- X(AFP) -- Western leaders plotting war against Iraq came
in for extraordinary vilification at an international summit here, being
pilloried as callous killers and fundamentalist fanatics bent on world
domination.
-
- The first charge was laid by an impassioned Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who took over from South Africa as chairman
of the 116-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at the summit.
-
- "It is no longer just a war against terrorism,"
the veteran Southeast Asian leader told an audience including more than
50 heads of state or government. "It is in fact a war to dominate
the world."
-
- In a vitriolic attack over the drive spearheaded by the
United States and Britain towards an invasion of Iraq, which is a member
of NAM, Mahathir compared the political and military leaders of great powers
unflatteringly with suicide terrorists.
-
- While the terrorists died as they attacked, "the
great warriors who press the buttons see nothing of the mangled bodies,
the heads and limbs which are torn from disemboweled bodies, the blood
and the gore of the innocent people.
-
- "And because they don't see, the button-pressing
warriors and the people who commanded them go back to enjoy a hearty meal,
watch TV shows or morale-boosting troop entertainers and then retire to
their cosy beds for a good sleep," he said.
-
- Even for a man known for his outspoken views, it was
an astonishing performance, designed to set the tone for a movement which
includes all three countries described by US President George W. Bush as
the global "axis of evil" -- Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
-
- The theme was soon taken up by Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami, who described the US as "self-appointed 'master of the world'"
driven by "fanatic fundamentalism" to spread its own moral and
cultural values and remove anything standing in its way.
-
- He said that Iran, which fought an eight-year war against
Iraq in the 1980s, was against the use of force to oust President Saddam
Hussein and was "opposed to war-mongering policies".
-
- Among the audience were kings, sheikhs, presidents and
prime ministers from around the developing world, including South Africa's
Thabo Mbeki, Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf, India's Atal Behari Vajpayee
and Cuba's Fidel Castro.
-
- Also present was Iraq's Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan,
who has promised to show the summit evidence in the form of documents and
tapes to tell "the truth of what is happening in Iraq" -- an
apparent response to US Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation
to the UN Security Council on Baghdad's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
-
- A draft statement on Iraq, agreed after four days of
wrangling by officials and foreign ministers, opposes any war against Iraq
without the support of the UN.
-
- NAM, which represents more than half the UN membership
and was set up during the Cold War as a counter to the Western and Easter
power blocs, will also call on Iraq to "actively" comply with
UN demands that it disarm.
-
- Six NAM members -- Syria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Pakistan
and Angola -- are currently sitting as non-permanent members of the UN
Security Council.
-
- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a speech read
on his behalf at the summit that weapons inspections in Iraq are making
headway and must be allowed to resolve the crisis.
-
- Annan insisted war was "not inevitable" and
warned any action not sanctioned by the UN would lack legitimacy.
-
- The US has warned that it could lead an attack on Iraq
with or without UN support if it is deemed to have failed to comply with
demands that it disarm.
-
-
- Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected
by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence
you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any
way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the
prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
|
