Tony Blair should face trial over Iraq war, says Desmond Tutu
Anti-apartheid hero attacks former prime minister over double standards on war crimes
Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for Tony Blair and George Bush
to be hauled before the international criminal court in The Hague and
delivered a damning critique of the physical and moral devastation
caused by the Iraq war.
Tutu,
a Nobel peace prize winner and hero of the anti-apartheid movement,
accuses the former British and US leaders of lying about weapons of mass
destruction and says the invasion left the world more destabilised and
divided "than any other conflict in history".
Writing in the Observer,
Tutu also suggests the controversial US and UK-led action to oust
Saddam Hussein in 2003 created the backdrop for the civil war in Syria
and a possible wider Middle East conflict involving Iran.
"The
then leaders of the United States and Great Britain," Tutu argues,
"fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us
further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we
now stand – with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us."
But it
is Tutu's call for Blair and Bush to face justice in The Hague that is
most startling. Claiming that different standards appear to be set for
prosecuting African leaders and western ones, he says the death toll
during and after the Iraq conflict is sufficient on its own for Blair
and Bush to be tried at the ICC.
"On these grounds, alone, in a
consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life
should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian
peers who have been made to answer for their actions in The Hague," he
says.
The court hears cases on genocide, crimes against humanity,
and war crimes. To date, 16 cases have been brought before the court but
only one, that of Thomas Lubanga, a rebel leader from the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), has been completed. He was sentenced
earlier this year to 14 years' imprisonment for his part in war crimes
in his home country.
Tutu's broadside is evidence of the shadow
still cast by Iraq over Blair's post-prime ministerial career, as he
attempts to rehabilitate himself in British public life. A longtime
critic of the Iraq war, the archbishop pulled out of a South African
conference on leadership last week because Blair, who was paid 2m rand
(£150,000) for his time, was attending. It is understood that Tutu had
agreed to speak without a fee.
In his article, the archbishop
argues that as well as the death toll, there has been a heavy moral cost
to civilisation, with no gain. "Even greater costs have been exacted
beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members
of the human family across the world.
"Has the potential for
terrorist attacks decreased? To what extent have we succeeded in
bringing the so-called Muslim and Judeo-Christian worlds closer
together, in sowing the seeds of understanding and hope?" Blair and
Bush, he says, set an appalling example. "If leaders may lie, then who
should tell the truth?" he asks.
"If it is acceptable for leaders
to take drastic action on the basis of a lie, without an acknowledgement
or an apology when they are found out, what should we teach our
children?"
In a statement, Blair strongly contested Tutu's views
and said Iraq was now a more prosperous country than it had been under
Saddam Hussein. "I have a great respect for Archbishop Tutu's fight
against apartheid – where we were on the same side of the argument – but
to repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is
completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence
has shown.
"And to say that the fact that Saddam massacred
hundreds of thousands of his citizens is irrelevant to the morality of
removing him is bizarre. We have just had the memorials both of the
Halabja massacre, where thousands of people were murdered in one day by
Saddam's use of chemical weapons, and that of the Iran-Iraq war where
casualties numbered up to a million including many killed by chemical
weapons.
"In addition, his slaughter of his political opponents,
the treatment of the Marsh Arabs and the systematic torture of his
people make the case for removing him morally strong. But the basis of
action was as stated at the time.
"In short, this is the same
argument we have had many times with nothing new to say. But surely in a
healthy democracy people can agree to disagree.
"I would also
point out that despite the problems, Iraq today has an economy three
times or more in size, with the child mortality rate cut by a third of
what it was. And with investment hugely increased in places like Basra."
More information
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/02/desmond-tutu-tony-blair-iraq
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2012/09/02/mgr-tutu-estime-que-blair-et-bush-devraient-etre-juges-a-la-haye-pour-la-guerre-en-irak_1754558_3218.html
http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2007/03/18/actualidad/1174172403_850215.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19454562
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