London, February 04: A best-selling Brazilian author branded Tony Blair a ‘war criminal’ Monday for his role in the Iraq war, following the former British Prime Minister’s appointment as an advisor to the Olympic Games in Brazil.
Paulo Coelho, whose book The Alchemist has sold 35million copies, said Blair deserves to go to The Hague, not Rio.
“We are going to pay Tony Blair as an adviser for Rio 2016?. An irresponsible person who declared an illegal war?” Coelho wrote on Twitter.
“I was in Copenhagen [where Rio won the Games] for the athletes, not for murderers. Not in my name, not in my country.”
“Blair’s appointment will lower Brazil’s reputation in the eyes of the world. He has no standing in his own country, he failed as a negotiator in the Middle East, he lost his job because of the Iraq war and he has the blood of English soldiers on his hands.”
Coelho said he felt “ashamed” when he saw Rio’s governor Sergio Cabral give Blair a Brazil football shirt.
“I was ashamed as a Brazilian when I saw such a symbolic shirt being handed to a war criminal,” he said in a newspaper interview.
“My tweets reached the mainstream media in Brazil and UK. An online survey by the major portal O Globo shows right now that 83.86% support my position,” said Coelho in his blog.
—Agencies