The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 4/20/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Anja Niedringhaus - The Associated Press An African man holds up the Pan-African flag, also referred to as Black Liberation flag, as he takes part in an anti-racism demonstration in the center of Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday. The United Nations is bracing for a major anti-racism conference opening next week at its European headquarters, with concerns rife that it may descend once again into clashes over Israel that marred the last conference in South Africa eight years ago. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

GENEVA (AP) - The United Nations opens its first global racism conference in eight years on Monday with the U.S. and at least five other countries boycotting the event out of concern that Islamic countries will demand that it denounce Israel and ban criticism of Islam.

The administration of President Barack Obama, America's first black head of state, announced Saturday that it would boycott "with regret" the weeklong meeting in Geneva, which already is experiencing much of the bickering and political infighting that marred the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa.

The Netherlands declared its boycott Sunday, while Australia, Canada, Israel and Italy already have said they would not attend.

"I would love to be involved in a useful conference that addressed continuing issues of racism and discrimination around the globe," Obama said in Trinidad on Sunday after attending the Summit of the Americas.

But he said the language of the U.N.'s draft declaration risked a reprise of Durban, during which "folks expressed antagonism toward Israel in ways that were often times completely hypocritical and counterproductive."

"We expressed in the run-up to this conference our concerns that if you adopted all of the language from 2001, that's not something we can sign up for," Obama said.

"Hopefully some concrete steps come out of the conference that we can partner with other countries on to actually reduce discrimination around the globe, but this wasn't an opportunity to do it," he said.

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