Today, a group of protesters expressed their solidarity with the political prisoners at the NZ consulate general in Athens and delivered the following letter - see below.

Also, Radio Filia, a radio station run for and by Filipino migrants in Greece, did a half hour programme on the situation in NZ. The station can also be heard by the 25.000 Filipino seamen, working on Greek ships traveling under convenience flags around the world.

They talked about the UN declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples that New Zealand refused to sign, about the massive state repression and the arrests of Tino Rangatiratanga activists. The struggles of the Filipino indigenous people and the solidarity to all oppressed were also discussed and guests read a solidarity message from the "No one is illegal - Athens" group.


Athens Greece.Saturday 27 Oktober 2007

To the Prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark
To Police minister Annette King,
To the press,

By this statement, the association No one is Illegal — Athens-Greece wish to strongly condemn the massive, indiscriminate and unjustified political repression unleashed on the Maori people by the New Zealand government.

This week, hundreds of masked, heavily armed "anti-terrorist" commandos sealed off and searched whole Maori communities, particularly traumatising their children (one commando even searched a schoolbus, pointing guns at kids!). As the Maori say, they are not the terrorists but those that are being terrorised! Seventeen or more activists have been arrested on the pretext of searching for arms, but the massive searches have uncovered nothing significant and the persons arrested are
indigenous and antiglobalisation activists, not terrorists!

Quite evidently, in New Zealand as elsewhere, the worst suspicions concerning the so-called "Anti-Terrorist" laws are confirmed. Worldwide,
terrorists attacks prove to be just an excuse to massively reduce civil liberties, the better to silence the growing resistance to neoliberal
austerity programs, constantly growing economic inequalities and catastrophic social and environmental policies.

New Zealand will lose all claim to being a society respectful of indigenous and civil rights more generally if it does not immediately abandon this scandalous witchhunt.

With the protesters in New Zealand we call for the immediate release of all the victims of police repression!

No One is illegal-Athens Greece