Maathai Urges US Voters to Act on Iraq and Kyoto at November Polls

Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Kenya's deputy environment minister, said on 11 October 2004 that American voters hold the power to change US policy on both the Iraq war and climate change.

Speaking at UN offices in Nairobi, Maathai urged Americans to use the November 2 election to choose a leader willing to end the fighting in Iraq quickly. She said many Americans opposed the war and wanted it concluded.

She also called on voters to press Washington to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 UN climate agreement that 159 countries had approved but that President George W. Bush rejected shortly after taking office in 2001.

Maathai, 64, argued that those who launched the invasion had misjudged the situation, assuming they could remove Saddam Hussein and withdraw swiftly. She appealed to wealthy nations to reduce fossil fuel consumption, warning that continued pollution places the greatest burden on poorer countries that contribute least to it.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.