Terrorism Suppression Bill thoroughly misguided: only justice can cure terrorism, Arena

22 March 2002

The Terrorism Suppression Bill will harm the interests of New Zealanders, according to the Action, Research and Education Network of Aotearoa, ARENA.

"Repressive legislation like this further erodes the civil liberties of New Zealanders and offers us nothing in return," said ARENA spokesperson, David Small.

"The clearest case of terrorism experienced by New Zealand since World War Two, the Rainbow Warrior bombing, would not have been prevented by this legislation and was successfully prosecuted without it," he said.

In recent years, the powers of the state to act in a clandestine way against political opposition have been steadily increasing, said Dr Small. And this has been taking place at the same time as state agents have shown that they cannot be trusted to respect the civil liberties that New Zealanders still have.

Although successful legal cases taken by Dr Small against the Police and Aziz Choudry against the SIS revealed that these agencies were routinely acting outside the law in their dealing with political dissenters, these kinds of agencies are now being given greater powers and less accountability.

The "war on terrorism" is increasingly being revealed as an open-ended attack on America's enemies. The demonization and warmongering we have witnessed since September 11 will only provoke more frequent and more extreme acts of terrorism.

"New Zealand should not buy into the US crusade with this kind of legislation", said Dr Small. "The only cure for terrorism is to address the long-standing injustices that give rise to it."

Arena
Media release © Arena

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