France lauds racism conference

Headline: France: Racism conference on right track. Vraiment! There has not been such a wonderful success in solving the Jewish problem since the Wannsee Conference, or perhaps since the conference at Evian sur Bains in 1938!  

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday morning that the UN anti-racism conference was on the right track despite a mass walkout during the speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 

Speaking on Europe-1 radio, Kouchner said the meeting is "not at all a failure but the beginning of a success," and that Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel speech was "predictable." France's representative and other European participants walked out during the speech Monday.

 

Kouchner said the French participant would rejoin the conference Tuesday, and expressed hope that a proposed UN declaration on racism would be approved Tuesday night.

 

Meanwhile, France's Humanitarian Ambassador Francois Zimeray on Monday defended his country's decision to participate in the conference.

"The world deserves an arena for dialogue. We believe that dialogue is a value in itself," Zimeray told The Jerusalem Post at the conference.

 

His country's continued participation in preparations for the final text helped eliminate new language against Israel that Islamic countries had tried to insert, he said.

 

Zimeray added that he was not bothered by the participation of countries with bad records on human rights such as Iran, Libya and Sudan.

 

The debate about human rights should be conducted with these countries, he said. "Who else should we fight and argue with on issues regarding racism, homophobia and gender equity?" he asked.