Source: One News
Nov 8, 2007 4:23 PM

October 15
Armed police swoop on properties around New Zealand in what appears to be an anti-terrorism operation with military style training camps in the eastern Bay of Plenty. Over a dozen people are arrested on weapons charges and police say more charges are likely to follow.

Police Commissioner Howard Broad says they had taken enforcement action in connection with an operation they have had running over the course of 2006 and 2007. Over 300 police staff were involved at the peak of the operation executing a series of warrants across the country seeking firearms and other items. Broad says the search warrants were obtained under the Summary Proceedings Act to search for evidence of the Commission of Offences Against the Arms Act and the Terrorism Suppression Act.

Raids took place in the eastern Bay of Plenty, Hamilton, Auckland, Palmerston North and Wellington.

Prime Minister Helen Clark says the government was briefed a week earlier about the training camps.

October 18
A bitter race row erupts over the raids. Maori leaders claim the actions of officers traumatised Tuhoe children, alleging they even boarded buses brandishing guns. Police denied those claims.

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples that the raids have destroyed trust and set race relations back 100 years. He warns of a big blow to race relations caused by the raids.

October 16, 19 & 20
Growing anger over the raids saw hundreds of people hit the streets up and down the country. The protesters say the raids were an abuse of civil liberties and they are calling for the 16 people charged to be released on bail.

October 23
The Maori Party criticises the government over the police raids. MP Hone Harawira says the police, as an arm of government, have terrorised and brutalised the Tuhoe people. He accuses the government of intimate involvement in the raids.

October 29
Members of the New Zealand news media band together to try to get a judge to lift some of the identity suppression orders in the raid cases.

October 31
ONE News reveals the Solicitor-General is considering whether or not to lay charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act against 12 of the 16 people arrested in the nationwide raids. He had been contacted by the Police Commissioner two days prior.

November 2
Prominent Auckland lawyer Peter Williams QC is part of a legal team on a mission in Tuhoe country, checking on possible civil and human rights breaches during the raids. The mission comes on the day a survey was released showing that 41% of Maori surveyed believe police over-reacted on the day they came into Ruatoki.

At the same time a joint hearing for the people who were arrested in the raids took place at the Auckland District Court. Auckland student Omar Hamed, 19, appeared on four firearms charges and was denied bail, along with veteran Tuhoe activist Tame Iti’s nephew Rawiri Iti who had been seeking bail for the second time. Two other accused were given image suppression - Wellington-based Valerie Morse and Emily Bailey - whose twin brothers Rongomai and Ira are also jointly charged. Most of the others arrested have had their names suppressed.

November 6
Prominent Auckland lawyer Peter Williams QC says he is to send a letter to the Police Commissioner complaining that people in Ruatoki in the Bay of Plenty were mistreated during the raids. Williams claims the police unlawfully detained locals and did not have the power to carry out the road blocks.

ONE News successfully argues to the Court of Appeal to name two of those arrested - Tuhoe Francis Lambert and Whiri Andrew Kemara. The cases of both men had been referred to the Solicitor-General.

November 8
Solicitor- General David Collins announces that he cannot authorise charges to be laid under the Terrorism Suppression Act. Collins says the key reason was because there was not sufficient evidence that a group or an entity was planning or preparing to carry out a terrorist act.

Earlier in the day a delegation comprising Tuhoe leaders, trade union representatives, politicians, church and community group representatives said they were seeking a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen and Collins because to lobby them over the matter.