{"id":13994,"date":"2012-08-29T03:21:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T01:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/s-africas-tutu-boycotts-seminar-in-anti-blair-protest\/"},"modified":"2012-08-29T03:21:11","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T01:21:11","slug":"s-africas-tutu-boycotts-seminar-in-anti-blair-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africas-tutu-boycotts-seminar-in-anti-blair-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa’s Tutu boycotts seminar in anti-Blair protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Aug 28 (Reuters) – Nobel peace prize laureate
\nArchbishop Desmond Tutu has withdrawn from a seminar in South
\nAfrica this week in protest against the presence of former
\nBritish Prime Minister Tony Blair and his support for war in
\nIraq.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The archbishop is of the view that Mr. Blair’s decision to
\nsupport the United States’ military invasion of Iraq, on the
\nbasis of unproven allegations of the existence in Iraq of
\nweapons of mass destruction, was morally indefensible,” said
\nTutu spokesman Roger Friedman.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Blair strongly supported U.S. President George W. Bush as
\nhe launched a “war on terror”, sending British troops to
\nAfghanistan in 2001 and, more controversially, Iraq in 2003.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for speaking out
\nagainst white-minority apartheid rule and remains a prominent
\ncampaigner for peace and human rights.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Morality and leadership are indivisible. In this context,
\nit would be inappropriate and untenable for the archbishop to
\nshare a platform with Mr Blair,” Friedman said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Blair’s office in London said he was “sorry” that Tutu had
\ndecided to pull out of the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in
\nJohannesburg.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“As far as Iraq is concerned, they have always disagreed
\nabout removing (former Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein) by
\nforce – such disagreement is part of a healthy democracy,” a
\nspokesman for Blair said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“These decisions are never easy morally or politically.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG Aug 28 (Reuters) – Nobel peace prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu has withdrawn from a seminar in South Africa this week in protest against the presence of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his support for war in Iraq.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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}