Mahathir: Make war a crime

Mahathir: Make war a crime
Saturday October 25, 2008 - The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Making wars of aggression a crime will lessen wars and the need for defence, said the founder and chairman of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“War makes beasts of ordinary men and women. The cruelties perpetrated are beyond imagination.
“Yet they are perpetrated by ordinary human beings who have been trained by civilised governments to kill,” he said in his speech at the royal charity dinner and the launching of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War at the Putra World Trade Centre here yesterday.

“Modern wars cannot be confined within the border of warring nations. Whole regions would be affected. And radioactive dust will be blown far and wide,” he added.
The foundation was launched by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin.
Raja Permaisuri Agung Tuanku Nur Zahirah, and Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim were also present.
Meanwhile, the foundation committee chairman Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali said the dinner was to raise funds to facilitate the foundation’s voluntary programmes on a national and global basis as well as to acquire a suitable premise to serve as the foundation’s headquarters.

“Your kind and generous support will certainly contribute immensely to the foundation’s voluntary work to create awareness amongst the public that war as an instrument of foreign policy is a crime, a crime against humanity, against peace and the whole of mankind,” she said in her speech.

The foundation was set up last year to provide assistance and relief to victims of war as well as promote education of individuals and communities suffering from the effects of war or armed conflicts.