MEDIA RELEASE 11 NOVEMBER 2016

ACCLAIMED PEACE DOCTOR SAYS PRESIDENT TRUMP COULD RESULT IN NUCLEAR DISASTER

Visiting international peace activist Dr. Helen Caldicott says the election of Donald Trump means New Zealand’s role as a non-nuclear state is of vital importance.

She says we don’t know what President-elect Trump will do when he reaches the oval office, but the threat of nuclear war could be closer than ever.

The New Zealand Peace Foundation is hosting Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, to speak in Wellington and Auckland during a ‘Week of Peace’ coordinated by Auckland Peace Action.

Dr. Caldicott says it is well acknowledged that the risk of nuclear warfare is higher now than at the height of the cold war, and the public are totally unaware.

But she claims New Zealand is a model for the rest of the world, with its courageous anti-nuclear stance.

However, she believes John Key is letting down the people of New Zealand by allowing twenty-two international warships into our harbour next week as part of the New Zealand Navy’s 75th birthday extravaganza.

Dr. Caldicott says having 1000 sailors marching down Auckland’s main street promotes militarisation as a way of solving conflict. And that it is beyond belief that New Zealand would host an arms fair for Lockheed Martin, considering its previous absolute, unequivocal stand for peace.

Lockheed Martin is the biggest maker of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the world.When Dr. Caldicott first spoke in New Zealand in 1983, it galvanised the growing nuclear free movement here.

Now she will address this country's links to the global arms trade and the militarisation of the Pacific, as evidenced by the weapons conference and trade show, being held November 16 and 17, at the ANZ Viaduct Events Centre, Auckland.

She says that the proposed United Nations ban on nuclear weapons is magnificent but won't really work unless America decides to join it, and she says that America’s stance towards both Russia and China is provocative.

Dr. Caldicott will also spotlight an ongoing cover-up of the deadly radioactive emissions released from the Fukushima disaster, as revealed in her latest book, Crisis Without End: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe.

As a former paediatrician, Dr. Caldicott now practices "global preventative medicine." She has devoted the last forty-five years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behaviour to stop environmental destruction.

Dr. Caldicott's Wellington talk on Sunday 13 November, 7pm, at St Andrew's on The Terrace, is co-sponsored by the United Nations Association of New Zealand (UNANZ). She will propose how New Zealanders can end armed conflict and avoid imminent world war.

She will also speak at the Auckland University of Technology, (Lecture Theatre WG403, Mayoral Drive)

on the eve of the weapons conference, Tuesday 15 November at 7:30pm, and the next day at the ‘Blockade the Arms Trade’ action at 9am at Silo Park.

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