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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

'UN Says 'Jump', Bradford asks 'how high?''

Criticising New Zealand sending Defence Force Personnel to join UN monitoring in East Timor, Libertarianz Defence Spokesman Robert Winefield said Max Bradford's address to graduates of the Army's Officer Training School yesterday also confirms that it's still a case of the UN saying 'jump ', and New Zealand Defence Ministers asking 'how high'.

"For too long we have relied on the UN as a defensive ally," says Winefield, "and consequently New Zealand taxpayers have been forced to pay for our soldiers to risk their lives in every despotic backwater in which the UN wishes to meddle. Throughout our short history we have fought other nations' wars - often with tragic loss of New Zealand lives - in the hope that the favour will one day be returned."

"Frankly," says Winefield, "the UN is more of a 50lb weakling with a multiple-personality syndrome, than an ideal partner to defend these shores. The New Zealand military is raised under the pretext of New Zealand security - our proud new Officer graduates are prepared to make this their life's work - but New Zealand security in no way encompasses conflict in Kosovo, Vietnam, or East Timor. These conflicts pose no threat to New Zealand, and government forces should not have been sent. Instead, our military should be committed only when our security is genuinely under threat. Imagine the number of New Zealanders that could have been spared earlier in the century if this principle had been followed."

ENDS

For more information
contact: Robert Winefield
LIBERTARIANZ DEFENCE SPOKESMAN
Phone (025) 278 0333
Or contact Libertarianz Media Coordinator on (025) 861 927,
e-mail: organon@ihug.co.nz

www.libertarianz.org.nz

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