Maori activists convicted

New Zealand

An Auckland jury finds five radical Maori health activists guilty of assaulting a patient. David Robie reports.

FIVE RADICAL Maori activists accused of ‘hijacking’ a con

troversial project for psychiatric

care were convicted on Marcn 14 of assaulting a patient in a case likely to

have far-reaching implications for

New Zealand race relations.

Ending a 12-day trial in the Auck land District Court, a jury of nine women and three men took more than six hours to find the five defendants guilty on a total of 10 charges. All were remanded on bail for sentencing on April 11.

“It isn’t any surprise. What do you expect with a political trial like this?”

Titewhai Harawira declared as she left the court building. “This is just one more step to the revolution,” she added before hugging and kissing her family and supporters.

“Don’t cry; we have stayed strong for 12 days,” said the 56-year-old sus pended head of the Carrington Hos pital Maori health unit, Wnare Paia (‘Place of Sanctuary’). “We’ll move for ward for an independent budget for Maori health in Auckland. That in cludes taking back our land in Aotearoa [New Zealand] because health is tied to our land.”

In a statement, she said: “If they were still burning women at the stake, then that would have been done to me as well.” Trial by media had meant that every “crank in the community” had taken it upon themselves to judge her group ‘slashing car tyres, abu sive phone calls, threatening the lives of ourselves and our children”.

Harawira, a key leader of the radic al Maori group Te Ahi Kaa, was found guilty of assaulting Maori

psychiatric patient Charles Matthews

m April 1988. She was also found guilty of threatening to kill him. Hara wira s daughter Hmewhare, 35; her son Arthur, 33; his wife, Tui Pere, 26; and Otere Halkyard, 27, were also convicted on assault and injuring charges. All five had denied the allegations and it was not immediately clear whether they would appeal.

Judge Denis Pain told the jury its decision typified the “true spirit’ of NZ’s justice system: Matthews had alleged in court that he had been pun ched, kicked and grabbed by the genitals at the Whare Paia during two meetings, as punishment for his alleged sexual assault on a staff nurse.

Judge Pain told the jury there were

major conflicts in the evidence of vir-

tually every witness called; “Although

I have ruled [Matthews] was legally competent to give evidence, the credibihty of his testimony is entirely a matter for you to decide ... Is he making it up? Or is he just confused?”

Defence lawyer Dr Rodney Harrison, a renowned civil liberties barrister, told the court that a “seething bed

of politics” lay behind the allegations,

“You may have wondered who was on trial but it was not the Maori health umt,” he added, accusing the New Zealand news media of depicting Harawira as a “bogey”.

After the trial, Television New Zealand’s Eyewitness News programme cited several other allegations of assaults by Harawira, including one with a stiletto heel. It said affidavits had been filed with evidence of the alleged assaults and featured an interview with NZ-born Samoan work trust

organiser Poumau Papali’i, who

alleged an assault at a hui (meeting) of the Corso development and aid agency j n Auckland last September.

“This was an assault on the dignity of my family and ancestors,” he saia, appealing to New Zealanders to speak

out against the violence. “The legal re

medy isn’t enough.”

Last October, the then Auckland Hospital Board ordered the closure of the Whare Paia clinic after a damning report by former race relations con cihator Hiwi Tauroa, following accusa tions of assaults, threats and misuse of public funds. Tauroa’s report detailed what he termed the “mechanics of manipulation” for personal and

ideological gain,

He also warned that in future rec ognised Maori leaders would need to be prepared to stand up and challenge false “Maori views”.

Meanwhile, a controversial Austra lian television documentary about New Zealand race relations has been block ed from being screened in this coun try because of the request of three un identified people featured in Channel 10’s Page One programme. PM David

Lange condemned remarks by Syd

Jackson, a trade unionist and Te Ahi Kaa activist, saying that armed strug gle between the races was inevitable, TVNZ news and current affairs direc tor Paul Norris said such “protection” was usually reserved for extreme cases such as Soviet dissidents. □