31st
August what a day to recall meeting up as arranged with Emeritus Archbishop
Desmond Tutu. Little did I know he was to have just snubbed Tony Blair the day
previous. But it was for no reason I had wanted to meet Desmond Tutu an
octogenarian who has accomplished more than a lifetime’s work for peace – for
me it was to be in the presence of a living saint!
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Is this for real meeting this great man!
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Visiting South
Africa some six years previous it felt a very different place. A young country
by democratic and civil rights with much still to address – but one could not
underestimate what had been achieved!
Of course we
all know the name Desmond Tutu – nobel peace prize winner!
Just
occasionally, we have great leaders & prophets with a message for our times
- Desmond Tutu is just so! Tony Blair however,
I have always had a deep suspicion of! Saddened, I was upon my return from South Africa to see
a champion of mine Canon Giles Fraser taking issue with ++Tutu.
For me
Archbishop Tutu was able to speak collectively for those of us with no voice (such as myself) and who were given to taking to the streets (and
those of us who wanted to and couldn't at the time - thru circumstances) -
against crimes (actions) that were done in 'our' name.
The late Lord
Bingham was pretty robust on the illegality of the Iraq invasion in his book
"Rule of Law". However whether there is a case in law against Blair,
he has become pretty morally repellant over his unwavering public insistence
that the half a million deaths later the war was still right!
When Nixon was
being considered for "high crimes and misdemeanors" at the time of
Watergate the indictment on illegal war (against Cambodia) failed. Almost 50
years later it seems war is an area that national leaders can still pursue with
impunity! It remains an indictment that today international law is not
effective in dealing with such cases.
But I feel
there is a case to be answered... Which is why I for one, was not was not in
the least surprised that Mr. Blair
seemingly disappeared off the world
stage so quickly and more especially quietly and perhaps to a safe
haven! I bet he thought that there were questions to be answered. And this
remains the case!
At the time
the written advice of the Attorney General, flatly warned Blair and the inner
cabinet that the legal case for going ahead based on the first UN resolution
was very weak indeed, hence all the energy and effort that went into securing a
new one. Charlie Falconer knew this argument well enough last Sunday on Radio
4, yet proceeded on the basis that UN Resolution 1441 was sufficient. There are
plans in the air to make waging an aggressive war a crime under the ICC but
they have not been approved yet. If they are, they will not come into force
until a year or so after 30 nations have ratified them. And they won't apply
retrospectively, to Blair or Nixon. So Tutu is to my mind keeping it to the
fore of our minds that change is needed!