By IRNA,
London : Former prime minister Tony Blair’s gesture to donate earnings from his forthcoming memoirs to a fund for injured soldiers has divided opinion in Britain on whether it is a charitable act or an attempt to assuage a guilty conscience.
Britain’s largest peace group network Stop the War Coalition (STWC) said it was still planning to hold a mass protest to put Blair on trial for war crimes when he launches his memoirs with a book signing event in London on September 8.
“Blair is a war criminal who, if international law means anything at all, would have been indicted long ago,” said STWC spokesman Robin Beste.
“No amount of money can buy Blair innocence or forgiveness for the series of lies he told against the best legal advice which told him the war was illegal under international law, or for his defiance of the vast majority of people in Britain,” he told IRNA.
The announcement that the former prime minister will hand over millions of pounds of royalties from his book to the Royal British Legion was welcomed by the armed forces charity to help pay for a new rehabilitation centre for war wounded.
But the offer was greeted with suspicion and scepticism by bereaved families of soldiers killed during Blair’s five wars about the real motives of his gesture.
Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son was killed in Basra in 2004, said she was pleased injured troops would benefit but said it would not change the way she felt about the former premier.
“I have spoken to other parents and everyone is agreed that this doesn’t make any difference. It is OK doing this now, but it was decisions Blair made when he was prime minister that got us into this situation. I still hold him responsible for the death of my son,” Gentle said.
Peter Brierley, whose son was also killed in Iraq, suggested that it was “blood money” and repeated his aim that one day Blair will be in court for the crimes he committed.