Mandela Slams US Iraq Policy in Galway

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Saturday June 21, 2003 03:07

by Mandela Fan

Former South African President Nelson Mandela said Friday the United States posed a danger to the world for sidelining the United Nations to make war on Iraq

The Nobel peace laureate, in Ireland to open the Special Olympics, strongly criticized President Bush for circumventing the United Nations in order to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by force.

"Any organization, any country, any movement that now decides to sideline the United Nations, that country and its leader are a danger to the world," Mandela said in Galway, where he received an honorary degree a day before opening the games.

"We cannot allow the world to again degenerate into a place where the will of the powerful dominates over all other considerations," he added. "That will surely prove to be a recipe for growing anarchy in world affairs."

Mandela received an honorary doctorate in law from the National University of Ireland before returning to Dublin where he will join a star-studded cast to open the 11th Special Olympics for athletes with learning disabilities.

Mandela, who said South Africans strongly identified with Ireland's struggle to end colonial rule, told an audience of 1,100 that he appreciated Irish support for South Africa's struggle to end apartheid racial separation.

He told his Irish audience he had "an appreciation for your support to our struggle at a time when it was not fashionable to demonstrate such support."

But Mandela suggested Ireland had failed to show as much backbone in standing up to the U.S. war effort in Iraq, which relied heavily on troop transports stopping over at Shannon airport in western Ireland.

"You are keeping quiet. You are afraid of this country (the United States) and its leader," he said.

The 30-minute speech was met by thunderous and sustained applause by an audience of academics and invited guests and by the general public watching nearby.

Mandela said there were strong parallels between the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the Northern Irish peace process, which culminated in a 1998 peace deal for power sharing between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

"Our own experience in South Africa, where we confounded the prophets of doom and achieved a peaceful settlement, inspires us to believe that no situation can be so intractable that it cannot be solved through negotiations and willingness to compromise," he said.