October 15th Solidarity

On 30 January, the Government responded to the United Nations investigation into the conduct of the October 15th raids. In this response, the government was very keen to separate the itself from the daily operations of the Police. Michael Cullen, deputy prime minister said, "What the Government will be doing, and has done, is to explain the nature of police operational independence in New Zealand." What he did not say and will not say, however, is that these raids received the approval Prime Minister Helen Clark well in advance of them happening. She was very much aware that the Police were preparing to use the Terrorism Suppression Act for the first time, and that well-known activist Tame Iti would be arrested. The police commissioner gave a briefing to the Prime Ministers' Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination (ODESC) in the week before the raids. ODESC membership comprises Chief Executives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Defence Force, Ministry of Defence and NZSIS, GCSB, NZ Police, Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management, Treasury and others as and when necessary. Thus for this government to claim that the conduct of the raids was simply an operational matter is to ignore the obvious: terrorism is at the heart of it a political matter, a political issue. Thus the government gave its explicit approval to wage another political war against Tuhoe, and more broadly against Maori people.

When the Terrorism Suppression Act was passed in 2002, Maori organisations submitted to Parliament that this law would be used against Maori people. Their concerns were dismissed. But they could see the writing on the wall. Just as the Suppression of Rebellion Act 1863 was used to label Maori as 'rebels' in their own lands so as to then expropriate those lands, the Terrorism Suppression Act is being used to now label Maori as terrorists in order to consolidate government power and divide Maoridom. Once again, the Crown's strategy of divide and conquer seeks to make 'good Maori' and 'bad Maori'. It rewards those who participate in its capitalist, white supremacist paradigm. It criminalises those who resist it.

The government is very keen to trumpet its human rights record when it suits them. It is not without a certain irony that in the same week that more racist raids were being carried out in Ruatoki and Maketu, the government was hosting a cluster munitions conference in Wellington. It is always happy to talk about someone else's human rights record. The government has put its name forward to be a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the term 2009 to 2012. Thus they are keen to downplay another report condemning New Zealand's treatment of its indigenous people.

This government and the UN investigation are a sham. There is no justice in a system built on violent colonisation and coercion.