January 6, 2003	Monday	Ziqa’ad 2, 1423

LONDON, Jan 5: Archbishop Desmond Tutu criticised the United States on Sunday as an arrogant superpower bent on unilateral action, in an interview on the Iraq crisis to be telecast in Britain.

“I’m shocked to see a powerful country use its power frequently, unilaterally,” said Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for opposing apartheid in his native South Africa.

“The United States says: ‘You do this to the world. If you don’t do it, we will do it.’ That’s sad,” he said.

“When does compassion, when does morality, when does caring come in?” he asked. “I just hope that one day that people will realize that peace is a far better path to follow.”

Tutu said it was “mind-boggling” that British Prime Minister Tony Blair is strongly backing US President George W. Bush in the showdown with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“Many, many of us are deeply saddened to see a great country such as the United States aided and abetted extraordinarily by Britain,” the Anglican archbishop said.

Tutu also questioned why Iraq — which denies it has nuclear, chemical or biological weapons — was being singled out when India and Pakistan are confirmed nuclear powers.

“What do you do with weapons of mass destruction in Europe? What do you do with them in India? What do you do with them in Pakistan?” he asked. “Where do you stop?”

“America should remember that they supported some of the most repressive governments,” he said.

“Let’s hear what (UN weapons) inspectors get to see. But if you are going to apply as strictly as you want UN resolutions there, you ask why there and not in other places. Why not in Palestine?”

Tutu was interviewed for the Jonathan Dimbleby newsmakers programme for broadcast on the commercial ITV television network. Excerpts were released to the British press in advance of broadcast.

Speaking on the same programme, former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson praised Bush for getting unanimous support in the UN Security Council for Resolution 1441, which orders Saddam to give up weapons of mass destruction or face serious consequences.

But she stressed that any future action over Iraq must also be conducted through the Security Council. Otherwise, she said, the results could be “really very serious for stability in a much wider area than just Iraq itself.”

“I think the implications would be very far-reaching and very worrying,” the former Irish head of state added.

INVASION OPPOSED: Russia and Turkey stepped up pressure on Sunday to find a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis, with Moscow warning it would regard as illegitimate any military action that did not have United Nations backing.

Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul pressed on with top-level diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue peacefully as UN experts extended the hunt for arms of mass destruction before the return to Baghdad of chief weapons inspector Hans Blix.

The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been stepping up operations as the date (Jan 27) draws near for the submission of a key report to the security council.

In Moscow Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said his government would consider any military action by the United States and its allies against Iraq without UN approval as illegitimate and unjustified.

Russia opposes US unilateral military intervention in Iraq, threatened by Washington if it considers Baghdad to be in material breach of UN security council resolution 1441, which orders it to completely give up weapons of mass destruction.

“If military actions begin against Iraq without the approval of the UN, we will consider them as illegitimate and unjustified,” Interfax-AVN news agency quoted Ivanov as saying.—AFP