Region | Iran
Holocaust reference changed
Ahmadinejad drops 'Ambiguous and dubious' from his speech at racism conference .
- AP
- Published: 23:01 April 21, 2009
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Geneva: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dropped language describing the Holocaust as "ambiguous and dubious" from a speech attacking Israel at a United Nations racism conference, the UN said on Tuesday.
The UN and the Iranian Mission in Geneva did not comment on why the change was made, but UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday that he had met with Ahmadinejad before his speech and reminded him that the UN had adopted resolutions "to revoke the equation of Zionism with racism and to reaffirm the historical facts of the Holocaust."
Ahmadinejad's accusation that the West used the Holocaust as a "pretext" for aggression against Palestinians still provoked walkouts by a stream of delegates including representatives of every European Union country in attendance. But others, including those from the Vatican, stayed in the room because they said he stopped short of denying the Holocaust.
The walkout came after Ahmadinejad accused Western nations of complicity in violence against Palestinians surrounding the foundation of Israel.
The original text of his speech said, "Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish sufferings and the ambiguous and dubious question of Holocaust."
UN spokeswoman Marie Heuze said that UN officials had checked back with the interpreters and the Farsi recording of Ahmadinejad's speech, and determined that the Iranian president had dropped the terms "ambiguous and dubious," referring instead to "the abuse of the question of the Holocaust."
The French and English interpreters also dropped the phrase, she said.
The meeting turned chaotic almost from the start when two protesters in rainbow wigs tossed red clown noses at Ahmadinejad as he began his speech with a Muslim prayer. Some in attendance who disrupted the speech were expelled on Tuesday.
The United States and eight other Western countries were already boycotting the event on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, because of concerns about its fairness.
Boycott: France flays USFrance's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner criticised the United States on Tuesday for boycotting a United Nations conference where Iran's president launched a verbal attack on Israel.
France, which has strong diplomatic and business ties with the Middle East, had joined a walk-out of delegates in Geneva after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel cruel and racist in a speech on Monday, but then returned to the meeting.
Kouchner said it was wrong of the United States to shun the conference after announcing it was open for negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.
"It's paradoxical - they don't want to listen to Iran in Geneva but they are ready to talk to them," Kouchner told French radio Europe 1.
"More than a paradox, that could really be a mistake." France's President Nicolas Sarkozy has worked hard to mend ties with the US after a rift over the war in Iraq.
- Reuters
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