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Shameless Kiwis flash Prince Charles in full-bodied protest over colonialism

A woman bared her chest and shouted "shame, shame" as Britain's Prince Charles arrived at a function in the New Zealand capital of Wellington yesterday.

The woman, exposed from the waist up, was grabbed by two uniformed police officers, arrested and marched from the scene as the prince was led into a building about 20m away.

In an apparent protest against the monarchy, the woman had the message "Get your colonial shame off my breasts" written across her chest and stomach.

Reporters said the prince appeared to look in the woman's direction and smiled as he entered Wellington's City Art Gallery.

Earlier, another bare-chested woman carrying a small child was hauled away by plainclothes police moments before the prince would have been confronted by her as he greeted a line of well-wishers.

The woman, also bare from the waist up, was dragged away shouting, "I just want to feed my baby."

Charles did not appear to notice the woman, local media said.

In another apparently linked protest, five anti-monarchists stood atop a wall with banners reading "Death to the monarchy" and "Honor the treaty," a reference to British crown breaches of New Zealand's founding treaty with the indigenous Maori people.

A woman with a bullhorn chanted, "Shame on the British monarchy, shame for years of colonialism, shame for years of genocide."

The protesters also shouted "parasites, parasites" as Charles walked through the city's Civic Square greeting some of the more than 600 people gathered to see him.

The protests caused little disruption as well-wishers bearing British and New Zealand flags talked with the prince and a group of schoolchildren played hopscotch as part of a welcome display for the heir to Britain's throne.

The prince was on the third day of a five-day royal tour of New Zealand. He flies to Fiji late tomorrow before returning to Britain.
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