DHAKA: US president Barack Obama hailed Nelson Mandela as a ‘giant of justice’ on Tuesday but said too many leaders in the world claimed solidarity with his struggle for freedom ‘but do not tolerate dissent from their own people’.

Obama, addressed an cheering crowd, likening the former South African president to such historical figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln.

Like King, Obama said Mandela also stood as a central figure in the fight for racial equality and justice.

He also compared Mandela to Gandhi as a leader of an initially dubious resistance movement. The US president also said Mandela had been like America’s founding fathers, uniting his country when it was on the brink of breaking apart.

‘He changed laws, but he also changed hearts,’ Obama said, reports The Jerusalem Post.

Tens of thousands of people arrived at a soccer stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday morning for a mass memorial service honouring anti-apartheid hero and former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Various world leaders paid homage to Mandela at the memorial recalling his many celebrated accomplishments.

BDST: 1901 HRS, DEC 10, 2013