Be more humble, Tutu tells West
2005-06-09 12:08
London - Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu urged Europe and the United States on Thursday to be more humble about teaching Africa to promote democracy and fight corruption.
"The West mustn't operate from a position of moral superiority," Tutu told BBC radio before the G8 group of the world's richest countries holds a summit in Scotland next month to help lift Africa out of poverty.
While leading western countries have raised the problem of corruption and political repression as an obstacle to aiding African nations, Tutu recalled that such countries had their own corruption scandals.
"You've given us Enron, you've given us WorldCom, Parmalat," he said.
The G8 - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia - have called for aiding African nations in return for more democracy and less corruption.
"You mustn't forget that not many years ago Spain and Portugal were military dictatorships," he said.
"It takes a very long time for people to grow into democracy, it is amazing that a place like Greece, which is the home of democracy, had military dictators about 40 or 50 years ago," Tutu told the BBC.
When asked about repression in Zimbabwe, Tutu replied "I hope that they will not want to judge Africa by that particular example just as Africa doesn't judge Europe by the ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans a decade ago.
The G8 summit will be held in Gleneagles, Scotland from July July 6-8.