SENIOR South African figures slammed the United States Thursday for threatening to boycott a United Nations conference on racism, and condemned the “evasive” language of draft declarations. National Assembly speaker Frene Ginwala, attending a preparatory conference in Cape Town, said she found it unacceptable that the United States, which guaranteed freedom of speech in its constitution, wanted to exclude Zionism and reparations for slavery from the agenda of the week-long conference, due to open in the east coast city of Durban on August 31. Education Minister Kader Asmal, addressing the same conference, said reparations could not be brushed under the carpet. “It cannot be deemed inconvenient or merely impolitic and therefore forbidden in discussions,” he said. “We need to debate these matters rather than to arrest debate in favour of simplistic dogmas and slogans. That is the purpose that this upcoming conference should serve.” Barney Pityana, chairman of South Africa’s Human Rights Commission, said the current drafts of a conference declaration and programme of action were so dense and evasive they risked being ineffective. – AFP