MEDIA RELEASE:
FROM: Peace Action Wellington
Date: 26 October

Kiwi Troops Return From Propping Up US Occupation

The NZDF is welcoming home another round of soldiers from Afghanistan and congratulated them on helping to 'reconstruct' the country. They have been doing such a great job propping up the US occupation of the country, nobody has bothered to remember that no one invited them there in the first place.

'The US invasion and five-year occupation of Afghanistan is motivate by just one thing - a greedy desire for strategic control of Central Asia. The Bush regime uses clever propaganda about the treatment of women and human rights to convince us that their mission is just. It is not' said Peace Action Wellington member Valerie Morse.

'Lest we forget, there are several NZDF staff officers based at Bagram Air Force Base, the site of well-documented torture carried out by the US military. Thousands of people have been killed by the indiscriminate bombing of the country by the US and its allies.'

'The NZDF is complicit in these crimes by continuing to serve under the US army command. NZ troops go in order that Fonterra can sell more milk, and that NZ gets consideration for a free trade with the US.'

'If the Labour government really wants to help the Afghani people they would do well to support local non-governmental agencies rather than send troops to prop up the US-puppet government of Hamid Karzai. There are plenty of capable engineers, builders and teachers in Afghanistan, they hardly need NZ soldiers to do this work.'

Peace Action Wellington demands an end to all NZ involvement in US wars of conquest.

ENDS

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