Belgium must takes sides

Like the Netherlands and the US Belgium must also boycott the UN anti-racism conference in Geneva, the daily De Standaard writes, pointing out that fundamentalist states like Libya and Iran are dominating the meeting: "The tone [of the final document] remains that religious or fascist dictatorships are teaching the democracies a lesson as regards slavery, racism and intolerance. … Today one of the speakers is Iranian President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, who has had homosexuals hanged, who denies the Shoah and believes that Israel should be scorched off the face of the earth. By attending the conference we give these people credibility. Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht once said quite rightly in a speech delivered before the UN human rights commission that 'not religions but people need to be protected'. The final document for Durban II does exactly the opposite. … Belgium must decide now on which side it stands: on that of human rights or that of fundamentalism."

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