Durban | Thursday
THE NGO forum against racism got off to a bumpy start in Durban on Tuesday, with some participants claiming it had been hijacked in a bid to water down the final declaration on slavery.
Others complained bitterly about the lack of organisation and overpriced accommodation.
The agenda for the day was finalised only at 3am on Tuesday, after what sources said was a confrontation between the SA National NGO Coalition (Sangoco), which is responsible for running the forum, and the international organising committee (IOC).
The result of the last-minute changes was the scrapping of a number of Sangoco-inspired “round table” discussion forums at which delegates were to be allowed to express their views freely on a range of topics from slavery to HIV/Aids and hate crimes.
Instead, delegates were asked to participate in “commissions” tasked with commenting on the wording of a pre-written draft forum declaration.
“There was a coup,” said Tanzanian delegate Fatma Alloo on Tuesday afternoon.
“We were just pawns, put here and there.”
She said she was given an hour’s notice that instead of being the rapporteur for a round table on slavery, she was to be a speaker on the panel of the slavery commission.
South African Aids activist Zackie Achmat, who was to chair a round table on HIV/Aids, found himself leading a discussion on information and the media instead.
Alloo told about 250 delegates at her commission that “imperialism” was continuing even in the conference.
“This conference has been hijacked… The political agenda is that the voices must be silenced,” she said.
She told Sapa that the international organising committee were “lackeys of the United States”, and that the US was trying to water down references in the final declaration to slavery as a “crime against humanity” for fear that the issue of reparations could open it to lawsuits.
The US government is threatening a boycott of the intergovernmental World Conference Against Racism, which begins on Friday, partly over the reparations issue.
Alloo said the commission was supposed to present the drafting team with a total of five paragraphs of recommended changes.
“They are really not serious,” she said. “Whatever we say, they’ll throw it away.”
The facilitator for the slavery commission, American Raymond Winbush, said the IOC “bully boys” had essentially “booted out” Sangoco.
He said it was clear that even though the US was not in Durban, its presence was being felt. “It’s clear there’s an attempt to water down this conference… racism will never create a mechanism to destroy itself.”
Sangoco representative Mark Weinberg said there were “tensions”, rather than conflict, between Sangoco and the IOC, on which Sangoco also sat.
“My understanding of the tension was trying to distinguish between the administrative role, Sangoco’s responsibility, and the political role of the IOC,” he said.
“In that sense there’s tension about the role of being implementer and decision maker (at the same time) and at what level decisions are made.
“I don’t think we’re talking about a conflict. I think we’re talking about role definition.” He said Sangoco itself was committed to supporting any position on calling for comprehensive reparations, which included both individual and structural redress.
A member of the IOC, American Alberto Salamando, told Sapa that functionally, there was not much difference between the round tables, which had been organised by Sangoco in South Africa, and the commissions, which had been agreed on in Geneva.
“What we’ve tried to do is merge the two,” he said.
“Unfortunately we weren’t able to do that until the last minute.”
He said three round tables that were “not transferable” had in fact been kept in the programme, including one on globalisation and poverty.
The changes were made in discussion with the round table participants and there was a “tremendous amount of goodwill”.
Saldamando said he had no doubt that slavery was a crime against humanity, and said the general opinion of most NGOs was that the forum was trying to describe the reality of racism as victims saw it, not as governments saw it.
“I don’t think we’re pulling any punches,” he said. “I don’t think we’re trying to water down reality… I think we all feel very strongly about slavery.”
The last-minute changes created confusion, with some delegates wandering despairingly in search of “round table discussions” which had been cancelled.
The opening ceremony of the NGO forum was marred for Spanish and French delegates who found there were no translation facilities.
This prompted an apology from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson who ditched her prepared text for brief remarks, citing the lack of translation as a reason. There were also complaints about accommodation, which dominated a news conference.
Reporters and delegates complained about “roach-infested” hotels and being charged four to eight times more than ordinary guests.
Moshe More, director of the NGO Forum secretariat, said there had been a lot of complaints about the high hotel prices, even from his own staff.
“There is a trend, through the world if a conference comes to a city the hotel industry doubles its prices.” – Sapa
ZA*NOW:
Reaching out to the world’s 250m ‘untouchables’ August 29, 2001
US ducks out of racism conference August 28, 2001
Talking turkey at racism round table August 27, 2001
More cells, cops, for racism meeting just in case August 23, 2001
‘Foreigners are the new enemy in SA’ August 21, 2001
Durban braces for protests August 17, 2001
‘US boycott signals indifference on racism’ July 30, 2001
US tetchy on Zionism/racism issue July 28, 2001
No slavery please, we’re American July 29, 2001
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