Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pulled out of a summit because he refused to share a platform with Tony Blair.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner said it would be ‘inappropriate’ for him to attend the event in South Africa tomorrow due to Mr Blair’s ‘morally indefensible’ support for the Iraq war.
The withdrawal comes as local Muslim party Al Jama-ah threatened to arrest the former Prime Minister for ‘crimes against humanity’ over his involvement in the 2003 invasion.
Cancelled: Archbishop Desmond Tutu refuses to share a platform with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair because of the latter's support for the Iraq war
It plans a protest against Mr Blair when he arrives in Johannesburg for the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit.
A spokesman for the Archbishop, Roger Friedman, said: ‘The archbishop is of the view that Mr Blair’s decision to support the United States’ military invasion of Iraq, on the basis of unproven allegations of the existence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, was morally indefensible.’
Mr Blair strongly supported President George W Bush’s ‘war on terror’, sending British troops to Afghanistan in 2001 and, more controversially, Iraq in 2003.
Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for speaking out against white-minority apartheid rule and remains a prominent campaigner for peace and human rights.
Mr Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for speaking out against apartheid rule, remains a prominent campaigner for peace and human rights.
War support: Archbishop Tutu called Blair backing George W Bush's war on terrorism, which led to war in Iraq, 'morally indefensible'
Mr Friedman said: ‘Morality and leadership are indivisible. In this context, it would be inappropriate and untenable for the archbishop to share a platform with Mr Blair.’
Mr Blair was due to attend the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit along with chess grandmaster and opposition Russian politician Garry Kasparov, and former Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy.
A spokesman for the former Prime Minister said: ‘Obviously Tony Blair is sorry that the Archbishop has decided to pull out now from an event that has been fixed for months and where he and the Archbishop were never actually sharing a platform,’ he said.
'Indefensible': The Iraq war, backed by Tony Blair, began in March 2003 and ended in 2011 with the last US troops leaving Iraqi territory on December 18, 2011
‘As far as Iraq is concerned, they have always disagreed about removing Saddam by force - such disagreement is part of a healthy democracy. These decisions are never easy morally or politically.’
A spokesman for Archbishop Tutu said the withdrawal was not a snap decision, saying that Tutu is ‘a very prayerful man’ who will have ‘spent hours on his knees considering this decision’.
‘He thinks and prays and then acts,’ he said. ‘That’s how he’s always done things, including during the struggles.’
Ganief Hendricks, the president of Al Jama-ah, said: ‘The demonstration is being held to support a warrant of arrest to charge him for crimes against humanity relating to the invasion of Iraq which led to the killings of millions of Iraqis.
‘It is hoped that one or more demonstrators will be able to make a citizen’s arrest on the day and put Tony Blair in jail and extradite him to the Hague for trial.”’
Attempts to arrest him have been made in China, outside the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war and the European Parliament; and in Dublin, Ireland.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2194883/Archbishop-Desmond-Tutu-pulls-South-Africa-summit-does-want-share-platform-Tony-Blair.html#ixzz24vXF8Vpv
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