68 lines
3.8 KiB
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68 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
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KIWI TROOPS IN BOSNIA -by Ciaron O'Reilly
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--------------------- Christchurch Catholic Worker
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Yesterday, 200 New Zealand troops left for specialist training in
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the U.K. in preparation for deployment to Bosnia. A total of 250
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Kiwi troops will be Bosnia-bound by the end of the month as a
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result of a deal struck between John Major and Jim Bulger. The
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deal done at Downing Street guaranteed the troops in exchange for
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the first British warship visit to New Zealand in frequenting New
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Zealand shores in response to the anti-nuclear weapons ban and
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legislation in the mid-80's. Bulger is hoping this "cannon
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fodder for ship visit" swap will be the beginning of the end of
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New Zealand's isolation in matters of global death-dealing
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imposed since the nuclear warship ban and subsequent collapse of
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Anzus. He is hopeful that Clinton will follow suit, begin to
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send warships and normalise military relationships.
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The New Zealand peace movement got much more than it asked for
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when the Lange government embraced the anti-nuke ship ban as a
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path to power in 1984. The over reaction by the "neither confirm
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nor deny" Americans ended Anzus and imposed neutrality on New
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Zealand. The Anti-Nuke position became so entrenched in the
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electorate that Lange was able to pull its legislation out of the
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hat to win a second election. The National Party conservatives
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were forced to embrace the legislation to win back power in 1990.
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All these governments have made every effort to sidestep its
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consequences - this has included voting patterns in the U.N., the
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weekly USAF Starlifter flights through Christchurch to Nurrungar
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& Pine Gap and sending a token contingent of Kiwis off to support
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nuclear armed forces in the Gulf Massacre.
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The New Zealand peace movement has failed to celebrate and
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support neutrality as a valid way to be in the world. It remains
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largely uncritical of the United Nations, now more than ever a
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Post Cold War arm of American foreign policy. Lessons from
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Vietnam; & World War I (let alone Somalia, Cambodia and The Gulf)
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seem ignored as everybody from Ministers to Labor Opposition to
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Barry Humphries sidekick cheers on the training of these young
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men. The national vibe is as though they are training for a
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Rugby test on some distant playing field, rather than heading for
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the minefields of potentially the prelude to World War III. The
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240 Kiwis will be under the tutelage of the commander of the
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British SAS - responsible for their fair share of ethnic
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cleansing in the Catholic ghettoes of Northern Ireland. They
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will also be joined by 2500 Turkish troops who have been busy
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slaying Kurds for the last 20 years.
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The first Kiwi contingent are being drawn mainly from the Linton-
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based "Whiskey Company" and will arrive in Bosnia at the
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beginning of August. They will be replaced after six months by a
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contingent from the infantry battalion at Burnham Camp, just
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outside of Christchurch. We have recently begun vigilling
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against the deployment - at both Burnham and the city's military
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recruitment centre. It always shocks me how young these guys are
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and the real possibility that they may step on one of the two
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million mines laid over there or be shot down by weapons that
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some guy in a suit & tie has made a profit from. It always
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amazes how principled the politicians rhetoric sounds - whether
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they be Croatian, Serb, Muslim, US or Kiwi - when sending young
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men and women to the slaughter. When one of these Kiwis comes
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home in a body bag, you can ask the question was it worth a visit
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from the imperial navy, because stripped of the empty rhetoric -
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and in the absence of addressing the root causes of this latest
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war -that is what this deployment is all about.
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