conference. Could it have a negative impact? Is it having a negative impact?

CONYERS: Well, how could it not have a negative impact? Now, I want to state in advance that my friend from California and I have worked together on many issues, but this was not Colin Powell's decision not to come, I don't think. I think that it came from the same president who has had a marked reluctance about international policy questions for the nine months that he has been in office.

And this has done an enormous amount of harm to Colin Powell, who, if he hasn't the ability, and remember, he took this position on the basis that he would have the leeway to be independent, and if he can't come to this conference as the first secretary of state of color in our history, we're wondering what else is there that he can do?

Now, for the delegates, all of the delegates I know except this one, my friend next to me, does not agree with this position. We've been working very hard to make sure that Colin Powell would at least send a message, that he would at least make some indication that we're working hard behind the scenes to correct this.

Now, there is only one way to describe this as a hijacking, it's really a little bit over the fence. Because most people here are reasonable. As a matter of fact, I've not met one delegate that was happy that Colin Powell, the U.S. secretary of state, did not come.

PHILLIPS: Now, gentlemen, you have...

CONYERS: I haven't met one delegate, and I've been meeting with the African leaders from their delegations. I've been meeting with everybody I could. I was looking forward to meeting Mr. Sharon or whomever he sent. But the whole point is, there aren't people walking around in tension.

The nongovernmental report that Charlayne has shown everyone is a report that just came out. 99 percent of the delegates don't even know what the NGO's did just now, and so...

PHILLIPS: Well, obviously this is a distraction. Congressman...

CONYERS: And so, for us to be talking about everyone in tension is a...

PHILLIPS: Congressman...

CONYERS: ... is a little bit over the top. PHILLIPS: Obviously this is a distraction. The fact that Colin Powell did not go and there has been a lot of attention on Israel. There are many other issues, I want to know if you gentlemen think are being thrown to the wayside. I'm talking about the Afghanistan refugees, the repression in Tibet, the slavery in Sudan and then in the United States, you know, the issues of racism within police departments. Charlayne mentioned the farmers in Mississippi. It seems like we aren't seeing very much focus...

LANTOS: You are -- you are...

PHILLIPS: ... on these issues.

LANTOS: You are right on target. There is a range of outrage that is being perpetrated across the globe as we speak. The Taliban's behavior is beyond comprehension. There is no freedom for women in Saudi Arabia. The Tibetan people are suppressed in China.

None of this is getting any attention, because the small group of extremist who are hijacking this conference and the large number of delegates who haven't got the backbone to stand up and tell them that we have had enough of it, combined, see to it that the conference against discrimination itself becomes a discriminatory conference and will stand in the history books self-condemned.

PHILLIPS: Congressman Conyers, you know, what needs to be done to address these issues?

CONYERS: Well, I have no idea -- well, what needs to be done is to not misdescribe the convention, the conference, and I must take exception to all of these spineless delegates that are walking around. What I think we need to do -- I noticed you made a long list of things, but there was no comment about the request that is coming from black America about the examination of reparations as applied to the descendants of people that were held in slavery in America, which...

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. And members of the Congressional Black Caucus have said that that has been sort of set aside because of the focus on all the other issues and that by Colin Powell not attending, that reparations for slavery will fall -- so, what -- tell me the progress.

CONYERS: Well, please ma'am, as a senior member of the African Americans here, we have not put it aside at all. What we have tried to do is work out a mid-point where we could come together.

What is the mid-point? The mid-point is for all of us to go back to our nations and study and examine this question of reparations rather than take a dispositive point of view that we don't want any or yes we've got to have them today. We need to examine the subject. And that is what the Congressional Black Caucus members of the U.S. delegation have put forward, and we think that it's a pretty marketable idea.

LANTOS: I fully agree with my friend John Conyers on that...

CONYERS: Thank you.

LANTOS: I believe that the redress of these grievances is long over due and as the chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, I pledge all my efforts to work with John on this issue. But, one of the tragedies of the conference is that this issue and many other serious issues are not getting the attention they deserve, because the total focus is on Israel in a singularly unfair, one-sided and propagandistic manner. And that is what I and many others in the United States Congress strongly object to.

CONYERS: Well, I'm so glad you agree with me.

PHILLIPS: Congressman Tom Lantos. Congressman John Conyers. I hate to leave it here, but we've got to go. We've got issues, technical issues, but gentlemen your heartfelt fights are very much appreciated. Thank you both very much for your time. I promise we will continue this, John Conyers, I promise.

Thank you, gentlemen.

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