Ouagadougou | Sunday ORGANISATION of African Unity (OAU) Secretary-General Amara Essy on Saturday said that the United Nations conference on racism under way in Durban, South Africa should declare slavery “a crime against humanity.” “What is clear is that the Durban conference should recognise slavery and the trade in blacks as a crime against humanity,” […]

Durban | Wednesday AS the World Conference Against Racism enters its fifth day on Wednesday, the working group that will negotiate the compromise language over the controversial Middle East issue is expected to begin drafting a new text. The working group will be tasked with removing all racist language from the draft declaration of the […]

MAIL & GUARDIAN REPORTERS, Durban | Thursday In private, the South African government must be bitterly disappointed with events in Durban this week. It had hoped that the Third World, and particularly Africa, would speak with one clear voice at the United Nations conference on racism. It wanted to use the conference to heighten world […]

THE ying-yang-style emblem of the World Conference Against Racism has come under fire from the conservative Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging (Afrikaner unity movement) as a “Satanist” symbol, familiar to the occult world. AEB leader Cassie Aucamp said in a statement on Wednesday that he had learned with shock and disillusionment that the symbol was being used by […]

“I AM a Jew,” UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson declared Wednesday at a dinner in Durban, South Africa, a guest reported. Robinson, a former president of Ireland who is in fact Roman Catholic, was responding to an anti-Jewish cartoon booklet distributed at a forum of non-governmental organisations meeting ahead of a UN conference on […]

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 […]

ISRAEL is shocked by the “kidnapping” of the UN conference on racism in South Africa by Arab and Muslim countries, a representative for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in Jerusalem on Sunday. “We are shocked by the kidnapping of the Durban conference by the Palestinians, by Arab countries and a certain number of Islamic […]

FARAH KHAN, Durban | Tuesday GENETIC research and experimentation have raised the spectre of new forms of discrimination, the World Conference Against Racism heard this week. The future has caught up with the present and now threatens the “brave new world” envisioned by novelist Aldous Huxley, said participants at a panel organised by the UN […]

FIFTY-one people had been killed and more than 500 wounded by midday on Sunday in Christian-Muslim violence in the Nigerian city of Jos, a senior official said Monday, releasing what he said was a first, partial, official toll. “This is not a final figure. The total I have given you is this, on what we […]

Harare | Monday A FRESH farm invasion took place briefly on Sunday in northern Zimbabwe, as President Robert Mugabe agreed in principle to a Nigerian-brokered deal to end the land dispute. A farming official on the invaded farm in Mashonaland Central province, who asked not to be named, said the invasion by around 200 land […]