Wellington, Monday March 10, 2003: Greenpeace has exposed who is pulling the Australian Prime Minister’s strings, unveiling a giant John Howard puppet in downtown Wellington today. The puppet is dangling from the outstretched fingers of Gollum (aka G.W. Bush) on the Embassy Theatre to mark Howard’s visit to New Zealand.

“John Howard, in defiance of the will of the Australian people , has sent troops to the Middle East in support of what would be an illegal and unprecedented strike against Iraq. He has shown himself to be nothing more than a puppet of the US Government,” said Robbie Kelman, Greenpeace No-War Campaign spokesperson.

“Waging a war against Iraq would therefore be illegal under the United Nations Charter. As such, John Howard’s complicity in the ‘coalition of the willing’ distinguishes him as a war monger, bent on gaining kudos with the White House war machine,” Kelman said.

“We agree Iraq, and indeed all nations with weapons of mass destruction need to be disarmed, but preventative military strikes are not the way to do this.”

“Both Howard and his puppet-master, G.W. Bush, should put their energy into strengthening collective international arms controls and conventions, rather than launching into war,” Kelman said.

For comment contact:
Robbie Kelman, Greenpeace No-War campaign spokesman, ph: 021 565 165
Samantha Magick, Communications officer, ph: 021 790 817.

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