Archbishop Tutu suggests using violence to remove Mugabe Agence France-Presse

Published: Wednesday December 24, 2008





Print This Email This Nobel Peace Prize laureate says he's 'ashamed' of South Africa for not acting



LONDON (AFP)  Archbishop Desmond Tutu launched a stinging attack on South Africa Wednesday, accusing it of failing to stand up to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and betraying its apartheid legacy.



Tutu, the retired archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and anti-apartheid campaigner, told BBC radio he was "ashamed" of his homeland.



He suggested that South Africa had surrendered the "moral high ground" which it gained in the post-apartheid era.



Tutu also told BBC radio that violence could be used to remove Mugabe, who should then be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).



His comments came amid rising international pressure for Mugabe to quit and an outbreak of cholera which has killed over 1,000 people, according to UNICEF.



The top US envoy for Africa Jendayi Frazer said at the weekend that it had lost confidence in the power-sharing pact between Mugabe and the opposition, remarks dismissed as "stupid" by Mugabe.



"I certainly am ashamed of what they've done (South Africa) in the United Nations," Tutu said.



"For the world to say no, we're waiting for South Africa's membership of the security council to lapse and then we can take action, that is an awful indictment of a country that has had this proud record of a struggle against a vicious system in the way that we did, that we should have been the one who for a very long time occupied the moral high ground.



"I'm afraid we have betrayed our legacy... I mean, how much more suffering is going to make us say no, we have given Mr Mugabe enough time?"



South Africa is due to leave the UN Security Council within days after two years in a non-permanent seat and commentators say this could remove one major obstacle to UN action against Mugabe.



Tutu raised the prospect of using violence to remove Mugabe.



"If Mr Mugabe remains obdurate and as intransigent as he has been about the formation of this government of unity, then he must be asked to step down," he said.



"If he refuses, I really do believe that we have to invoke this new doctrine of responsibility to protect".



Asked whether that meant using force to remove Mugabe, Tutu said: "Yes, yes, or certainly the threat of it".



"He needs to be warned and his cronies must be warned that the world is not just going to sit by and do nothing, it's going to try and remove them and in addition he is going to be charged before the ICC," he added.



Tutu said he hoped "against hope" that the African Union would take action, adding that some parties "can be shamed into taking a more firm stance", including South Africa.



