Media Release: Nine years too long
From: Peace Action Wellington
Date: 5 October 2010

‘Three days short of the ninth anniversary war against the people of Afghanistan, members of Peace Action Wellington will hold a picket outside of the Supreme Court. The court will be hearing my appeal against conviction for offensive behaviour for burning the New Zealand flag on Anzac day 2007’ said PAW member Valerie Morse

‘For nine years, New Zealand along with the US and many other nations have been waging a war of terror on the people of Afghanistan. This murderous war and occupation must be brought to an immediate halt. The US and its allies are the terrorists, not the people resisting a violent, brutal and utterly senseless war.’

‘I burned the New Zealand flag to express my horror at New Zealand’s involvement in Afghanistan: against the SAS killing squads, against the secret intelligence of the Waihopai spybase, against the patrols of the frigates in the Straits of Hormuz, against the reconnaissance missions of the Air Force Orions, against the thinly veiled occupation disguised as ‘reconstruction’ and against the staff officers based at Bagram who are in no doubt as to the torture that happens there.

‘John Key is a murderous war-monger and deserves to be treated as such. He has rolled over the deployment of the SAS for another year, and bloodies his hands in doing so. He and his mate Barack Obama now stand alongside former leaders Bush, Blair and Howard as the world’s most violent terrorists.

‘Obama and Co are now extending their war into Pakistan; in doing so they further destabilise the region and radicalise the people. They create the very terrorism they proclaim to fight. It is absurd. It is sick and it must end. Protests will be happening all over the US on the ninth anniversary to demand an end to this war, and Peace Action Wellington calls for the immediate end to all New Zealand involvement in the war on terror.

ENDS

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