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A New Zealand activist who took the Government to court after Security Intelligence Service agents raided his home says he feels a sense of deja vu over this week's searches and arrests of activists in the Bay of Plenty.
Aziz Choudry was an opponent of free trade and expansion of security laws in 1996 when he became the victim of a botched SIS break-in.
A Court of Appeal judge later said the break-in was illegal and Mr Choudry was compensated.
In a letter to the Weekend Herald yesterday from Canada, Mr Choudry said he was outraged by the "pathetically predictable" actions of the police and their political masters and the way in which the words "terror" and "Maori" are bandied about the world.
The raids were predictable because the state had always inherently equated Maori resistance and decolonisation initiatives with subversion, sedition and criminality.
There were parallels between New Zealand and Canada, which also had a history of staunch opposition to indigenous sovereignty activists.
Mr Choudry said New Zealand had announced its candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council for the period 2009-2012. "This Government, which has (along with Canada) voted against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and is now waging a militarised campaign against Maori sovereignty, environmental and social justice activists, clearly has no shame."
