Monday, September 3 12:15 AM SGT

US congressman slams "hijacking" of Durban conference on racism

WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (AFP) -

Senior US congressman and Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos on Sunday railed against the "hijacking" of the UN conference on racism in South Africa, calling for the world to go forward in the new millennium "with a clean slate."

Lantos told CNN television that the racism talks in Durban are being "hijacked by a small group hell-bent on discriminating."

"There is a range of outrages being perpetrated across the globe as we speak," said Lantos, a California Democrat who serves as ranking member of the House International Relations Committee.

"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 (of) the small group of extremists 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."

"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," he insisted.

As the conference enters its third day, uncertainty lingers over whether the United States will walk away from the meeting as a result of what it deems objectionable language on Israel.

Although proposed language implying a correlation between Zionism and racism is "dead," as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan emphasized at a press briefing on Saturday, other phrasing referring to Israeli policies toward Palestinians -- urged by Arab and Islamic countries -- is still proving problematic, with the United States, Europe and others arguing against singling out any one country.

Meanwhile, Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michigan lamented US Secretary of State Colin Powell's absence from the racism conference, telling CNN he believed the decision "came from the same president (George W. Bush) who's had a marked reluctance about international policy questions for the nine months that he's been in office."

Conyers also expressed disappointment that there had been "no comment about the request that's coming from black America about the examination of reparations" for descendants of people held as slaves in America.

"I believe that the redress of these grievances is long overdue," Lantos agreed, adding that "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 propagandized manner."

The UN conference is scheduled to run until September 7.

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2001