Archbishop Desmond Tutu says former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US president George W Bush should face trial in The Hague for their role in the Iraq war. Writing in the UK's Observer newspaper, the South African peace icon accused the former leaders of lying about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

He said the Iraq invasion left the world more destabilised than "any other conflict in history", and said the military campaign there had brought about conditions for the civil war in Syria and a possible Middle East conflict involving Iran. He said Mr Bush and Mr Blair "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."

Archbishop Tutu said the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict was sufficient for Mr Blair and Mr Bush to face trial.

"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," Archbishop Tutu wrote.

"But 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."

Archbishop Tutu, a long-standing vocal critic of the Iraq war, had snubbed Mr Blair last week, pulling out of a South African conference on leadership because the ex-leader was attending.

"As the date drew nearer, I felt an increasingly profound sense of discomfort about attending a summit on 'leadership' with Mr Blair," the archbishop said.

"Leadership and morality are indivisible. Good leaders are the custodians of morality.

"The question is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad or how many of his people he massacred. The point is that Mr Bush and Mr Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his immoral level.

"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?"

Mr Blair issued a stern defence in response to the article.

"To repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown," he said.

"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."


http://believeafrica.net/desmond-tutu-wants-george-bush-and-tony-blair-prosecuted-over-iraq-p168-107.htm

Bush shud be jailed in KIRIKIRI PRISONS 4 MASS MURDER

hmm