Peace prize winner 'could kill' Bush

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19902313-29677,00.html

 

 

 

 

Peace prize winner 'could kill' Bush

Annabelle McDonald

July 25, 2006

 

 

 

NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty

Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush

during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.

 

Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues

forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about

the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the

Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.

 

" I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I

don't believe that I am non-violent, " said Ms Williams, 64.

 

" Right now, I would love to kill George Bush. " Her young audience at

the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.

 

" I don't know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see

children die the anger in me is just beyond belief. It's our duty as

human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human

life. "

 

Ms Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years ago, when she

circulated a petition to end violence in Northern Ireland after

witnessing British soldiers shoot dead an IRA member who was driving a

car. He veered on to the footpath, killing two children from one

family instantly and fatally injuring a third.

 

Ms Williams's petition had tens of thousands of Protestant and

Catholic women walking the streets together in protest. Now the former

office receptionist heads the World Centres of Compassion for Children

International, a non-profit group working to create a political voice

for children.

 

" My job is to tell you their stories, " Ms Williams said of a recent

trip to Iraq.

 

" We went to a hospital where there were 200 children; they were

beautiful, all of them, but they had cancers that the doctors couldn't

even recognise. From the first Gulf War, the mothers' wombs were infected.

 

" As I was leaving the hospital, I said to the doctor, 'How many of

these babies do you think are going to live?'

 

" He looked me straight in the eye and said, 'None, not one'. They

needed five different kinds of medication to treat the cancers that

the children had, and the embargoes laid on by the United States and

the United Nations only allowed them three. "

 

Wrapping up the three-day forum yesterday, delegates agreed to a

26-point action plan.

 

" There can be no sustainable peace while the majority of the world's

population lives in poverty, " they said.

 

" There can be no sustainable peace if we fail to rise to the global

challenge presented by climate change.

 

" There can be no sustainable peace while military spending takes

precedence over human development. "