CAPE TOWN: South African statesman Nelson Mandela urged the United States on Thursday to act only through the United Nations in its campaign against Iraq after a report in which he branded the US a threat to world peace.
“Everybody who wants peace and stability in the world will respect the world body,” the former president told reporters in Cape Town. “All its members (should) respect the United Nations charter. They don’t do anything which might be disturb peace and stability.”
President George W. Bush issued a ringing challenge to the world body over Iraq on Thursday, saying if it did not force President Saddam Hussein to disarm and stop backing terrorism then “action will be unavoidable.”
Mandela’s successor as president, Thabo Mbeki, said in New York on Thursday that the United Nations was the correct body to deal with Iraq.
“I was pleased that President Bush, when he spoke said that the US government would come to the Security Council on this matter and approach it in the context of decisions that have been taken by the Security Council,” Mbeki said at an event organized by the Council on Foreign Relations.
In an interview with Newsweek magazine, Mandela criticized the United States for acting unilaterally and undermining the United Nations as a forum for settling international disputes. He said hardline US policies aimed to please American oil and arms companies.
“If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace,” the 84-year-old African statesman said.
Asked if he believed a US attack on Iraq could undermine world peace, the Nobel peace prize laureate said: “Oh most certainly, there is no doubt.”
The United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait and imposed UN weapons inspectors on the country after the Gulf War. The inspectors left in 1998 ahead of a US-British bombing campaign carried out in the name of forcing greater inspections compliance from Iraq.
PLEASING OIL MAGNATES: Bush and his top aides have accused Iraq of seeking weapons of mass destruction, saying it poses a danger to the Middle East region and the West. Iraq denies the charges.
“It is clearly a decision that is motivated by George W. Bush’s desire to please the arms and oil industries in the United States of America,” Mandela said in the Newsweek article.
Nearly every country in the world, with the exception of Britain and Israel, has expressed grave misgivings about a pre-emptive attack on Iraq and want prior approval by the 15-nations UN Security of any military action.
“On what basis must he (Bush) ignore the considered opinion of world leaders who are members of the United Nations and respect their charter,” Mandela said in Cape Town after a 25th anniversary memorial event for slain black activist Steve Biko.
The statesman also warned that if the United States ignored the Security Council it would “introduce chaos in international relations and that must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
Mandela championed the fight against white minority rule and emerged from 27 years in apartheid jails to become South Africa’s first black president from 1994 to 1999.
Mandela earlier said that while it was not his personal view, others believed there was an element of racism behind Washington’s unilateral policies.—Reuters