Mandela slams US, UK

2004-05-10 11:36

Cape Town - Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela on Monday criticised the United States and Britain over the treatment of Iraqi prisoners.

"We watch as two of the leading democracies, two leading nations of the free world, get involved in a war that the United Nations did not sanction," said Mandela in an address to parliament.

"We look on with horror as reports surface of terrible abuses against the dignity of human beings held captive by invading forces in their own country," he said as members of parliament applauded.

The British and US governments have been in the eye of a political storm over the publication of photographs of prisoners tortured by their forces in Iraq.

Faith in fellowmen

Speaking on the tenth anniversary of his inauguration as the first president of the new non-racial democracy, Mandela - whose African National Congress negotiated with the then ruling National Party to end apartheid and white rule - said: "The first value mentioned under the founding principles of our constitution is that of human dignity. We accord persons dignity by assuming that they are good, that they share the human qualities we ascribe to ourselves".

Mandela also said it was his wish that South Africans never gave up on the belief in goodness and that they cherished their faith in human beings "as a cornerstone of our democracy".

He placed this hope in the context of a world where there was much reason for despair - including the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

Good men and women abound

Referring to the apartheid forces and the liberation forces in the country, he said: "Historical enemies succeeded in negotiating a peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy exactly because we were prepared to accept the inherent capacity for goodness in the other."

He said a guiding principle in the search for and establishment of a non-racial inclusive democracy in South Africa "has been that there are good men and women to be found in all groups and from all sectors of society, and that in an open and free society those South Africans will come together to jointly and co-operatively realise the common good". -I-Net Bridge/AFP

- News24