Peace Petitions update + US Government Delays Biological Weapons Convention

20 September 2002

Kia ora,

* Peace Petitions update

On 11 September 2002 there was a peaceful protest at parliament organised by Peace Action Wellington (see http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/sept1102.htm for more details). At that time the final batch of signatures for the first post-September 11 national petition 'Petition calling for peaceful resolution of conflict' was handed in to Keith Locke, bringing the total number of signatures on that petition to 6,226.

The first batch of 1,064 signatures on the new 'No NZ support for the 'war on terrorism' petition were also handed in. Keith presented both to parliament on 19 September.

The 'No NZ support for the 'war on terrorism' petition is ongoing, and there will be further presentations of signatures to parliament. The petition form is available on-line at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/pet003.htm or as a Word 6 attachment on request to pma@xtra.co.nz

* Biological weapons

On a related topic, the 'war on terrorism', and in particular George Bush's plans for a new war on the people of Iraq using the pretence of the need to control weapons of mass destruction - news comes of the latest US government assault on an international disarmament convention ...

'US Drops Bid to Strengthen Germ Warfare Accord' - "The Bush administration has abandoned an international effort to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention against germ warfare, advising its allies that the United States wants to delay further discussions until 2006. A review conference on new verification measures for the treaty had been scheduled for November."

The full article is available on-line at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36677-2002Sep18.html

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