GM sites on alert for sabotage

By ANNE BESTON and PAULA OLIVER

Research organisations have strengthened security as protesters angered by the Government's decision on genetic modification threaten to sabotage field trials.

Crown-owned AgResearch, which already had tight security surrounding transgenic calves at its Ruakura property, has stepped up checks by guards at its five other sites around the country.

The president of the Association of Crown Research Institutes, John Hay, said HortResearch and Crop & Food Research were also on alert.

"We are not panicking, but security checks have been beefed up," Dr Hay said. "We're taking these threats seriously."

Protest groups are forming around New Zealand as anger mounts over the decision to allow GM experiments to be done in the field, although under much tighter conditions.

The protests reached Parliament's steps when a Maori-led anti-GM hikoi delivered a strong message. The hikoi, which had swelled to about 150 marchers yesterday, set off last month from Spirits Bay in the Far North.

But GM opponents threatening to interfere with research projects received a ticking-off from Prime Minister Helen Clark, who told them to "get a life".

"To have science subjected to what amounts to acts of vandalism I don't think is acceptable to the general public."

In Wellington, anger spilled over into an office occupation when 15 protesters unfurled banners, sang songs and put earth on the floor of the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma), the body that evaluates applications for GM research.

In Auckland, activists vowing to rip out GM plants and remove plant material gave a demonstration on how to do it.

The demonstration, at Basque Park Gardens in Newton, attracted about 30 people.

Logan Petley, a spokesman for the "Green Gloves" campaign, said members of the public were invited to sign a pledge to carry out civil disobedience.

He said that nationally, 3000 people had signed up. "We are not fanatics or extremists; most of the people involved are ordinary New Zealanders. We believe we are acting to defend our country."

Members were willing to risk arrest, Mr Petley said.

The group was signalling its intentions to researchers and companies so they would know what to expect, he said. No raids would be made on laboratories, but GM plants in the field would be targeted.

AgResearch stepped up security last year after threats against staff working on the GM cattle trial.

A scientist involved in the experiment, to find out whether the calves will produce the human protein myelin in their milk for research into multiple sclerosis, received death threats and had acid thrown on his car.

"We are hopeful the protests won't happen and that there won't be any activist activity on our campuses," said an AgResearch spokesman, Frank Fernandez.

In March 1999, a group called the Wild Greens ripped out a trial crop of genetically modified potatoes near Christchurch. Green Party list MP Nandor Tanczos was spokesmanfor the group at the time.

Yesterday in Wellington he called threats to take direct action against trial crops "legitimate".

The scientist in charge of the potato trial, Dr Tony Conner, of Crop & Food Research, said trials would be done in secret locations if the sabotage threats continued.

At the Wellington sit-in, Maori protesters refused to leave the Erma headquarters for more than half an hour, forcing authority staff to increase security and shut off access to the floor.

Maori oppose GM on spiritual and cultural grounds, and the protesters, who included activist Ken Mair, said many Maori were disgusted that their MPs had "sold out" in the GM debate.

They warned that further action was likely and that the Government should not expect to "get back into Parliament on the back of Maori".

"Helen Clark is kidding herself if she thinks Maori will do nothing about it," said Angeline Greensill, a protester from Waikato.

The group spread out banners and would speak to Erma staff only in Maori. They eventually left peacefully to join the hikoi. 150 marchers were greeted at Parliament by Green Party MPs and Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia.

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