ABSTRACT
On 15 October 2007, amidst sensationalized media speculation, squads of New Zealand police — many armed with automatic weapons — executed a number of search warrants on addresses around the country. Using for the first time powers granted to the police under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002, they entered homes and businesses, and confiscated a wide range of evidence, including computers and other electronic equipment, clothing, rifles and ammunition, diaries and correspondence. As part of the raids, police descended on the small, rural settlement of Ruatoki North and, in an extraordinary show of force, blocked roads in and out of the town while armed officers identified and photographed the occupants of every vehicle stopped. By the end of the day, police had arrested 16 people, citing the Terrorism Suppression Act and the Arms Act. What will not be immediately apparent to many is that Ruatoki is a settlement at the gateway of the Urewera National Park, an area of dense and inhospitable bush, and is populated largely by the Maori. When news of the police raids broke, and it was revealed that one of those arrested was a prominent radical Maori activist, a disturbing fact became clear: the police were accusing Maori activists of being a terrorist group, and of running ‘military-style training camps’ in the Urewera. In the weeks following the raids, New Zealand's Solicitor-General ruled that a police case could not be made under the Terrorism Suppression Act and, as a result, firearms charges against some of those arrested would be dropped because the case against them relied on evidence that could not have been gained without the extraordinary powers granted under the terror laws. Under the Arms Act, most of those finally tried are likely to face only fines if found guilty. 1
