No government should be pressured by terrorists to do something it was not prepared to do, former president Nelson Mandela said on Monday.
He was referring to the 58-hour hostage drama at a Moscow theatre which ended this weekend. A group of 50 Chechens took theatre patrons and the cast of a popular musical hostage, demanding a Russian troop withdrawal from Chechnya.
Most of the hostage-takers, as well as 116 of their captives, were killed in a special forces operation during which a type of gas was pumped into the theatre on Saturday. Two more hostages were shot dead.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared Monday a national day of mourning for those who died. Despite this, the Russians decided to go ahead with a ceremony to hand the International Lenin Peace Prize to Mandela, Russian ambassador Andrey Kushakov said at the function at the ambassador’s residence in Pretoria.
With the Russian flag hanging at half-mast in the background, Mandela expressed his condolences to Putin and the families of the deceased. ”No government must be pressurised by terrorists to do something which it is not prepared to do.”
He added: ”I want to be clear about what we mean by terrorists.”
The term had been abused in the past, and some of those once called terrorists were now heads of state and respected wherever they went, said Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail for what were described by some as terrorist activities.
”By terrorist I mean a person or a group of persons or a state which targets innocent individuals in order to accomplish its objects.”
Asked about a possible United States incursion into Iraq, Mandela said he did not have an objection to an invasion as such. ”My objection is to people who act outside the UN (United Nations) resolutions.” – Sapa