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| Southeast Asia |
| Former Malaysian leader calls U.S., Britain terrorist nations |
| 2005-09-10 |
| By JASBANT SINGH Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia â American and British pilots whose bombs killed Iraqi civilians were murderers, and actions taken by those two countries during the invasion and occupation of Iraq amounted to terrorism, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said Friday. Several British and U.S. diplomats walked out in protest of Mr. Mahathir's speech at a national conference on human rights. Mr. Mahathir, who ruled majority Muslim Malaysia for 22 years before retiring in 2003, also defended his human rights record in government. He was often criticized for detaining suspects without trial under a security law and for the imprisonment of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. Mr. Mahathir decried the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians as a result of the U.S.-led military invasion and occupation. He compared American and British actions in Iraq to rocket attacks by Israel on Palestinians, and referred to those countries as âthese terrorist nations.â âThe British and American bomber pilots came, unopposed, safe and cozy in their state of the art aircraft, pressing buttons to drop bombs, to kill and maim,â Mr. Mahathir said of the Iraq invasion. âAnd these murderers, for that is what they are, would go back to celebrate âMission Accomplished.â' âWho are the terrorists? The people below who were bombed or the bombers? Whose rights have been snatched away?â He also questioned why there was no tally of Iraqi deaths while every U.S. soldier's killing is documented. âThese are soldiers who must expect to be killed. But the Iraqis who die because of the U.S. action or the civil war in Iraq that the U.S. has precipitated are innocent civilians who under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein would be alive,â Mr. Mahathir said. Mr. Mahathir, who when in power was a U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism although he opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, noted that Washington's reason for invading Iraq invasion was that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. âAs we all know, it was a lie,â he said. âWorse still, the powers which are supposed to save the Iraqi people have broken international laws on human rights by detaining Iraqis and others and torturing them at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere,â he said, referring to U.S. prison camps. British High Commissioner Bruce Cleghorn and several unidentified U.S. officials attending the conference walked out midway through Mr. Mahathir's speech. British and U.S. diplomats were not immediately available for comment. Hamdan Adnan, a senior official with the state-backed National Human Rights Commission, described the diplomats' action as âvery distasteful. If they claim to subscribe to the democratic process, why can't they listen?â he told the Associated Press. Mr. Mahathir regularly launched visceral attacks on the West and Israel while in power, accusing rich countries of holding back developing nations and of discriminating against Muslims. The U.S. accused Mr. Mahathir of rights violations when he fired Mr. Anwar as his deputy in 1998. Mr. Anwar was arrested after leading anti-government rallies, and sentenced to 15 years in prison on corruption and sodomy charges. He was freed on appeal last year, after serving the corruption sentence. Washington largely stopped criticizing Malaysia's use of a security law that allows indefinite detention without trial after the government used it to lock up dozens of terrorist suspects, some with alleged links to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #1 Still running things, I see - particularly his mouth. Mahathir is still the Premium Minister Moonbat. A man in need of a terrible accident. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-09-10 11:47 |