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Press, 28 February 1981, Page 15

By

GEOFF MEIN

“How would you like it if a warship name" and bombed historical Maori sites?” •

Two frigates from the New Zealand Navy last year participated in a Rirapac (Rim of the Pacific) exercise, which included shelling the Hawaiian island. of Kaho’olawe.

Hawaiian peace campaigners claim that the island which has been “continuously bombed as an exercise target since 1941,” has significant historical and cultural importance.

Ancient chants and archaeological evidence suggest Kaho'olawe has been inhabited since 1000 A.D. The island is said to have been used as an adze factory and a sacred place for priests. Historical sites have revealed Kaho’olawe’s key role in early South Pacific migrations and in the archaeological record of the Hawaiian people, the campaigners say.

United States naval control of Kaho’olawe became official in 1953 when President Eisenhower issued an Executive Order claiming the island for naval operations. Concerned groups of Hawaiians are trying to halt the shelling and”secure the island’s return to Hawaiians. Soli Niheu symbolises the “growing awareness among native Hawaiians that they have had the dirty end of the stick.” An avid human rights campaigner in Hawaii since the late 19605, Mr Niheu visited New Zealand this month at the invitation of the Waitangi Action Committee.

He believes all forces of oppression — including colonialism; militarism and racism — are inter-related.

“All of us in different struggles feel our cause is the most important and just. Until we analyse the causes of others, freedom from oppression — the real enemy — will never be fully realised.”

Maoris and native. Hawaiians faced the same struggles, he said. During his three-week visit he noted similarities in the positions of both races in their respective societies, comparable unemployment levels, prison populations, life-styles and languages.

Mr Niheu witnessed the controversial Waitangi Day incidents early in the month, and was impressed with the sincerity of the Maori activists.

“Although they are young, what they are doing is correct.”

Hawaiians have a similar treaty to the Treaty of Waitangi — The Great Mahele, signed in 1848. Both are “scams,” in his opinion. The Great Mahele promised one million acres of land (out of a total of four million acres) to the Hawaiians. In reality they have received 28.000 acres — about three acres for each native Hawaiian. The Government and multinational corporations continued to take land from the native population, Mr Niheu said.

“Like the Treaty of Waitangi, The Great Mahele is

not being honoured. Until all realise the treaties are frauds, both races will continue to be oppressed.” Mr Niheu, who is reported to have escaped arrest at Waitangi by threatening an international incident, was disgusted' by the way the police “selectively enforced their ridiculous law of disturbing the peace.” . “The marae is a place to air views withut being intimidated by the police, who had no right to be there. They over-reacted in a situation which could have been controlled by the Maori wardens.”

Mr Niheu sees the shelling of Kaho’olawe as an example of the military exploitation of Pacific islands by outsiders. He called on Maoris to urge the New Zealand Government to stop the participation of its navy in such exercises.

Accepting the inter-rela-tionship of what Mr Niheu calls “the forces of oppression,” the recently formed Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, based at Honolulu, concentrates on linking land struggles with campaigns against racism and nuclear weapons throughout the Pacific.

Tomorrow has been declared Nuclear Free Pacific Day — the twenty-seventh anniversary of the detonation of the largest hydrogen bomb