Russia, Cuba, South Africa abandon racism conference over vote excluding whites

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) _ A handful of countries _ including Russia, Cuba, South Africa and France's overseas territories _ withdrew their delegates from an anti-racism conference to protest its

Saturday, October 5th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) _ A handful of countries _ including Russia, Cuba, South Africa and France's overseas territories _ withdrew their delegates from an anti-racism conference to protest its decision to exclude whites.

Most of the 250 delegates at the African and African Descendants Conference Against Racism whistled and cheered Friday when chairwoman Jewel Crawford of the United States defended the conference's decision.

``There are some times when we feel that we just want to have a meeting of our own,'' she said.

Some 200 delegates voted Wednesday for whites and Asians to leave the deliberations, saying slavery was too painful a subject to discuss in front of non-Africans.

Fifty delegates abstained and more than a dozen white and Asian journalists, interpreters and delegates left. Some white interpreters returned Thursday and Friday and were allowed to work.

The 60-strong British delegation introduced the measure, arguing the conference was entirely for blacks to discuss issues from racial profiling to reparations for slavery.

The walkout did not come until two days later, on the fourth day of the six-day conference. It was led by Cuba, followed by South Africa, Colombia, Russia and the French overseas territories of Martinique, Reunion and French Guiana.

``Cuba will never support any action aimed at segregating a group of people. Furthermore, Cuba believes that such a decision is intolerant and contrary to the purposes of this conference,'' Maria Morales, the Cuban delegation's spokeswoman, told the conference.

The South Africans said the conference had gone adrift and they could not endorse the decision to exclude non-blacks. It was unclear how many delegates left the conference late Friday.

Crawford said ``the motion of exclusion was the will of the majority.''

Ghanaian delegate Maya wa Taifa agreed, arguing that Africans often are too generous for their own good and that ``our over-hospitality'' backfired on the conference.

Also Friday, delegates heard an impassioned plea from Mauritanian Bakary Tandia for the conference to denounce slavery in the African countries of Mauritania and Sudan.

He said such conferences lay too much emphasis on demands for reparations from former white colonizers and ``hardly focus on what is happening on the continent, where slavery is alive in some places.''

Human rights groups say slavery is continuing in both those African nations. Even though the practice has been outlawed in Mauritania, estimates of the number of people currently in bondage range up to 100,000, with most of them black.

Human rights groups have accused the Sudanese government of abducting civilians and forcing them into slavery. There also are claims the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army is involved in abducting people.

Conference organizers said they planned a resolution of condemnation before Sunday's end to the meeting, billed as a follow-up to last year's U.N. anti-racism conference in South Africa.