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Annan urges

world to fight

new forms

of racism

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the world on Monday to fight new forms of racial discrimination but also emphasised the new weapons it had to do so.

He said a world conference against racism, to be held in South Africa next year, would be "a historic opportunity to move closer to a more just and more tolerant society for all".

In a message marking the International Day on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Tuesday, he said the conference would "focus on practical measures to assist victims of racial discrimination".

People were still being denied employment, education and health because of their race or ethnic background, he said. Others were disproportionately represented in prisons and slums, and others still were denied equal access to medical care and treatment.

"Our age, like previous ages, has brought with it new forms of racial discrimination, no less odious than the old ones," Annan said.

"Many of today's conflicts have an ethnic dimension," he said and civilian populations were targeted on ethnic grounds.

The rise of globalisation meant "a corresponding increase in discrimination against immigrants, migrant workers, refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons".

But, he said, "The international community is committed as never before to ending racism".

Countries had entered international and regional agreements and had passed laws to ban racial discrimination, he said.

"Tolerance and multiculturalism are flourishing in many societies" and new technologies could be used as "tools of ending and not aggravating inequality".

Next year's conference "should mark a big step forward," he said. "Let us seize the opportunity and make the most of it".ÑAFP