By Timothy Nsubuga

20^th Sept 2010

Blasted Blair

Nelson Mandela felt terribly betrayed by Tony Blair’s decision to join the invasion of Iraq; a new book has claimed.

British Labour party MP Peter Hain said in his biography of the ex-South African President that Mr. Mandela was “breathing fire” down the line when he made his furious protest phone call to him as a UK Minister at the time.

Mr. Hain, the former Welsh Secretary, said Mandela felt that Tony Blair’s good work had been “blown out of the water” by the war.  He said the criticisms were made formally, not in a private capacity.

“He rang me up when I was a cabinet minister in 2003 after the invasion.  He said: A big mistake, Peter, a very big mistake.  It is wrong.  Why is Tony doing this after all his support for Africa?  This will cause huge damage internationally”, Mandela is reported to have said.

Mr. Hain said he had never heard Mandela so angry and frustrated.  “He clearly felt very, very strongly that the decision that the Prime Minister had taken…was fundamentally wrong and he told me it would destroy all the good things that Tony Blair and we, as a government, had done in progressive policy terms across the world”, Peter Hain said.

He also said Mandela had always praised the way Tony Blair’s government had trebled overseas aid and development budget for Africa but now felt that all that had been completely blown out of the water by the Iraq invasion.  “I know Nelson Mandela quite well. He was virtually breathing fire down the phone on this and feeling a sense of betrayal. It was quite striking”, Hain said.

Peter Hain said he told Mandela that he respected his feelings but also added that the Prime Minister had “acted out of conviction”. He said he suggested to Mandela that the matter should be judged historically but Mandela was having none of it.

Peter Hain grew up in South Africa and his parents who were avid anti-Apartheid campaigners knew Mandela very well.  END. If is Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent.  Never miss out again!