Peace efforts ‘delicate’

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 3

Peace efforts ‘delicate’

PA Wellington Publicity about Wairoa’s efforts to secure peace in the town when ” gang members acquitted of murder return home could harm the situation, the police said yesterday. Senior-Sergeant Mike Whitehead said the police were embarrassed about news media reports casting them as the mediators within the town, when it was the local community which was working to ease tensions between rival gangs. “It’s a pretty delicate situation and a few wrong words can undo a lot of good,” he said. On Sunday a court

cleared 17 Mongrel Mob gang members and associates of murder charges arising from a confrontation with Black Power members in Wairoa’s main street last October.

Gisborne’s superintendent, Mr Rana Waitai, went to Wairoa yesterday to meet a mediation committee set up by residents, but it was just a low key meeting to establish contact, Sergeant Whitehead said.

“They are a committee set up by the community to try and ease some of the problems that exist.

“They are interested in the results they’re aiming to achieve, not in telling

the world about what they are doing,” he said. Sergeant Whitehead said news media reports implying that the police were spearheading mediation efforts were embarrassing. “The committee has initiated their own endeavours and as part of the community we’re working with them,” he said.

Concern that tensions might flare up in Wairoa has led to the Napier Rugby Junior Advisory Board deciding to pull out of representative games in Wairoa tomorrow. The board’s co-ordina-tor, Mr Dave Smith, said some parents had said they would not let their

children go to the town until things had settled down.

The decision disappointed the Wairoa-based Kahungunu district executive committee chairwoman, Ms Lena Manuel, who believed people were making too much of some of the publicity surrounding the situation in Wairoa.

“I can’t imagine who it would be that was against the trip, but I doubt whether it was anyone closely involved with Wairoa today,” she said.

“Maybe it was someone who comes from here but hasn’t been back for a while.”