Durban, Jan 30: In a scathing attack on US President George W Bush, former South African President Nelson Mandela today said the reason for a possible US-led attack on Iraq was to control its rich oil resources. "....they just want (Iraqi) oil....we must expose this as much as possible," he said at the opening of a three-day International Women's Forum in Johannesburg.
Mandela said "America killed innocent people in Japan during Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All Bush wants is Iraqi oil, because Iraq produces 64 per cent of oil and he wants to get hold of it".
Accusing Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair of ignoring the dictates of the United Nations, he said "Bush is acting outside the UN and both he and Blair are undermining the UN, an organisation which was an idea sponsored by their predecessors."
Mandela said Bush was trying to cause a holocaust by his intentions to go to war against Iraq.
"If Saddam Hussein was not carrying out the UN instructions and resolutions.... I will support them (the UN) .... but what I condemn is one power with a president who can't think properly.... wants to plant world into holocaust."
The former South African President said "why does the US behave so arrogantly.... their friend Israel has got weapons of mass destruction but because its their ally they won't ask the UN to get rid of it". Bureau Report