STATE TERRORISTS

On the 15th of October 2007, a gang of masked, gun-wielding, booted, black-clad state terrorists drove into Ruatoki and took its people hostage. 

They opened their raid by smashing into houses where people were either just beginning their daily routines, or had yet to even get out of bed.

It was about 5.30 in the morning and basically we thought it was the horses running around our whare, so I got up, went out the sliding door, and all I saw was red dots all over me and police yelling at me telling me to stand still and put my hands up.  [Awhitia Te Whakaturou-Tohu, Ruatoki resident, victim of state terrorism.]

Then a little after dawn, they illegally blockaded the only road, stopped all exiting vehicles (including the local school bus), herded people out of their houses, and held guns to heads to ensure their orders were followed. 

I just started crying and my nan tried to come over to me and asked me if I was OK, and then the policeman behind her said, ‘Shut up, don’t talk to her,’ and walked closer towards me and pointed the gun down at my head.  [Patricia Lambert, 12 years old, victim of state terrorism.]

For the next six hours the state’s terrorists held everyone they’d captured without access to food, water, toilets, communications and (in some cases) their families. 

By midday, although charges had yet to be formally laid and no confessions had been obtained, the state had saturated New Zealand’s media with their spin on what was happening in Ruatoki.  Consequently, instead of being correctly identified as victims of terrorism, the people of Ruatoki were initially cast as its perpetrators. 

 

As we now know, and to their credit, the media dug deeper than the state-sponsored spin about Operation 8 and soon exposed a number of problems with it, including the fact that the warrants on which it was permitted to go ahead, were obtained illegally.

 

Gradually but inexorably the case for terrorism against all those arrested on 15th October 2007 unravelled, and almost four years later all charges of terrorism were quietly dropped by the state.  

 

Although somewhat embarrassing, the failure to convict anyone of terrorism as a result of Operation 8 hasn't fazed those who ordered and masterminded it, because its main purpose was not so much to secure convictions as to send the message that they are ready, willing and able to break the law and to enact terror against the people of this country.  So in that sense, the operation was very successful. 

The state has been and remains a more likely employer of terrorism within the international system than insurgents. [Professor Michael Stohl, researcher and lecturer on organizational and political communication with special focus on terrorism, human rights and global relations.]

Indeed, the audience of the act or threat of terrorist violence is always more important than the immediate victims.  That holds true for all terrorism, including that sponsored by the state.