World To Endure Chaos Unless War Declared Illegal - Mahathir

Bernama.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 (Bernama) -- Unless war is declared illegal, the world would have to endure endless state of war between powerful and weak nations, with no security for anyone, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Monday.

"There would be no place in the world that is safe. Instead of diminishing (war), instead of peace, we will see endless escalation of wars with ways of killing and destruction that we cannot always anticipate or prepare for," he said.

Dr Mahathir, who is chairman of the Perdana Global Peace Organisation, said this in his keynote address at the opening of the three-day War Crimes Conference and Exhibition, dubbed the Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalise War, which kicked off at the Putra World Trade Centre this morning.

He said possession of nuclear weapons would be quite useless as nationals of these nuclear power states could be attacked and killed anywhere in the world, while issuing travel advisories "simply make prisons of their own countries".

"Of what use is world power and hegemony if you cannot even see the countries and the world you hegemonise. The security checks and retaliatory attacks you mount, the greater will be the anger and hatred, the more will your people be targets of unpredictable attacks, even if we discount the increasing cost of everything we do," he added.

He said while powerful nations, like the United States and Britain, were calling for a war on terror, this combat could not be won simply because terrorists were faceless, acting individually or in small independent groups.

Malaysia's fourth Prime Minister also reiterated that the current war in the Middle East would be endless unless the hearts and minds of the people there were won and they could only be won if the big powers were willing to admit the root causes of the conflict and remove them.

"When you are wrong, admit you are wrong. Being in the state of denial helps neither you nor anyone else. Sending in more troops simply creates more targets," Dr Mahathir said.

He said even as the world sought a solution to the war in West Asia, it had to struggle to render wars as illegal unless sanctioned by the international community.

"Force may be used only if the international community concludes that brutish regimes like those of Pol Pot or Radovan Karadic need to be removed. But sanctions and other acts must be exercised not by the Security Council but by the General Assembly of the United Nations. And it should not be by unanimity. This is an important caveat as we have seen how powerful countries abused their vetoes, rendering the Security Council useless.

He said the only other justification for the use of military force "is when a country is attacked and has to defend itself", noting that in such a situation, the international community must go to its defence. No country should on its own, decide to go to the defence of an attacked country, he added.

Dr Mahathir said the world should now demand nuclear weapons reduction programme by the big nuclear powers, who had no moral right to stop other countries from developing nuclear weapons.

He also questioned why was there a right for major nuclear powers to deter attacks against their country, but the same right was not accorded other countries when being attacked by these nuclear powers.

"Are only the lives, the property and the countries of nuclear powers worthy of protection and saving while the lives, property and countries of non-nuclear powers deserve no protection?"

"Do we have first-class and second-class human beings and the latter have less rights to their lives? Are Muslims third-class world citizens that they in particular should have no nuclear weapons. What is their record? Have they used nuclear weapons? Have they used depleted uranium?" asked Dr Mahathir.

He said while the international community must not condone terror attacks, it should also not sanction the cruel retaliation by powerful countries and their proxies against the puny attacks by their victims.

The former Prime Minister said the terror caused by powerful countries with their rockets, missiles and bombs could not be said to be less than that caused by a suicide bomber.

"The terror caused is actually greater and the powerful countries are much more terrorists than the suicide bombers. For as long as we believe killing people is a way of solving disputes, there will be terror attacks by both sides. War is nothing more than legitimised terrorism," he added.
The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad accused George W. Bush and Tony Blair of being more evil and bigger murderers than Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11 attackers.
In some of his most provocative swipes at the U.S. and British leaders, Mahathir said Monday that their war in Iraq had caused worse terror than al-Qaida's suicide bombers around the world.

"History should remember Blair and Bush as the killers of children, or as the lying prime minister and president,'' said Mahathir.

"What Blair and Bush have done is worse than what Saddam had done,'' Mahathir, 81, said in a speech to inaugurate a three-day conference organized by his nongovernment organization, Perdana, and aimed at criminalizing war.

On Wednesday, conference delegates are expected to formally launch a war tribunal that would hold "trials'' for world leaders, including Bush and Blair, against whom common citizens file complaints.

The tribunal will not have the legal authority of any international organization and will not be able to impose penalties, but Mahathir said its aim is to condemn the accused in history books.

"We should not hang Blair if the tribunal finds him guilty, but he should always carry the label 'War Criminal, Killer of Children, Liar,''' Mahathir said.

"And so should Bush and the pocket Bush of the Bushland of Australia,'' he said, referring to Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally in Washington's campaign against terrorism.

Seventeen people - nine from Iraq, five from the Palestinian territories and three from Lebanon - have arrived for the peace conference, where they will submit oral or written complaints to the so-called Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission.

After investigations, the commission will decide whether the leaders accused in the complaints should stand trial, albeit in absentia, at the war tribunal.

Mahathir said terrorist attacks, such as those of Sept. 11, 2001, are weak people's retaliation against oppression by powerful countries.

Terrorism cannot be condoned, but neither can the "cruel retaliation by powerful countries,'' he said.

The Sept. 11 attackers may have killed about 3,000 people, but about 600,000 people have been killed during the U.S.-led war in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.

"The terror caused (by powerful countries) is actually greater, and the powerful countries are much more terrorists than the suicide bombers,'' he said. - AP