JOHANNESBURG -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela lashed out at
U.S. President George Bush's stance on Iraq on Thursday, saying the Texan
had no foresight and could not think properly.
Mandela, a towering statesman respected the world over for his fight
against Apartheid-era discrimination, said the U.S. leader and British
Prime Minister Tony Blair were undermining the United Nations, and
suggested they would not be doing so if the organization had a white leader.
"It is a tragedy what is happening, what Bush is doing in Iraq," Mandela
told an audience in Johannesburg.
"What I am condemning is that one power, with a president who has no
foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world
into a holocaust," he added, to loud applause.
"Both Bush as well as Tony Blair are undermining an idea (the United
Nations) which was sponsored by their predecessors," Mandela said. "Is this
because the secretary general of the United Nations (Ghanaian Kofi Annan)
is now a black man? They never did that when secretary generals were white."
Mandela said he would support without reservation any action agreed upon by
the United Nations against Iraq. Mandela however said action without U.N.
support was unacceptable and set a bad precedent for world politics.
"Are they saying this is a lesson that you should follow, or are they
saying we are special, what we do should not be done by anyone," he said in
his speech to the International Women's Forum on the theme of Courageous
Leadership for Global Transformation.
Nobel Peace Laureate Mandela, 84, has spoken out many times against Bush's
stance.
He also attacked the United States's record on human rights, criticizing
the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagaski in World War II.
"Because they decided to kill innocent people in Japan, who are still
suffering from that, who are they now to pretend that they are the
policeman of the world?..." he asked.
"lf there is a country which has committed unspeakable atrocities, it is
the United States of America...They don't care for human beings."
But he said he was happy that people, especially those in the United
States, were opposing military action in Iraq.
"I hope that that opposition will one day make him understand that he has
made the greatest mistake of his life," Mandela said.
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