Maori activists planning coup?

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 1

Maori activists planning coup?

By

PETER LUKE,

political reporter

The member of Parliament for Hobson, Mr Ross Meurant, alleged yesterday that an underground Maori terrorist group, financed partly by stolen money, was planning to overthrow the New Zealand Government.

Speaking in Parliament, where a member’s speeches are protected by privilege, Mr Meurant linked this group to gangs and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

The Government had added to this threat by directing the Security Intelligence Service not to infiltrate or maintain surveillance of radical Maori gangs. "Don’t spy on our terrorists, they were told,” Mr Meurant said.

Mr Meurant named 15 members of this movement which, although working under a number of labels, used the Waitangi Action Committee as an umbrella group. The principal “cell” of this Maori nationalist movement consisted of women, including Donna Awatere, Ripeka Evans, Hilda Halkyard, Atareta Poananga, Titewhai Harawira, Hinewhai Harawira, and Emily Karaka, he said.

“Males are regarded as inferior and sit in the second row. They include Arthur Harawira, Hone Harawira, Maunga Awarua, Benny Dalton, Dr Pat Hohepa, Norman Tewhata, Syd Jackson, and Harmi Pirihi,” said Mr Meurant.

Mr Meurant said that three of the group — Ms Poananga, Dr Hohepa, and Ms Titewhai Harawira — went to Fiji last month, seeking Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka’s aid in overthrowing the New Zealand Government Mr Meurant who was head of the police “Red Squad” during the 1981 Springbok rugby tour, said that he had watched this movement grow when he was an inspector in the New Zealand Police.

“We first saw these people at Bastion Point in 1978. Then they moved to Waitangi and turned our national day into an annual battle between police and pro-

testers/* He said that 1981 saw unprecedented violence in the streets as members of this group recruited gang members to clash with the police. “Now they have moved underground. Now they are a greater danger. Now they plan the overthrow of the New Zealand Government.”

But, although this group must never be under-estimated, it would not succeed, Mr Meurant said.

He described a number of the activities of members of the group.

“They have moved inside the system. Ripeka Evans, for example, has taken a job in broadcasting. Goebbels also understood the importance of the media.”

Others had jobs in the mental health field. The group now controlled a "Maori ward” in Auckland’s Carrington Hospital, Mr Meurant alleged. Mr Meurant also said that members of the group had a secret meeting with a P.L.O. representative, whom he named as Abu Laghood. “The principal question of Laghood was, ‘How do we get firearms and explosives from the P.L.O.’ ’’ Parliament was told of two finance sources used by group members.

At Carrington Hospital, members were so powerful they could channel hospital funds from "projects prioritised by the hospital management group into the dubious area of Maori mental health.” Mr Meurant said that Maori mental health included indoctrinating young Maori gang members that they were in prison or discriminated against “because of the white man” and that their salvation lay in revolution.

Further reports, page 8