'Terror raid' at Taupo home

TAUPO TIMES

RAIDED: Joanna Pearsall and Bryan Innes are well-known in Taupo for their permaculture expertise. The couple say they were both shocked and confused as to why police would target them and their home as part of their nationwide investigation into military-style training camps in the Ureweras.

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Police swooped on a Taupo house on Wednesday as part of ongoing nationwide anti-terrorism raids.

The owners of the house are environmentalists Joanna Pearsall and Bryan Innes, the organisers of Taupo's Ecoshow - a sustainability exposition that attracted thousands of people to the Taupo Events Centre over the weekend.

Fifteen police descended on their Hilltop home with a search warrant for the property about 11.30am.

Mr Innes says when the police arrived he was working in his office in the basement of the house with his wife and a visiting Swedish academic who was in Taupo to speak at the Ecoshow.

He says there were a number of Ecoshow volunteers also staying at the house at the time and people were coming and going buying organic vegetables from the couple's organics club.

"We were all herded into the living room and told not to leave. It's a shocking experience."

Police detained the occupants of the house for about three and a half hours until they had completed their search. No arrests were made.

Mr Innes says the police refused to inform him as to why their house was being searched, but he believes they were tracking down Trademe purchases made from the property.

Among items seized, police took a pair of camouflaged pants and a shirt with German flag on it, both of which had been bought on Trademe.

"They were just fishing for anything and everything, and it looks like they will concoct stories to link them all together," he says. "It's utterly wrong."

Two police dogs were used in the search of the property, which Mr Innes believes were searching for firearms.

"I've never been an owner of a firearm in my life and no one else here has one," he says.

"I have nothing to hide. I don't do drugs or anything; I'm totally committed to the community and sustainability."

Police also confiscated all the computers in the house, as well as digital cameras and cell phones.

Mr Innes says the computers held all the information regarding the Ecoshow and without them they have no way of contacting exhibitors and paying bills.

"It has completely thrown us and put a total stop on our lives. Everything is tied up in our computers."

He asked a police computer specialist involved in the investigation if he could assure them that surveillance equipment would not be inserted into their computers.

"He couldn't look me in the eye and say no. I don't know right now if my phone is being tapped and recorded; this is not okay."

The anti-terrorism legislation used by police in the recent raids is "a huge erosion of the rights of democratic citizens" and has put a terrible strain on New Zealand's race relations, Mr Innes says.

"It's like throwing petrol on a fire."

He compares the raids to a continuation of the armed constabulary confiscating Tuhoe lands in the 1860s.

"This time we have the same sort of armed constabulary coming in as a result of about 150 years of (Maori* being alienated from mainstream society.

"Sending in the police like this is just the wrong, wrong thing to do."

Both district and national police headquarters would not comment on the search of the Taupo house other than to confirm it was part of the wider police operation.

The police raids, which have so far netted 17 people on firearms charges, follows a year-long investigation into possible military-style training camps run by individuals seeking an autonomous Tuhoe nation in the sparsely-populated Urewera Ranges.