KUALA LUMPUR: Western powers are using terrorism as a pretext to conquer
the world and will target Iran and North Korea once they succeed in Iraq,
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday.
Leaders of the developed countries have become "like a people of the
Stone Age where for them, the solution to a problem is by killing
people," he told more than 100,000 Malaysians at a mass peace rally
here.
"Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, they found the excuse to
once again conquer the world," said Mahathir, who takes over the
leadership of the 114-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at a summit
opening here on Monday.
"I am confident that if they succeed in Iraq, they will shift their
focus to Iran and after Iran, to North Korea. After North Korea, who will
be their next victim? It is clear that the Western powers want to once
again conquer the world," he said.
An impassioned Mahathir slammed rich nations for their "double
standards," saying they criticised developing countries on human
rights issues but ignored the growing worldwide protest against a war in
Iraq. "Do as I tell you but don't do as I do. This is a blatant
example of double standards by the west," he said.
Mahathir, who has previously warned that an attack on Iraq would fan the
flames of global terrorism, said earlier Sunday a new war in the Gulf
would "simply anger more Muslims who are likely to view it as a
strike against their religion rather than against terrorism".
He has often said the Isreali-Palestinian situation is one of the root
causes of Muslim terrorism, and at the peace rally he described Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a "terrorist". Israel was now
"tearing down Palestinian homes using tanks and bulldozers," he
said. "This is Ariel Sharon, this is Israel -- the main terrorist in
the world that must be destroyed. Israel must be stopped from committing
terror."
Mahathir, who spoke for more than an hour, was presented with an anti-war
petition signed by 1.5 million Malaysians. The NAM is to reject a United
States-led attack on Iraq and urge a resolution of the crisis through the
United Nations in a statement to be released at end of the NAM summit.
The movement, which represents two-thirds of the UN, will also call on
Iraq to cooperate "actively" with weapons inspectors searching
for banned weapons of mass destruction, according to a resolution agreed
by the organisation's foreign ministers.
The resolution says NAM believes war on Iraq "will be a
destabilising factor for the whole region, and that it would have
far-reaching political, economic and humanitarian consequences for all
countries of the world". It will add: "We reaffirm our
commitment to exert our efforts to achieve a peaceful solution to the
current situation. "We welcome and support all other efforts exerted
to avert war against Iraq and call for the persistent continuation of
such efforts based on multilateral as opposed to unilateral actions, and
reaffirm the central role of the United Nations and the Security Council
in maintaining international peace and security."
The declaration is a watered-down version of the document put forward by
the NAM's Arab bloc. Paragraphs saying NAM members "categorically
reject the threats of unilateral use of force" and express
"support and solidarity with Iraq vis-a-vis the possible aggression
against it" have been dropped.
Delegates meeting ahead of the two-day leaders' summit have also rejected
attempts by North Korea to blame the United States for the stand-off over
Pyongyang's reactivated nuclear programme.
A draft statement makes no reference to Pyongyang's position, saying only
that the organisation is "concerned" over developments and
wants "to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully".
The NAM, a forum for the world's poorest nations, also rebuffed an Arab
proposal to adopt a statement condemning "the war crimes and
systematic human rights violations that have been committed by Israeli
occupying forces against the Palestinian people". However, leaders
will call for Israelis accused of "reported war crimes" against
Palestinians to be brought to trial.
The United Nations' Palestinian representative Naser Alqedwa told AFP
that the statement will refer to the "application of legal
remedies", opening the door to possible prosecutions in the
International Criminal Court set to be inaugurated in The Hague next
month.
"You could see that the text is still very strong and we think that
it takes the position of the movement an important step forward,"
Alqedwa said. The movement is also to deliver a sharp rebuke to US
President George W Bush by rejecting his "axis of evil"
description of three of its members, according the draft statement.
NAM "totally rejected the term 'axis of evil' voiced by a certain
state to target other countries under the pretext of combating
terrorism," says the draft obtained by AFP. NAM will also call for a
UN conference aimed at drawing a distinction between terrorists and
freedom fighters, a bone of contention between India and Pakistan that
held up talks here.
"I think we worked with other delegates and in the spirit of mutual
cooperation and compromise, we were successful in seeing to an
agreement," a senior Indian official told AFP. "We are happy
with the outcome. It is acceptable to all," he added.
Meanwhile, more than 8,000 police patrolled the capital and helicopters
maintained aerial surveillance as world leaders flew in to the Malaysian
capital under tight security. Around 8,500 police, some armed with M16
rifles, were deployed to central Kuala Lumpur ahead of the summit
representing the interests of billions of people from Asia, Africa, the
Middle East and Latin America.
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