10 February 2004	Tuesday	18 Zilhaj 1424

VIENNA, Feb 9: The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) expressed deep concern on Monday over a planned French law to ban headscarves from schools, saying it would violate international conventions.

"The law would contradict the conventions on human rights and violate the international standards that France has agreed and sometimes contributed to create," IHF executive director Aaron Rhodes said.

"Such a ban would bring the French state in collision with international human rights standards on freedom of religion," the global rights watchdog said in a statement.

Instead of creating unity in French society under the banner of secularism, as the ruling conservative party has promised, the IHF said the move could be counter-productive and lead to "increased alienation and marginalization of Muslims living in France".

Mr des said: "I don't think it will help the reconciliation between religious communities." He warned that children turned out of public schools because of the law will join "religious schools where extremist ideas are fomented". The IHF, based in Vienna, groups 42 different human rights organizations in Europe, Central Asia and North America.

POWELL NON-COMMITTAL: US Secretary of State Colin Powell Monday said on Monday Washington would not take sides over the controversy surrounding proposed legislation in France banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols from its schools.

"This is an internal matter for the French people and the French government to decide," the top US diplomat said at a press conference with visiting crown prince of Bahrain Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

Powell added that the matter did not come up in a meeting last week with his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin. "I had lunch with Foreign Minister de Villepin on Friday and we did not go into this," Powell said.

"I'm sure the French know our view of such matters and how we deal with them in the United States, but this is an internal French matter that I did not discuss with Mr. de Villepin," Powell said.

France's National Assembly is poised this week to approve the controversial law, as a campaign to block it by opponents of the measure has failed to gain momentum. The text of the bill makes it illegal to wear clothes or insignia that "conspicuously" display religious affiliation. The lower house of parliament is expected to vote the bill through on Tuesday. -AFP