SOUTH AFRICA: Nelson Mandela is to inform President Bush he has modified his "unreserved support" for the war against terrorism.
The former South African president's office said yesterday: "We are writing to President Bush to appropriately qualify the view we previously expressed to him."
Mr Mandela (83) expressed support for US-led military operations against Osama bin Laden and the war in Afghanistan during a visit to the United States in November.
"We expressed the opinion that, tragic as the war may be, it was justified in this case as it proved the only method available for flushing out the terrorists whom the Taliban government in Afghanistan refused to hand over to the United States," a statement said.
"Subsequent discussions with our family, friends and advisers have convinced us that our view may be one-sided and overstated." Friends and advisers expressed concern that Mr Mandela's initial support for the war "gives the impression that we are insensitive to and uncaring about the suffering inflicted upon the Afghan people.
"We regret if the manner in which we stated our position gave any offence to Muslims in South Africa and throughout the world," the statement added.
Mr Mandela plans to meet South African Muslim leaders soon to convey this message to them. Some 1.5 per cent of the South Africa's 44.5 million people are Muslims.
In mid-December, Mr Mandela ran into a barrage of protest when he expressed support for US military strikes in Afghanistan during a speech at a mosque in Durban.
While defending military action, he said: "I never supported the bombing of the whole of Afghanistan and the killing of innocent (people). I confined myself to bin Laden and his organisation."
Mr Mandela's office said the labelling of bin Laden as the terrorist responsible the September 11th attacks before he had been convicted in court could also "be seen as undermining some of the basic tenets of the rule of law".
His office called on the UN to play "a leading role in combating terrorism". Speaking in Cape Town early in December, Mr Mandela criticised the US and Britain for acting without a mandate from the Security Council and said it was wrong to "act unilaterally and bomb a sovereign country".
On that occasion he warned it would be "a disaster" for the US and Britain to extend the war on terrorism to bombing Iraq.
His office yesterday reiterated its opposition to all forms of terrorism.