Bermuda could be "a model for the rest of the world'' if it effectively deals with its racial tensions, a prominent international negotiator said yesterday.

"It is not a sign of weakness to admit there is a race problem,'' American Mr. Scott Brown told the annual general meeting of the Bermuda Employers' Council.

"If someone asked you, as employers, whether or not you had a human resource problem, you would say yes and that you were working on it. It is just the same with race issues.'' Mr. Brown, executive director of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Conflict Management Group and associate director of the Harvard University Negotiation Project, is on the Island to work with Bermudian Ms Arlene Brock and others on a racial mediation effort that is being co-sponsored with the BEC.

Ms Brock, an associate corporate attorney at Milligan-Whyte and Smith, will be joining the CMG in the US in January.

The CMG has been training 18 Bermudians to mediate workplace racial conflicts and will continue to do so into the spring.

"They (the 18 Bermudian participants) will need your support in carrying forward with this programme,'' Mr. Brown told an audience that included the Premier, the Hon. Sir John Swan, the Human Affairs and Information Minister, the Hon. Jerome Dill and most of the Island's business leaders.

"They are convinced they can make a difference in Bermuda, but they need your help. It's all up to you.'' Pointing to worst-case scenarios, Mr. Brown said that conflicts like those in Rwanda and Yugoslavia started with "little misunderstandings'' that grew as a result of a failure to communicate.

Among the skills that the CMG tries to impart to avoid such conflicts is the ability to conduct conversations, to confront contentious issues without being confrontational and to put oneself in other people's shoes through role-playing and other exercises.

Mr. Smith recalled that even former South African foreign minister Pik Botha, one of the strongest defenders of the racist policy of apartheid, had a change of outlook during a CMG role-playing session.

"During the exercise, he said he had to stop,'' Mr. Brown told the audience.

"When we asked why, he said: `This exercise has made me completely rethink my approach to these negotiations.'' Pretoria was negotiating the dismantling of apartheid with the African National Congress at the time.

Added Mr. Brown, whose group has also set up negotiation mechanisms in Cyprus, El Salvador and the former Soviet Union: "To pre-judge is human and is not a problem. In fact, it is perfectly normal. It is only when we don't have the skills to engage in a dialogue about these issues that they impact on our workplaces and our societies.'' He went on: "Race is a risky topic, a taboo. Our goal is to reduce the risk of discussing race, to make race more discussable.'' Echoing some of the comments made by two of his colleagues last week, Mr.

Brown said he was highly optimistic about Bermuda's chances of dealing effectively with issues of race and gender.

"I firmly believe Bermuda can be a model for the rest of the world,'' he said. "It's a small community, an integrated community and a community that has experience in bringing people together.'' Last Thursday, CMG members Mr. Ted Johnson and Mr. Rob Ricigliano said the fact that Bermudians were even discussing race made them way ahead of the pack.

"Most people in the world haven't gotten to this point,'' said Mr.

Ricigliano, who was here to conduct a training session.