13333: Chamberlain posts (news item): Anti-racism conference and Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By BERT WILKINSON

   BRIDGETOWN, Oct 2 (AP) -- Delegates at an anti-racism conference voted
Wednesday to expel non-blacks from the meeting, saying it was too traumatic
to discuss slavery in front of them.
   The dozen or so whites and a couple of Asians, mainly interpreters and
members of non-governmental groups, left without protest.
   The more than 200 delegates from several countries voted overwhelmingly
for the restriction, with about 50 abstaining, officials said. The event
was organized by various non-governmental organizations.
   "This is an African family occasion and therefore they should not be
allowed to sit down and talk with us," said Garadina Gamba, a spokeswoman
for the British delegation.
   Conference chairwoman Jewel Crawford of the United States said "There
are a number of black people who have been traumatized by white people and
they suffered psychologically and emotionally and, as a result of that
trauma, some of them did not care to discuss their issues in front of
them."
   But Jean Violet Baptiste, spokeswoman for the Guyana-based African
Cultural and Development Association, said organizers should have made
clear that only blacks were welcome: "You can't have people come all this
way and then ask them to leave."
   A major issue at the meeting is a plan by black activists from the
Caribbean and North America to sue France for making Haiti pay millions of
dollars for recognition of its independence nearly two centuries ago.
   Attorney General Mia Mottley of Barbados urged delegates to build upon
last year's U.N. conference against racism in South Africa, which
recognized slavery and the slave trade as a crime against humanity.
   The meeting, titled African and African Descendants' World Conference
Against Racism, was hosted by the government of Barbados. Organizers
included the Congress Against Racism Barbados and the U.S.-based Congress
of People of African Descent.
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   On the Net:
   http://www.transafricaforum.org/events/unwcardiaspora--2002.shtml