MEDIA RELEASE 10 September 2002

PM announcement on Iraq a relief - but real issue remains unaddressed

“The Prime Minister’s announcement that New Zealand will not support action against Iraq without a United Nation’s mandate will be relief to all working people in New Zealand,” Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.

“CTU unions, representing almost 300,000 union members, unanimously resolved at last year’s Conference that any action against terrorism should be taken through the United Nations,” Ross Wilson said.

“But the CTU also called on the Government to play a leadership role in promoting permanent solutions to the political and social conditions which have created the political stability.”

Ross Wilson said there was a real risk that terrorism was becoming the rationale that communism was during the Cold War for a massive build up in the US military machine.

“The same simplistic military solutions that led to foreign misadventures like Vietnam are emerging,” he said.

“It is ordinary people who suffer in wars and the CTU urges the Prime Minister, on behalf of New Zealanders, to continue to take a strong stand against unilateral US action against Iraq.”

ENDS

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