Democracy suppressed in New Zealand as in Iraq

'Police arrested eight people on Saturday for protesting against the Labour Government's deployment of troops to Iraq. These people will appear in court Friday morning for using chalk on the footpath to express their horror at becoming part of the army of occupation in Iraq.' said Peace Action Wellington member Valerie Morse

'It is extremely disturbing that Helen Clark condemned the war on Iraq only months ago and has now committed Defence Force troops to an illegal and immoral occupation. Thousands of New Zealanders were on the streets this year to oppose war on Iraq; now the government is not only condoning it but blatantly supporting it. Frankly, it is a vile hypocrisy'

'Also in court on Friday are seventeen people charged with conducting a weapons inspection of the United States Embassy in early February. Like the first group, these people were outraged at the hypocrisy of the United States' demand that Iraq disarm its Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) when it is the USA that has the largest arsenal of such weapons and the only one in the world to use nuclear weapons against a civilian population in war. Nearly six months on, absolutely NO weapons have been found it Iraq. Thus, the US and its 'coalition of the willing' committed mass murder to gain access to Iraqi oil'

Peace Action Wellington will have a full show of support for all of the arrestees outside of the District Court in Wellington from 8:30am on Friday morning.

Peace Action Wellington is demanding an immediate end to all New Zealand support for the US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

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