American President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are using ”pretext upon pretext” to bring about a regime change in Iraq, former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda said on Thursday.
Bush and Blair wanted to recreate a regional balance of power where Israel became the dominant force in the Middle East, he told reporters in Pretoria.
”The two leaders also have an urge to control the oil resources and reserves in the Arab world.”
Iraq has been subjected to United Nations-approved sanctions in the 11 years since the 1991 Gulf War.
Kaunda, who was in Iraq recently as an official observer overseeing UN weapons inspections, said the world had been bombarded with half-truths.
Inspectors returned to Iraq last month under a new UN Security Council resolution, ordering Saddam Hussein’s government to surrender any weapons of mass destruction and shut down any programmes producing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
Kaunda said the return of the inspectors was a great relief to those who had genuine desire for peace in the Middle East region.
”For many months the region has been on the brink of war on account of allegations that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction,” he said, adding that Bush and Blair had used these accusations to prepare for war.
”The world has been subjected to the most intense and biased propaganda campaign in which half-truths and lies have been used as a justification for not only continuing the sanctions regime, but also as a justification to perpetuate daily attacks by the two governments on Iraqi installations.
”The misinformation has been so intense and vicious that the truth no longer exists or matters when discussing Iraq,” he said.
Kaunda said the resumption of inspections for weapons of war in Iraq was seen as a major step in reducing tensions in the Middle East.
”Unfortunately we have now seen moves aimed at creating a new pretext for war.”
Recently, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had presented a report on Iraq’s human rights record before Britain’s parliament.
Like many earlier reports, this was another document which was long on accusations and very short on facts.
”The frightening aspect of all of this is that such a report could be used as a pretext for war on the same way that accusations surrounding weapons of mass destruction has become reason for Bush and Blair to invade Iraq.”
Kaunda said while he was in Baghdad with other weapons inspection observers, the group was invited to some of the sites previously visited by the inspectors.
”This exercise was most revealing because none of the three sites we saw in Baghdad resembled in any shape or form of a facility that can manufacture weapons that can threaten and harm the world.”
He said one of the so called facilities mentioned in a report Blair tabled before the House of Commons recently was an alcohol beverage manufacturing company owned by a Christian family.
”This facility is unsophisticated and hardly a site that has the capacity to produce biological agents used to build weapons of mass destruction.”
The other sites were a veterinary facility and an artillery rockets manufacturer constructing rockets with a range of between 50 and 150 kilometres.
”I have mentioned three sites because they were mentioned by Blair and could have been easily used as a pretext to wage war and destroy Iraq. This has become a prime objective with an end reason, which is two fold by and for destroying Iraq.”
He said the group also witnessed Iraqis voting during a referendum whether they wanted Hussein to remain their leader or not. Hussein received a 100% yes vote.
Kaunda said large numbers of Iraqis, voted by marking ballot papers with blood as an expression of sovereignty and support for their leadership. A number of families postponed funerals in order to cast a vote.
”This is a sign that these people will defend their country with blood if need be,” he said.
Kaunda urged the world community not to develop anti-American and British sentiments because of the ”arrogance” of the two countries’ leaders.
”I do not hate Bush and Blair but I hate the way they are handling some issues, especially the Iraq one. It will be wrong for anyone to hate Americans or British because of Bush and Blair administrations’ faults.”
Kaunda called on the two leaders not to invade Iraq.
”We are seeing a superpower creating pretext upon pretext so that it can achieve its ultimate goal of regime change in that country.”
The two leaders’ policy of unilateralism was setting a dangerous political precedence.
”If the same attitude is adopted by other countries, they are immediately labelled as pariah states,” he said.
”Bush and Blair have established a modus operandi operating on a misguided philosophy that might is right.” – Sapa