Tutu: Bush dan Blair Harus Diadili Menyangkut Perang Irak

Uskup Besar Desmon Tutut pada Ahad mendesak mantan perdana menteri Inggris Tony Blair dan mantan Presiden AS George W Bush diadili di Denhaag atas peran mereka dalam perang Irak.

Tokoh perdamaian Afrika Selatan itu, yang menulis dalam surat kabar "The Observer", menuduh kedua orang tersebut menggunakan senjata pemusnah massal dan mengatakan serbuan itu menyebabkan dunia tidak tenang dan terbelah ketimbang dalam kemelut lain dalam sejarah.

Tutu menyatakan bahwa standar yang berbeda tampaknya akan diterapkan bagi penyidangan para pemimpin Afrika ketimbang rekan-rekan Barat, dan menambahkan bahwa jumlah korban tewas dalam dan setelah konflik Irak cukup untuk mengadili Blair dan Bush.

"Berdasarkan alasan ini saja, dalam satu dunia yang konsisten, mereka yang bertanggung jawab atas penderitaan dan kehilangan nyawa ini harus diitindak dalam cara yang sama seperti terhadap rekan-rekan Afrika dan Asia mereka yang telah dilakukan untuk mempertanggung jawabkan tindakan-tindakan mereka di pengadilan Den Haag," kata tulisan Tutu di surat kabar mingguan yang terbit Ahad itu.

"Tetapi kendatipun korban lebih luas telah dipastikan di luar ladang pembunuhan , hati dan perasaan yang sangat memilukan dihadapi para anggota keluarga korban di seluruh dunia."

Tutu, yang adalah pengeritik vokal terhadap perang Irak, juga membela keputusannya tidak menghadiri konferensi Afrika Selatan mengenai kepemimpinan pekan lalu karena Blair hadir.

"Saya sangat tidak layak untuk menghadiri diskusi-diskusi ini...Sampai sekarang , saya memiliki perasaan yang sangat tidak tenang untuk menghadiri KTT mengenai "kepemimpinan " dengan Tuan Blair," tambahnya.

Pemanang hadiah Nobel Perdamaian itu juga menyatakan bahwa perang Irak yang dipimpin AS uutuk menggulingkan presiden Saddam Hussein itu menciptakan landasan bagi perang saudara di Suriah, dan kemungkinan krisis Timur Tengah yang meluas yang melibatkan Iran.

"Mereka membawa kita ke tebing yang curam di mana kita sekarang berdiri -- dengan momok konflik Suriah dan Iran di depan kita."(ar)
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Desmond Tutu calls for Blair and Bush to be tried over Iraq
Tony Blair and George W Bush should be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague over the Iraq war, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said.

Writing in the UK's Observer newspaper, he accused the former leaders of lying about weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraq military campaign had made the world more unstable "than any other conflict in history", he said.

Mr Blair responded by saying "this is the same argument we have had many times with nothing new to say".

'Playground bullies'

Earlier this week, Archbishop Tutu, a veteran peace campaigner who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 in recognition of his campaign against apartheid, pulled out of a leadership summit in Johannesburg because he refused to share a platform with Mr Blair.

The former Archbishop of Cape Town said the US- and UK-led action launched against Saddam's regime in 2003 had brought about conditions for the civil war in Syria and a possible Middle East conflict involving Iran.

"The then leaders of the United States [Mr Bush] and Great Britain [Mr Blair] fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand - with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us," he said.

He added: "The question is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad or how many of his people he massacred. The point is that Mr Bush and Mr Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his immoral level."

Archbishop Tutu said the death toll as a result of military action in Iraq since 2003 was grounds for Mr Blair and Mr Bush to be tried in The Hague.

But he said different standards appeared to be applied to Western leaders.

He said: "On these grounds, alone, in a consistent world, those responsible should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in The Hague."

In response to Sunday's article, Mr Blair issued a strongly worded defence of his decisions.

He said: "To repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence [on weapons of mass destruction] is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown.

'Chemical weapons'

"And to say that the fact that Saddam massacred hundreds of thousands of his citizens is irrelevant to the morality of removing him is bizarre.

"We have just had the memorials both of the Halabja massacre, where thousands of people were murdered in one day by Saddam's use of chemical weapons, and that of the Iran-Iraq war where casualties numbered up to a million, including many killed by chemical weapons.

"In addition, his slaughter of his political opponents, the treatment of the Marsh Arabs and the systematic torture of his people make the case for removing him morally strong. But the basis of action was as stated at the time."

He added: "In short this is the same argument we have had many times with nothing new to say. But surely in a healthy democracy people can agree to disagree.

"I would also point out that despite the problems, Iraq today has an economy three times or more in size, with child mortality rate cut by a third of what it was. And with investment hugely increased in places like Basra."

Human rights lawyer Sir Geoffrey Bindman told BBC Radio 4 the Iraq war was an illegal aggressive war.

He said a war crimes trial "should be and could be held on the basis a crime of aggression has been committed and the crime of aggression was starting the war.

"It's now almost certain that the war was illegal because it breached the UN Charter provisions which say that all member of the United Nations must refrain from the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."

Former Lord Chancellor Lord Charles Falconer said he disagreed with Desmond Tutu and Sir Geoffrey.

"The use of force is allowed among other reasons when the United Nations authorises it, and the United Nations authorised it by resolution 1441.

"The dispute between Geoffrey and myself would be whether or not resolution 1441 did or did not authorise war and we say that it did.

"Even that disagreement doesn't give rise to the possibility of war crimes, the world has very impressively over the last two decades come together and identified what they mean by war crimes; genocide, ethnic cleansing, torture and in a variety of ways brought people to trial for that"

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ini baru cocok jadi Nobel Peace Prize Laureate