Mahathir fires war crimes volley at Bush

Tuesday, 6 February, 2007, 09:33 AM Doha Time

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s former premier and outspoken critic of the West Mahathir Mohamed yesterday slammed US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as war criminals and murderers. Mahathir said the two were bigger murderers than former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain, adding that the war in Iraq – led by Bush and Blair – had caused worse terror than Al Qaeda’s  bombers.

“What Blair and Bush had done is worse than what Saddam had done,” said Mahathir at the opening of a three-day conference aimed at criminalising war.

Tomorrow, conference delegates are expected to formally launch a war tribunal that would hold “trials” for world leaders against whom common citizens file complaints.

“We should not hang Blair if the tribunal finds him guilty but he should always carry the label as a war criminal, killer of children, liar. And so should Bush and the pocket Bush of the bushlands of Australia,” Mahathir said, in reference to Australian Prime Minister John Howard, an ally of the US.

Mahathir, 81, said that while the tribunal did not have the power to hand out sentencing to those found guilty, other forms of judgement could be meted out.

“We are seeing today examples of the form of punishment … Bush and Blair are now totally reviled and condemned by the world and by their own people,” he said.

“They should have full frontal and profile pictures put up everywhere as war criminals. And historians should always refer to them as war criminals in history books.”–DPA