From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Sat Aug 6 14:35:34 1988 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Sat, 06 Aug 1988 17:35:34 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 1231] NZ Press Association story - APEC 99 Message-ID: <5w165w@corso.ch.planet.gen.nz> APEC-POLICE (pic avail ex ROP) POLICE DEAL WITH JOURNOS, PROTESTERS, IN APEC EXERCISE (Pic avail ex ROP) Rotorua, June 23 - Rotorua and Taupo police had to deal with muck-raking tabloid journalists and furious women's rights protesters yesterday. The police officers were training for September's Apec (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation) meeting, when world leaders including United States President Bill Clinton will visit New Zealand. The pretend Prime Minister of Sunland, the Rt Hon Gary Sullivan (played by himself), was escorted around Rotorua yesterday with his partner Glenn Anderson (also played by herself) by a fleet of seven police vehicles. According to the scenario, the prime minister was a popular leader in his country. However, his marriage break up last year and his relationship with former socialite and celebrity gossip columnist, Ms Anderson, had made him the target of tabloid press. When arriving at the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute the guests were set upon by a group of tabloid journalists (played by Rotorua Daily Post reporters) armed with cameras and probing questions. Later in the morning while visiting the Rotorua Museum of Art and History, the ``dignitaries'' were confronted by protesters (played by non-sworn police staff) representing WANG -- Women Against Naughty Guys. Delegation Security Commander Inspector Paul Vlaanderen of the Taupo police said the group would be responsible for one dignitary for two weeks during Apec. NZPA ROP mh 23/06/99 16-48NZ APEC-POLICE-2-ROTORUA (reopens h9734) Policing throughout New Zealand won't suffer as a result of 2500 police being needed for the Apec leaders summit in Auckland later this year, Police Minister Clem Simich said today. Mr Simich said while the summit in September required police from other areas to be relocated to Auckland, that wouldn't leave gaps elsewhere. All police leave had been cancelled to accommodate the summit, while it had been decided not to schedule most defended court cases in the main centres during the period while Apec was on, so as not to have officers tied up in court. NZPA PAR tw rap 23/06/99 17-45NZ From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Sun Aug 7 09:39:11 1988 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Sun, 07 Aug 1988 12:39:11 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 1235] NZ: APEC security embarrassment Message-ID: <7w165w@corso.ch.planet.gen.nz> New Zealand Herald, 7-8 August 1999 Auckland, New Zealand Red faces as fake bomb has Auckland Airport on real alert By Darrel Mager An airport emergency crew member apparently had to return red-faced to a terminal following a special Apec terrorism training exercise this week to retrieve a fake bomb crew had forgotten to collect. Auckland Airport sources say the dummy bomb's discovery sparked a major scare around 7am on Tuesday, delaying four flights and keeping other planes away from their arrival gates for nearly two hours. The delay affected more than 1000 passengers as Army bomb experts and police were called in after staff discovered a package outside the airport's gate four. The find was initially reported to media as a bag of rubbish, but airport staff told the Weekend Herald it was actually a dummy bomb, complete with fake gelignite, primer and timer. "There's a few embarrassed faces around here," said the staff member. "The airport's fire rescue had an exercise the night before as a training exercise running up to Apec. The bomb really looked like the real thing, laid out in a box, so it's no surprise that people took it seriously [the next morning]," Members of the fire rescue crew refused to talk to the Herald and the airport's chief executive, John Goulter, yesterday would neither confirm nor deny that the incident was caused by a dummy bomb: "I never comment on anything to do with aviation security". From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Sun Aug 7 09:50:49 1988 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Sun, 07 Aug 1988 12:50:49 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 1236] NZ/APEC: Mail Disruption caused by APEC Message-ID: <Í8w165w@corso.ch.planet.gen.nz> National Business Review, Auckland NZ August 6 1999 Mail beats rain, hail and snow - but not Apec The mail gets through, rail, hail, sleet or snow - but not through Apec. The economic leaders' summit is not only effectively shutting down Auckland city on Monday, September 13, but is also disrupting regional and national mail until at least Wednesday, "providing there are no surprises". The last event to stop the service doing its duty was the Auckland CBD power crisis. Communications adviser Katherine Scott said New Zealand Post had been working closely with the Police and was one of only two companies - the other is a delivery service - to gain limited access for vehicles to the inner city from the Saturday to the Monday. But the limited number of courier vehicles, X-ray screening of all mail for ticking bombs and the closing down of streets with only minutes' warning would mean fast and frantic messages flying over the walkie talkies. "We are going to have people on the ground being couriers for a day with microphones, telling us which streets are closed and which routes are best. All it would take would be for a leader's wife to decide she wants to go shopping in Devonport and that road will be closed." The hub of northern post, the Auckland Mail Centre is based on Victoria St next to the Aotea Centre and is right in the middle of the Apec area. Street boxes will be closed and the company still doesn't know how many couriers they are allowed. "People need to realise this could affect mail on a national scale. The leaders may be going for a trip to Christchurch and Queenstown and then you'll get the whole scenario over again. All it would take would be for President Clinton to fly somewhere at the same time as one of ours and it would disrupt the mail." From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Sun Aug 7 10:21:39 1988 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Sun, 07 Aug 1988 13:21:39 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 1237] NZ: Media on SOM III Message-ID: <1w165w@corso.ch.planet.gen.nz> The Press, Christchurch, NZ 3/8/99 Ground set for start to Apec talks by Victoria Main in Wellington Asia-Pacific officials will, over the next week, put the finishing touches to the free-trade agenda for the region's political leaders to consider at their Auckland summit in six weeks. With the irritants of the World Trade Organisation job wrangle and the Antipodean lamb trade dispute with the United States tidied away, Apec officials will focus on the nuts and bolts of the organisation's ongoing programme for deregulation. A series of Apec meetings begin in Rotorua today, culminating in a retreat and then a formal session for senior officials from August 11 to 13. The WTO row threatening Apec unity has been resolved by a job-share deal between Labour MP Mike Moore and Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi. Apec spokesman Maarten Wevers said yesterday that the job contest had not been an Apec issue, but he welcomed the compromise solution to split the post between two member candidates. "Having that issue resolved in that constructive and pro-Apec way is very positive," Mr Wevers said. New Zealand and Australia's WTO action against the United States for its lamb tariffs has curtained off another point of regional discord, even if Mr Wevers said that row was not strictly an Apec matter. "It's cleared away that area of uncertainty and risk," he said. New Zealand's stewardship of the decade-old Apec grouping follows last year's disastrous Kuala Lumpur summit at the height of the Asian recession. International Trade Minister Lockwood Smith said Apec senior officials had a lot of work to get through before the September meeting of foreign affairs and trade ministers leading into the leaders' summit. "How successfully they do that work helps the job of (Foreign Affairs Minister) Don McKinnon and me at that ministerial meeting. If it's incomplete, we've got to get it tidy for the leaders," Dr Smith said. He was mulling over possible input that Mr Moore, as the WTO's new director-general, could have into the final Apec summit. From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Tue Aug 9 14:35:41 1988 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Tue, 09 Aug 1988 17:35:41 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 1241] APEC in Auckland - NZ Herald Message-ID: <1w165w@corso.ch.planet.gen.nz> Drains Off-limits to foil assassins John Andrews New Zealand Herald, Auckland 9 August 1999 To deter saboteurs, a special police team will seal all manhole covers on roads where APEC motorcades travel. Other measures to prevent disruption and assassination bids during the APEC conference next month include: Restrictions on the movements of inner-city residents Bans on roadside car parking Closing roadside mail boxes Reorganising rubbish collection systems. Squad members will also check kerbside drain gratings for anything amiss. Police aim to make sure no cars are parked on the leaders' routes from midnight on Friday, September 10, until the dignitaries head home three days later. Residents living beside main inner-city streets designated for APEC leaders' motorcades are being told they need special accreditation if they want to drive in and out of their homes at specified times. As one police security planner explained, some people may find that once they leave home or their business premises, they will not be allowed to return for some time. Streets coming under the traffic security blanket include Albert St, Mayoral Drive, Vincent St and Greys Ave. Mail deliveries and rubbish collections could also be disrupted. NZ Post staff have spent months formulating contingency plans with police and believe delays are inevitable. As a precaution against bombers planting explosives police will close for a week from Tuesday 7 September, about 15 mail collection boxes on the inner city and Auckland Airport arterial routes uswed by APEC motorcades. Katherine Scott, the company's communications adviser said maps on each of the sealed boxes would direct customers to alternative post sites, some temporary. Equipped with radio transmitters, key staff members would keep their control centre colleagues and couriers informed of street closures and recommend better mail delivery routes. "We are saying that we are attempting to maintain business as normal. We do acknowledge there will be disruptions and delays." The Auckland City Council will vary rubbish collection systems for affected inner-city residents and businesses. Russell Hill, a spokesman for the councils millennium activity coordination group, said people using plastic collection bags would be asked not to put their rubbish out between 6am and 11pm for the three days of APEC" "They will have some options. They can either keep the rubbish on their premises or place the bags out after 11pm and before 6am. Collections will continue through the night. "There will be some designated drop-off points away from secure roads." Mr Hill said residents living west of the central business district and on some airport routes would find collection dates for their mobile rubbish bins changed.