Greens back 'return to jungle' warning

Green Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Keith Locke is praising Helen Clark's courage in telling the US and Britain that they may well regret the dangerous precedent set in ignoring the UN.

"The Prime Minister has repeated one of the main Green objections to the invasion of Iraq," Keith Locke said today. "The rule of international law must be paramount and when politicians put their own self-interests ahead of respect for that rule, then we risk, as Helen Clark said, a 'return to the jungle.'

"The invasion of Iraq has inflicted death and destruction on many ordinary Iraqis but the illegal and immoral way in which the war was conducted also has ramifications for the whole world.

"Clearly, no country can feel secure while the dominant superpower claims the 'right' to take whatever action it sees fit to maintain its national interests.

"The Prime Minister's statement reinforces the need for the vast majority of peace-loving nations of the UN to push even more strongly for the withdrawal of the US-British occupation army.

"It is ironic that Helen Clark has so clearly spelt-out the reality of the situation within days of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's comments that the New Zealand position and that of the US and Britain represented only a 'small difference in emphasis.'

"For Bill English to criticise the Prime Minister for daring to upset the US and Britain by stating her opinion is absurd and further evidence that a right-wing government would reduce New Zealand to the status of a client-state of the US."

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