PHA-Exchange> bravo Mandela

[aviva]

From: Marc Bombois <mbombois at shaw.ca>
MANDELA ATTACKS GEORGE BUSH AND TONY BLAIR

Nelson Mandela yesterday launched a withering attack on George Bush and
Tony Blair, implying they were racists intent on war with Iraq and
accusing Mr Blair of abdicating his responsibility as prime minister to
America.

Mr. Mandela urged the American people to join protests against their
president and called on world leaders, especially those with vetoes in
the UN security council, to unite to oppose him.

"One power with a president who has no foresight and cannot think
properly is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust," Mr.
Mandela said in a speech to the International Women's Forum.

"Why is the US behaving so arrogantly?" he asked. "All that [Bush]
wants
is Iraqi oil."

Condemning Mr. Blair, he said: "He is the foreign minister of the
United
States. He is no longer prime minister of Britain."

The former president of South Africa also accused Mr. Bush and Mr.
Blair
of undermining the UN and its secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

"Is it because the secretary-general of the United Nations is now a
black
man? They never did that when secretary-generals were white," he said.

Mr. Mandela said the UN was the main reason there had been no third
world
war. The US, which callously dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, had no moral authority to police the world.

"If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the
world, it is the United States of America. They don't care for human
beings," he said.

Mr. Mandela also criticised Iraq for not cooperating fully with the
weapons inspectors and said South Africa would support any action
against
Iraq that was supported by the UN.

His comments drew a strong response from the White House spokesman, Ari
Fleischer, who said Mr. Bush "understands there are going to be people
who are more comfortable doing nothing about a growing menace that
could
turn into a holocaust."