[If the Guardian is shocked by these new developments, then they must be really awful.]

Racism conference rocked by new slave-trade demands

Special report: UN conference against racism

Chris McGreal in Durban Wednesday September 5, 2001

The Guardian

African countries have issued a fresh set of demands over the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism which European delegates to the UN anti-racism conference in Durban warn could lead to the final collapse of any agreement. The new demands include explicit apologies from individual countries, including Britain, and reparations including debt cancellation and the funding of health care.

The "African paper" also says these "racist tragedies" must be recognised as crimes against humanity. Until now, African states were prepared to settle for a general apology without naming individual countries and had backed away from demands for reparations.

One European delegate described the hardening of the African position as "impossible" and the atmosphere as "very, very bad". He doubted that the situation could be rescued before the end of the conference on Friday unless the Africans withdrew the new demands.

South Africa is already trying to rescue the credibility of the meeting after the US and Israeli walkout over Arab moves to equate Zionism with racism. All language criticising Israel's treatment of Palestinians as racist is being redrafted.

The "hijacking" of the conference by the Middle East crisis has angered many African delegations and helped prompt the new, hardline stance taken in a series of demands given in writing to the EU delegation as the Americans walked out. They include an "explicit apology" by countries "which practised, benefited or enriched themselves from slavery, slave trade and colonialism to all victims".

Among the demands for reparations are a complete cancellation of foreign debts, open markets for exports from Africa, the funding of health care for all, the return of plundered art objects and the acceleration of overseas aid.

The demands angered European delegates. "There's been a lot of sympathy from some EU delegations for the African call for an apology for slavery," said one European delegate. "But when these demands arrived there was a real sense that the Africans had overplayed their hand, that if the Europeans gave ground the demands would escalate. The Europeans were badly divided and this has brought them back together a bit."

Britain and most of its European allies have been at odds about whether to apologise for the slave trade or merely express regret, but the EU has been firm in insisting it will not pay anything called reparations.

Influential African delegations, particularly Nigeria, have been encouraged by the black congressional caucus in the US to take a hard line over reparations in response to the American government's focus on Israel at the conference.

Until the African bloc issued its latest set of demands, EU delegations had gravitated towards a general, "non-country specific" apology for slavery which would not be specifically linked to reparations but would entail support for the New African Initiative to revive the continent's economic and political fortunes.

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2001