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National | New Zealand Defence Force

Peace action groups bind together to oppose Weapons Expo

Peace activists blockaded the annual NZDIA Weapons Expo in 2017.

People Against Prisons Aotearoa (PAPA) will join forces with other Peace Action groups from around the country today to oppose the weapons expo being held in Palmerston North this week.

The weapons expo is an annual event facilitated by the New Zealand Defence Industry Association to allow weapon manufacturers and private prison operators the opportunity to network and sell merchandise.

PAPA spokeswoman Emilie Rākete says, "New Zealand is being used as a base of operations for war profiteers of the worst kind. Companies present today manufacture nuclear weapons and run Australia's refugee concentration camps."

Rākete says the purpose of the companies involved in the extraction of profit from war, bloodshed, and misery and New Zealanders will continue to oppose the expo until it is shut down.

There is no place for these death dealers in a country that supposedly values human rights."

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Rereātea covered the story on the peace activists who blockaded the annual Weapons Expo in 2017. 

Organise Aotearoa spokesperson Kate McIntyre says that by allowing this event to take place on New Zealand soil means New Zealand is complicit to the global death trade.

“As long as we allow death dealers to come to our towns and cities, we are enabling business as usual for the war industry."

"It is our responsibility as ordinary New Zealanders to stand up against war profiteers when they come to our shores," says McIntyre.