Owen Wilkes: Global Peace Activist

Owen Wilkes, the New Zealand peace activist and global peace researcher, has died in Hamilton aged 65. In a tribute written from Beijing by Peter Hayes, he said “Owen Wilkes was a profoundly wedded to values of peace and sustainability. His research on overseas military base structures was relentlessly systematic. He gave the public access to basic knowledge about the role of espionage systems hosted by many countries and previously held secret by the operators. Owen never compromised his primary allegiance to building an informed civil society with bottom-up peace and human security strategies. Overall, his pen probably did more to reduce the risk of nuclear war and human catastrophe from nuclear weapons than any other individual activist-researcher in history.” Owen Wilkes’ achievements included revelations in the 1980s that the communications centre at Tangimoana in the lower North Island was an electronic spy station and part of an American worldwide network (denied by the Government), building a solar-powered house near Punakaiki, recording 450 Maori archeological sites between Kawhia and Awakino, and receiving a Swedish award for promoting international peace. In a message Wilkes left at the time of his death, he indicated his objection to the artificial extension of human life beyond its natural span, which he believed was 60 years. “I’m five years past my expiry date. Sorry to upset anyone and everyone, but better to go now rather than suffer years of uniformity, muddle headedness and absent mindedness.” Tributes can be read at the converge.org.nz site.

Owen Wilkes: 1940 – 17 May 2005