Malaysia’s Mahathir Says World in State of Terror

By Jalil Hamid, Reuters, [23 February 2003]

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Sunday the world was in a state of terror, allowing fear of Muslims to affect international policy, and a war on Iraq would be seen as a war on Muslims.

He was speaking on the eve of a three-yearly summit of leaders of the 114-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that is to issue a declaration calling on Baghdad to comply with U.N. resolutions while challenging Washington with vociferous opposition to any U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The attack against Iraq will simply anger more Muslims who see this as being anti-Muslim rather than anti-terror, Mahathir, chairman and host of the summit, told a business forum.

Many of the nations from as far apart as Afghanistan and Zambia have seized on a deadline set for Iraq to destroy its longer-range missiles as a chance to avoid war.

The United States and Britain are massing 150,000 troops on Iraq’s border, threatening war unless President Saddam Hussein surrenders alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Opinion polls show many people believe Washington’s motive is control of Iraq’s vast oilfields.

Mahathir was in somber mood before the leaders’ two-day summit opens Monday.

The world is in a state of terror, he said.

We are quite paranoid. We are afraid of flying, of going to certain countries... We are afraid of Muslims, of Arabs, of bearded people, he said, referring to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

The issue of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and North Korea has dominated the run-up to the summit of leaders of NAM, a movement founded during the Cold War as a counterweight to the Eastern and Western blocs.

While delegates agreed after two days of wrangling on a draft statement urging isolated North Korea to curb its nuclear ambitions, they fell short of winning Pyongyang’s agreement to reconsider its decision last month to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

WAR AGAINST MUSLIMS

Mahathir cited U.S. inaction on North Korea as evidence of the polarization of the world over Iraq.

The fact that North Korea’s open admission that it has weapons of mass destruction has met only with mild admonishment by the West seems to prove that indeed it is a war against Muslims and not against the fear of possession of weapons of mass destruction by the so-called rogue countries, he said.

Differences simmered in a gathering of so many disparate nations, with the issue of how to define and tackle terrorism sparking fierce disputes between India and Pakistan. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of sponsoring terrorism in the disputed Kashmir region while Pakistan says the insurgency is a popular movement.

Those divisions have prompted India to reject a move by Malaysia to hold a NAM conference on terror and resulted in deadlock over how to phrase a final statement on the issue.

The Arab states are behind Pakistan because they feel it helps the Palestinian cause, said a Philippine delegate.

But the Palestinian issue took a back seat to Iraq.

Delegates said they saw a chance to avoid war after the chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, gave Baghdad until March 1 to start destroying its longer-range missiles.

THE BIG QUESTION

Here’s the big question for Iraq of their real commitment to comply, said a delegate from Chile, one of six current U.N. Security Council members belonging to the movement that accounts for almost two-thirds of the United Nations.

If Iraq can realize this and destroy those missiles, it can really give a very strong message to the international community that it is complying and it can really help those countries that are interested to find a peaceful solution, he told Reuters.

In their draft statement, the grouping, which includes Iran, Iraq and North Korea—the three states President Bush has branded an axis of evil— Harden demands that Iraq comply and also criticize the United States, stressing the need for multilateral, not unilateral, actions to avoid war.

While the statement represented the views of the 114 members, the positions of the six non-aligned countries on the 15-member Security Council were crucial. Seven votes against are enough to defeat a resolution. Most want the weapons inspectors to be given more time.

The six are Angola, Guinea, Syria, Pakistan, Chile and Cameroon.

Consensus on Iraq was followed late Saturday by a deal on North Korea. North Korea and fellow NAM members negotiated their way to a compromise that urges the communist nation to curb the nuclear ambitions upsetting its neighbors.

Members of NAM had been eager for a statement that would boost their credibility on non-proliferation, but they had to make do with less to break the deadlock.