Protesters tell the government: Condemn the US invasion, bring Te Mana home

Peace Action Wellington is urging the government to listen to the people who protested in the capital over the weekend.

Over 4,000 people, from a wide cross-section of society, marched to parliament and on to the US embassy on Saturday. They made it clear that America¹s war for oil, with all its horrors, cannot be waged in our name.

"The people expressed anger and condemnation of the US-led invasion of Iraq", said PAW spokesperson Grant Brookes. "The government, instead of referring to the US and British aggressors as Œour friends¹, should condemn them too."

The protesters also demanded that the government suspend military co-operation with the US war machine and immediately withdraw the frigate Te Mana from the Middle East.

Prime minister Helen Clark earlier dismissed the protests around New Zealand in February, which involved tens of thousands of people, as "relatively small".

"Given Helen Clark¹s refusal to listen to peaceful marches, and with cruise missiles raining down on Baghdad, growing numbers of people in Wellington see no alternative but to engage in stronger forms of mass protest", said Grant Brookes.

"The fact that over 100 baton-wielding police were deployed against the protest, and steel fences were erected around the US embassy and the high commissions of Australia and Britain, only underscores the strength of anti-war feeling in the capital", he said.

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