Foreign arms may stifle local protest

By Eugene Bingham

Protesters fear that arming foreign bodyguards coming to New Zealand for the Apec meetings is a move to stifle dissent.

Aziz Choudry, a leading campaigner against the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and free trade, told a select committee yesterday that a bill to arm foreign bodyguards was a warning to legitimate protesters.

"The message is: `Don't open your mouths - we're going to have all these armed guys around here and we're going to have the power to break into your houses,'" said Mr Choudry, referring to the Arms Amendment Bill, and another bill which will give the Security Intelligence Service the power to break into private properties.

Government MP Wayne Mapp told Mr Choudry that the aim of the legislation was to protect international leaders against threats of assassination and terrorist attacks.

Without boosting the firepower of officers accompanying international leaders, the security operation would be "beyond the capability of the New Zealand police to be able to cope," said Dr Mapp.

Mr Choudry said his experience at other Apec meetings was that the impact was on the local people, not terrorists.

"There are massive security operations ... and the people they are aimed against are not the foreign terrorist threat, in fact, but the ordinary people in the cities."

Michael Gilchrist, of the Trade Union Federation, said the legislation and the accompanying security operation around Apec would see Auckland turned into a "militarised zone."

He was also worried by the presence of "trigger-happy" foreign guards not used to the New Zealand culture of protest.

He was not comforted by Government assurances that an investigation would be held if anybody was shot by one of the bodyguards.

"That would be too late."