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U.S. Diplomats May Leave U.N. Racism Conference Early
WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (News Agencies) - A group of lower- and middle-level U.S. diplomats attending a U.N. racism conference under orders not to speak may leave the meeting early if it is unable to remove anti-Israel language from the program, a senior State Department official said Friday.
"If we don't get anywhere, we'll bring them home early," the official said. "There would be no point in staying."
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not say when that decision might be made. The conference, which opened earlier Friday in Durban, South Africa, is set to end on September 7th.
Meanwhile, other U.S. officials said the diplomats at the conference were not "participating" in the meeting and would not unless the objectionable language is removed.
"The United States does have an observer from the consulate office in Durban ... for protocol reasons," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
State Department officials said that at least three diplomats, including Michael Southwick, the deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations, had at various times occupied the four seats reserved for a U.S. delegation during the session.
The other diplomats present for at least some of the opening plenary were John Blaney, the charge d'affairs from the U.S. embassy in Pretoria, and Craig Kuehl, the U.S. consul-general in Durban, one senior official said.
The trio went to the meeting to make sure the U.S. seat was not empty, another official said.
"We have people in the chairs but they are just observing," the second official said. "They are not speaking, they are watching."
A decision on whether to allow the diplomats to speak or otherwise participate has not yet been made, the officials said.
Southwick, the most senior U.S. official in Durban, is leading a team that is attempting to remove anti-Israel language from draft conference documents.
"He is working, as we speak, on trying to get the objectionable language taken out of the document," Fleischer said.
Southwick's team arrived in Durban on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to avoid a threatened all-out U.S. boycott of the conference threatened by President George W. Bush.
Bush has vowed to boycott the event unless anti-Israel language promoted by Arab nations but deemed "offensive" by Washington is taken out of the documents.
That language has already prompted Secretary of State Colin Powell to boycott the conference despite calls from various foreign leaders that his participation was important.
Powell, the highest-ranking African-American in the history of U.S. government, had wanted to attend the conference and his decision to stay away has angered some black lawmakers.
Washington has boycotted the last two U.N. racism conferences in 1978 and 1983 over language equating Zionism with racism.
The conference formally opened on Friday with U.N. chief Kofi Annan addressed the opening of the meeting, attended by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Cuban President Fidel Castro, host President Thabo Mbeki and 11 other heads of state.
Arafat met American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson for talks on the Middle East twice Friday, on the sidelines of the conference.
Following the first meeting at a hotel, Jackson told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Arafat was appealing for the United States "to revive its role as the honest broker in the situation".
Jackson said there was concern "to not use this venue as the platform to have a global showdown".
For his part, Arafat said he hoped the U.N. racism conference would "achieve something concrete, to stop the aggression against the Palestinian people".
The two men met again later in the evening for fresh talks.
The Middle East has dominated discussions at the conference as Arab and Islamic countries insist the meeting condemn Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians.
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