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The West are 'primitive killers'
24/02/2003 08:26 - (SA)
Kuala Lumpur - Western leaders were accused of being primitive killers using the war on terrorism as a pretext to dominate the world, as the 116-nation Non-Aligned Movement summit opened here on Monday.
The charge was laid by an impassioned Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who takes over as chair of the organisation of developing countries.
"It is no longer just a war against terrorism," the veteran southeastern Asian leader told the opening session. "It is, in fact, a war to dominate the world."
In a vitriolic attack about the threat of war against Iraq, Mahathir compared the political and military leaders of the world's 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."
His last world platform
Even for a man known for his outspoken views, it was an astonishing performance.
It was obviously designed to set the tone for a summit expected to condemn any attack on Iraq without the support of the United Nations security council.
Mahathir, whose chairmanship of NAM provides him with his last world platform before he retires in October after 21 years in power, pledged "to work vigorously to oppose war including the war against Iraq".
He said war was "primitive", adding: "Unfortunately, thousands of years after the stone-age we still measure the greatness of a nation by the capacity to slaughter the greatest number of people."
Mahathir, who was invited to the White House in May last year by President George W Bush as a token thanks for his support in the US-led war on terror, pointed to Israel's treatment of Palestinians as a major cause of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
"It is not religious differences which angered the attackers of the World Trade Centre.
"It is simply sympathy and anger over the expropriation of Palestinian land, over the injustice and the oppression of the Palestinians and Muslims everywhere."
Mahathir said double standards applied by the West to the terrorism committed by Palestinians and "the more terrifying acts of the Israelis" is what "infuriates Muslims, infuriates them to the extent of launching their own terror attacks".
And in a scathing reference to the use of the word "collateral damage" to describe civilian deaths in Western military operations, he likened the 3 000 who died in the September 11 attacks to innocent people killed in the retaliatory war in Afghanistan and sanctions on Iraq.
Mahathir said the world was now in a worse state than during that period, saying that "since September 11 the rich and the powerful have become enraged with the poor half of the world." - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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