Vol. 71/No. 45      December 3, 2007

Several hundred protesters, mainly Maori, marched on parliament in Wellington, the capital, November 14. They then proceeded to national police headquarters, where they chanted, “Who are the terrorists? Pirihimana [police]!” The protest was led by a delegation that had traveled from the rural town of Ruatoki, a center of the Tuhoe iwi (tribe).

During the October 15 raids, police placed Ruatoki under an armed lockdown. Residents say families were dragged from their beds at gunpoint in the early morning and held for hours without food, water, proper clothing, or access to toilets. Women were subjected to body searches in public; houses were ransacked and property seized. Those stopped at roadblocks were photographed by the cops.

Nationwide, some 60 homes were raided by 300 police, who seized computers, cell phones, clothing, cars, and other items. Sixteen people were arrested on firearms charges, including prominent Tuhoe activist and long-time Maori rights campaigner Tame Iti, a resident of Ruatoki.

Police also sought to bring charges against Iti and 11 others under the 2002 Terrorism Suppression Act, the first time that act has been used. In face of ongoing protests, however, Solicitor General David Collins ruled November 8 that the police could not proceed under the 2002 act, which he called “complex, incoherent, and as a result almost impossible to apply to the domestic circumstances.” At the same time, he sought to justify the police actions, saying they had “brought to an end what were very disturbing activities.” He proposed the act be reviewed by the Law Commission.  
 
16 face frame-up charges
Following Collins’ ruling, Tame Iti and nine others were released on bail. All 16 facing charges under the Arms Act will appear in court in Auckland on December 3.

At a November 12 press conference and gathering of supporters in Ruatoki, Iti thanked all those worldwide who had protested the police raids and arrests. Speaking in Maori, he noted that the authorities had “spent $8 million in an operation to arrest me.” He asked, “Why didn’t they just come and ask me?”

Police allege that Iti and his 15 fellow defendants had engaged in “military-style” training involving firearms at camps in the Urewera mountain range, near Ruatoki. The Tuhoe people have lived and hunted in these mountains for hundreds of years. “We were not hiding any of our activities,” Iti told the gathering.

According to media reports, the police obtained warrants under the Terrorism Suppression Act to spy on Iti and associates over a period of 18 months. They followed individuals and recorded conversations, tapped phones, intercepted e-mails, bugged cars, videotaped homes, and placed surveillance cameras in the Urewera mountain bush.

This material is unlikely, however, to be admissible as evidence for the police charges brought under the Arms Act. According to the New Zealand Herald, the October 15 police raids resulted in the seizure of only four rifles and 230 rounds of ammunition. These items are the basis of charges against only two people, Tame Iti and one other.

While the courts have suppressed information gathered under the Terrorism Suppression Act, detailed summaries of the police allegations have been leaked and reported by newspapers and television.

At the same time, Prime Minister Helen Clark has asserted publicly that there was “paramilitary training in the Ureweras by disaffected people” who “at the very least have illicitly used firearms, constructed Molotov cocktails, and trained themselves in how to use napalm.” Police Association president Greg O’Connor branded those arrested as “violent extremists.”

Clark has indicated that the Law Commission will be given a wide brief when it reviews the Terrorism Suppression Act, with a view to strengthening police powers. An amendment to the act, already before parliament, was passed 108 to 13 on November 13 with the support of both main parties, Labour and National.

The amendment creates a new offence, “committing an act of terrorism,” which carries a penalty of life imprisonment. It gives the prime minister the power to designate groups and individuals as terrorists, without right of appeal to the courts.
 
 
Related articles:
‘War on terror’ targets working class  
 
 
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