Saddam Hussein, captured on Sunday, should be brought before the international crime court, Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu said on Monday.
”[I] hope that all of those involved will respect international law … [they] have to accept the principle of until found guilty … you have to assume that he is innocent,” Tutu said.
Tutu was asked his opinion — on what action should be taken against Saddam, who was captured on Sunday by coalition forces in a dugout — at the inauguration signing ceremony of a partnership between the city of Cape Town and the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust to establish a peace centre.
Tutu said that unless Saddam was brought before international courts, ”we would allow ourselves to be subverted by the very terrorism we say we want to counteract.”
Tutu said that as the Mother City, Cape Town, was always going to behave like a mother and initiate things.
”This will be the first city in the anywhere in the world that will have a square dedicated to Nobel laureates,” he said by way of example.
Talking about the turbulent 1980s, Tutu heralded the role of ordinary people, whom the proposed centre, which also incorporated a museum, would honour.
”The museum reminds us of where we come from, and the accomplishments despite all the awfulnesses … reminding [us] of the incredible generosity of spirit and the resilience of the people,” he said.
On the decade of reconciliation in South Africa, Tutu said across the globe there were problems of reconciliation within countries with divided histories, such as Germany and Ireland.
”Reconciliation is in process, and must be a national project… [It] will be achieved one day in the distant future when all South Africans contribute to the process,” he said.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, city mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo said the envisaged centre would benefit the city a great deal.
Mfeketo said it was hoped to turn the sod before 2005, with a committee appointed to perform a feasibility study on the location, identified for now as next to the Cape Town convention centre.
Saying that tenders for the building varied between R9-million and R27-million, Mfeketo said finances were not an issue because the ”partnership is priceless… and [one] can’t put a price on a partnership of this nature”.
Also speaking at the event, peace centre trustee Dumisa Ntsebeza said there were two principal anchors central to the centre, namely that of a leadership academy and a museum.
He described Tutu as a ”reconciler, [perhaps] to a fault” and said the centre would become a lasting legacy of a person who had ”become a legend in his time lifetime and an icon”. — Sapa