25 October 2001

We have received an email message from Sam Fisher (Office of Hon Jim Anderton) and have also been telephoned by John Pagani (Press Officer) with respect to the following listing in the Peace vigils, rallies and meetings listings we circulated this morning.

~ THURS, 25 October - Jim Anderton speaks on his pro-war position to Alliance Party members who oppose it, 7-30pm, Trades Hall, Great North Rd, Newton, Auckland.

It has been asserted that this is a gross misrepresentation of Jim’s position, that the listing is defamatory, and we have been told to apologise and withdraw our comments unreservedly before the time of the meeting tonight.

As there is insufficient time to consult the PMA Working Group fully before that time, we would in the interim like to make the following comments:

1) we apologise for any misrepresentation of Jim Anderton’s position in the above listing;

2) obviously we would not knowingly circulate listings which are defamatory or malicious in any way - the decision to include the meeting details as above (edited and reduced from the longer listing we originally received) was based on Jim Anderton’s support for the parliamentary motion passed on 03 October 2001:

"That this House declares its support for the offer of Special Air Services troops and other assistance as part of the response of the United States and the international coalition to the terrorist attacks that were carried out on 11 September 2001 in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania and totally supports the approach taken by the United States of America, and further declares its support for United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1368 and 1373.''

According to Hansard, the aye votes include 10 from the Alliance. The motion was passed before the United States government and its allies began bombing the people of Afghanistan. We are not aware of any announcement by Jim Anderton since the bombing started that he no longer supports that motion.

Peace Movement Aotearoa
the national networking peace group
PO Box 9314, Wellington, Aotearoa / New Zealand.
tel +64 4 382 8129, fax 382 8173, pma@xtra.co.nz
website http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/
Internet Peace Gateway http://www.peace.org.nz

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