F.W. de Klerk criticizes campaign to remove Rhodes statue

Former President of the Republic of South Africa, Frederik de Klerk says Africa should be given due place on the international arena during a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013, on the eve of a three-day meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) (The Associated Press)

JOHANNESBURG – Nobel Peace Prize winner and South Africa's last apartheid President F.W. de Klerk has criticized a campaign to remove a statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes as "folly."

In a letter to the British newspaper, The Times, de Klerk said it is "regrettable" the campaign that began at South Africa's University of Cape Town spread to Oxford University. De Klerk said other prominent leaders like George Washington would also not withstand the same political scrutiny today.

Oxford's Oriel College said it is reviewing whether to leave the statue in place after receiving a petition from the Rhodes Must Fall movement.

Historians describe Rhodes, who attended Oxford, as a 19th century segregationist. He is also remembered as a philanthropist, who left some of his estate to the university.