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The rhetoric of 'terror'…

Further to my previous post. On the news this evening is the case of Jamie Lockett, who is accused of "declaring war on New Zealand", based on overheard (surveillance) conversations by the police.

Apparently this guy 'declared war' on New Zealand in telephone conversations with ... who knows?…his mum?.

I haven't heard the material but the suspect/victim argues his remarks were taken out of context.

"How could that be?" I hear you say. If he's going to war with us…goshdarnit…we're off to war with him. Lock the bugger away.

Let's take a step back.

New Zealand is a signatory to the Hague convention. According to that international treaty here is the recipe for declaring war:

The Contracting Powers recognize that hostilities between themselves must not commence without previous and explicit warning, in the form either of a reasoned declaration of war or of an ultimatum with conditional declaration of war.


Clearly there is no 'Contracting Power' sitting in a remand cell.

Obviously chatting about going to 'war' doesn't constitute a declaration - or having an army, navy or airforce (or defence force if you're Japan) would be illegal under the convention - if discussion or planning about the possibility of going to war was ever to arise. I think you can see the absurdity of that.

The government of New Zealand is in breach of the Hague Convention.

Anette King should resign immediately. The Minister of Police needs to know what is going on when it affects national security (if it ever did). If she is uniformed by the uniforms then we all need to contemplate the concept of a police state.

Jamie Lockett and Tama Iti might well be flakes (and I don't necessarily agree with thier points of view) but they deserve fair treatment as citizens of the pacific democracy.

Agreement isn't necessary for a healthy democracy. Healthy disagreement is.

And you can quote me on that.

Footnote:
Go to any RSA (returned services association club in the country-buy a cheap drink - chat to veteran members…honestly if you don't hear at least 10 death threats to politicians in any conversation you're probably not really in the RSA).


References to te Hague Convention from Yale University (US)

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