A sign of protest

its great to see that there's still someone awake in this country

i hope someone manages to chain the monstrosity up and drag it away to a dungeon!

Students to lay complaint over Rice's visit to NZ

Friday, 25 July 2008

The Auckland University Students' Association (AUSA) will today lodge a formal complaint with police over the impending visit of United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

Dr Rice will be in Auckland on Saturday, meeting Prime Minister Helen Clark, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Opposition leader John Key.

The visit, her first trip to New Zealand, follows a meeting of the Asean Regional Forum this week in Singapore.

Yesterday, AUSA offered a $5000 reward to any Auckland University student who made a successful citizen's arrest of Dr Rice during her visit.

AUSA president David Do said the arrest would be for her role in "overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation" of Iraq.

"While we still hope an Auckland University student might be able to make a successful citizen's arrest of Rice, we are also pursuing official channels available to us to have this war criminal arrested," Mr Do said.

"Student associations in New Zealand have a long history of being involved in fighting for global justice, dating back to student involvement in the 1981 anti-Springbok tour protests and the US war in Indochina in the 1960s and 1970s.

"By opposing Rice's visit and seeking her arrest we seek to continue that proud tradition."

AUSA international affairs officer Omar Hamed said Dr Rice's involvement in the war in Iraq was a crime under the Geneva Conventions Act 1958, and the Crimes of Torture Act 1989, and the association would ask police to arrest and prosecute her under this legislation.

- NZPA