Global Peace And Justice Auckland Newsletter #23, February 18, 2003

Website http://www.gpja.pl.net/ Contact details: Forums – John Minto, (09) 8463173 mailto:jbminto@xtra.co.nz; Newsletter Editor – Mike Treen 0212547440 / 3763780 mailto:miket@pl.net Web page – Geraldine Peters (09) 3570655 mailto:bern@ihug.co.nz Donations can be sent to GPJA, 84 Paice Ave, Sandringham, Auckland. All communication regarding the GPJA mailing list (email or snail) should be addressed to mailto:gpjamailinglist@xtra.co.nz

Dear friends,

A wonderful turnout in NZ and around the world in opposition to war. This special newsletter is designed to allow you to access media reports and photos on the protests. At least 10,000 on the Auckland march (remarkably the police estimate in the NZ Herald was 12-15000). After the concert on Sunday several hundred people delivered a letter to Helen Clark calling on her to speak out against the war and withdraw NZ military forces from the Gulf region. The British Guardian newspaper estimates that up to 30 million people joined protests over the weekend (see below). Thanks from the organisers for everyone who made that special effort to make the days a success.

The Prime Minister tried to dismiss the size of the protests but never before in NZ history has such a massive movement been organised in just a few months. It's important that we deluge her and local MP's with emails and letters calling on her to speak out against the war and withdraw military forces from the Gulf.

And if you missed the expose by Nicky Hager in the SST on NZ’s military involvement in Afghanistan there are links at the end.

Thousands march in Auckland against USA war – Scoop editorial http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00104.htm

PM Insults Thousands of Anti-War Kiwis: GPJA - Over the weekend the Prime Minister dismissed the protests by tens of thousands of New Zealanders in 20 centres yesterday as "not as large" as those from previous issues in the past. See... GPJA: Deep Insult to Anti-War Kiwis from Prime Minister [1] MORE: PM's Just One of the Flock: Harré - Alliance Leader, Laila Harré told a Peace Concert in Auckland today that if Blair and Howard were playing America's poodles over Iraq Prime Minister Helen Clark was taking the part of the sheep. See... Alliance says people will lead if Clark doesn't [2] - Greens - Fitzsimons to PM: This is our Vietnam [3] - United Future -Copeland: Let's push for peace [4]
[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0302/S00112.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0302/S00113.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0302/S00263.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0302/S00284.htm

Wellington photos http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00106.htm
Auckland photos http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00103.htm http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00105.htm

Giant NO WAR banner above America Cup race http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0302/S00109.htm

Other NZ reports on Indymedia http://indymedia.org.nz/

NZ Herald feature on the new antiwar movement http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&st oryID=3101345&reportID=562588

AROUND THE GLOBE

Up to 30 million protest worldwide http://www.guardian.co.uk/antiwar/story/0,12809,897098,00.html

Groundswell of dissent encircles the globe >From Auckland to Amsterdam, from Rio to Rome, millions of citizens poured on to the streets to make their voices heard http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=378750

The streets were full but still they came – 300,000 in Sydney http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/16/1045330468385.html

Marches around the world – A list with links http://www.antiwar.com/feb03demos.html

Images from around the world http://lmno4p.org/ Collage of protest photos http://lmno4p.org/images/protests_2.13-17.03/ index of cities

A PRO WAR VOICE

Their master's voice Rupert Murdoch argued strongly for a war with Iraq in an interview this week. Which might explain why his 175 editors around the world are backing it too. http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,896864,00.html

IRAQ WAR

Antiwar video: Warning – horrific images of war http://a520.g.akamai.net/7/520/1534/release1.0/www.greenpeace.org/multimedia /download/1/138977/1/NoWar_VF_RealMedia8_v1.rm

A monument to hypocrisy – Edward Said http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/625/op2.htm

Humanising the targets of war http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/world/iraq/2002-12-12/1.htm

John Pilger http://pilger.carlton.com/print/130585 http://pilger.carlton.com/print/130852

AFGHANISTAN

What's The Body-count? PM Should Come Clean on SAS Role. Green MP Keith Locke is demanding the government comes clean on SAS activities in Afghanistan, following revelations in today's Sunday Star Times. http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0302/S00264.htm

Sunday Star Times reports http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/0,2106,2266650a6442,00.html Our Secret war – What the NZ govt didn’t want you to know by Nicky Hagar http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/0,2106,2266397a6619,00.html Special operations – just another word for terror http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/0,2106,2266395a6619,00.html The countdown to battle – how the govt got involved http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/0,2106,2266395a6619,00.html

US bombs kill 17 civilians in Afghanistan http://www.iht.com/articles/86531.htm

QUOTES

"All of us have heard this term 'preventive war' since the earliest days of Hitler. I recall that is about the first time I heard it. In this day and time...I don't believe there is such a thing; and, frankly, I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing." --President Dwight Eisenhower, 1953, upon being presented with plans to Wage preventive war to disarm Stalin's Soviet Union

"Our position is that whatever grievances a nation may have, however objectionable it finds the status quo, aggressive warfare is an illegal means for settling those grievances or for altering those conditions." --Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, the American prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, in his opening statement to the tribunal

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