JOHANNESBURG Aug 28 (Reuters) – Nobel peace prize laureate
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has withdrawn from a seminar in South
Africa this week in protest against the presence of former
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his support for war in
Iraq.
“The archbishop is of the view that Mr. Blair’s decision to
support the United States’ military invasion of Iraq, on the
basis of unproven allegations of the existence in Iraq of
weapons of mass destruction, was morally indefensible,” said
Tutu spokesman Roger Friedman.
Blair strongly supported U.S. President George W. Bush as
he launched a “war on terror”, sending British troops to
Afghanistan in 2001 and, more controversially, Iraq in 2003.
Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for speaking out
against white-minority apartheid rule and remains a prominent
campaigner for peace and human rights.
“Morality and leadership are indivisible. In this context,
it would be inappropriate and untenable for the archbishop to
share a platform with Mr Blair,” Friedman said.
Blair’s office in London said he was “sorry” that Tutu had
decided to pull out of the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in
Johannesburg.
“As far as Iraq is concerned, they have always disagreed
about removing (former Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein) by
force – such disagreement is part of a healthy democracy,” a
spokesman for Blair said.
“These decisions are never easy morally or politically.”
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