Claims of Maori separatist plot begin to unravel
By Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent
Published by The Independent, 23 October 2007
A week after 17 people were arrested in anti-terrorist raids, New Zealanders are asking whether their security forces foiled an astonishing plot by militant Maori separatists – or whether they made a monumental error of judgement.
Extreme secrecy surrounds the affair, with only two of the 17 detainees being identified and the media excluded from court hearings. But those held in dawn raids across the nation are said to include a mixture of white anarchists and environmental activists as well as Maori radicals.
As well as swooping on homes in cities including Auckland and Wellington, police sealed off a hamlet in the Ureweras, a mountainous area of the North Island, which they claim was the site of terrorist training camps. The isolated, thickly forested region, home to the Tuhoe tribe, is now the focus of national attention.
New Zealand is not usually associated with terrorism. The only terrorist act carried out there was the bombing of the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior, by French secret agents in Auckland harbour in 1985....
READ MORE AT:
http://news.independent.co.uk:80/world/
australasia/article3087264.ece
By Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent
Published by The Independent, 23 October 2007
A week after 17 people were arrested in anti-terrorist raids, New Zealanders are asking whether their security forces foiled an astonishing plot by militant Maori separatists – or whether they made a monumental error of judgement.
Extreme secrecy surrounds the affair, with only two of the 17 detainees being identified and the media excluded from court hearings. But those held in dawn raids across the nation are said to include a mixture of white anarchists and environmental activists as well as Maori radicals.
As well as swooping on homes in cities including Auckland and Wellington, police sealed off a hamlet in the Ureweras, a mountainous area of the North Island, which they claim was the site of terrorist training camps. The isolated, thickly forested region, home to the Tuhoe tribe, is now the focus of national attention.
New Zealand is not usually associated with terrorism. The only terrorist act carried out there was the bombing of the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior, by French secret agents in Auckland harbour in 1985....
READ MORE AT:
http://news.independent.co.uk:80/world/
australasia/article3087264.ece
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1 comment:
Hegemonic Post-Colonial Discourse (Contemporary Colonization)
What is terrorism? What does it mean to act in the name of peace, or
to find arms in places where they don't exist? Are they copying
hegemonic discourse? All of these questions are valid and apply to
violations that many people of the world suffer, above all indigenous
people.
In my opinion, when culture is managed irresponsibly, and we see
others judged in an irresponsible way, with no evidence, with comments
that are racist and which are placed in a context as if they were
made by wise elders, claiming things such as "I decide if you are
worthy of your culture or not", "you are violent and vengeful", these
people are hypocrites, because they say they are working for our
people and are offering "recognition to those men and women who iron
our clothes, watch over us, wash our cars, and make our handicrafts".
They do not see that this is not the way, not the right path.
We as indigenous are not only those things. We are the ones who,
through our ancestors, have kept society together to the present, we
are the ones who have diverse ways of expressing ourselves as daily
witnesses to the idea that it is possible to live in peace with others
and with mother earth, we champion the responsible use of culture,
which does away with preconceptions and ideas promoted by ignorance
and lack of understanding by others. We are the ones as a people who
have given up so much at such a high and unfortunate cost, such as our
most valued legacy, the greatness of the past, our faith, our culture,
our food. What kind of sin is it to have self-determination? What kind
of sin is it to protest? What sin have we committed when we accept the
new nationality of peoples living on our soil? What sin have
indigenous committed when we recognise each other as human beings? Why
do they mistreat us when we state that something does not look right
to us?
In other words, people who practice what they criticise, who judge you
in the name of democracy, who say they are offering tribute, are just
like the colonisers, they keep exchanging gold for trinkets and want
us to give away our wealth for shiny mirrors. Amparo Ochoa has a song
that expresses this very well:
And we open our homes and call them friends
But if an Indian comes back tired from working in the highlands
We humiliate him and see him as a stranger throughout his land.
You hypocrite acting like a humble person in front of a foreigner
You become arrogant with your own poor brothers
Oh, Malinche's curse, illness of our age,
When will you leave my land….when will you free my people.
I dedicate this to all the indigenous peoples of the world, especially
to my Maori brothers and sisters in Aotearoa New Zealand, my Wayuu
people and to the Wichi people.
I want to share information about what is happening to our Maori
brothers and sisters in Aotearoa. Please read this letter and send it
on, for once make the voice heard of THOSE WHO HAVE NO VOICE.
David Hernández Palmar. Indígena Wayuu. Clan IIPUANA
0414 632 1312
0416 370 3539
+ 58 414 632 1312
+ 58 416 370 3539
shiaakua@gmail.com
"Tradition is like a wise elder, as she sits on the road of days, she
tells future generations what she has lived." RAMON PAZ IIPUANA 1938
"La tradición es como una anciana que sentada en el camino de los días,
cuenta a las generaciones venideras lo que ha vivido". RAMON PAZ IIPUANA
1.938
La tradition, c'est comme une vieille dame qui, assise sur le chemin des
jours qui passent, raconte aux générations à venir ce qui lui a été donné
de
vivre.
RAMON PAZ IIPUANA, 1938
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