Mission & Justice

Kathy Marks; 16/5/08

All of the Pitcairn men convicted of raping and sexually assaulting young girls on the remote South Pacific island are expected to be free by Christmas, after serving less than two years in a prison that some of them helped build. Eight men, all descendants of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn in the 18th century, were convicted at trials held on the island in 2004 and in New Zealand in 2006. A ninth pleaded guilty. Six received prison sentences, which they began serving in late 2006 after their final appeal was rejected by the Privy Council in London, the highest court for British Overseas Territories. Despite the severity of their crimes, which included gang-raping a 10-year-old, the islanders were given jail terms of only two to 6½ years.

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Sandra O’Malley; 8/5/08

Australia and New Zealand deny they have ditched the possibility of legal action to stop Japanese whaling. Rejecting a report that New Zealand had abandoned taking the legal route, both countries say it remains an option although a diplomatic solution remains their preferred course of action. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who is on two-day visit to Tokyo, insisted international legal action remained an option among Australia’s strategies to get Japan to stop the annual cull. “We’ll make a decision about the need for legal action in due course at a time of our own choosing, but we are very keen to exhaust diplomatic measures to try and bring this matter to a conclusion,” Mr Smith said.

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Dennis Shanahan; 8/5/08

Australia is likely to abandon its $1 million attempt to take Japan to the international court over whaling after New Zealand gave up its plans to use legal action to stop the annual cull. The Rudd Government embraced the use of the UN’s international court soon after theelection, using aircraft and ships to gather evidence against Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.  But the New Zealand Government has since discovered “significant difficulties” with taking Japan to the international court and has abandoned the tactic.

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On Behalf Of Graeme Ferguson; 7/5/08; Kevin Toomey OP

Peter Murnane OP became parish priest of St Benedicts shortly after I went to St David’s. I came to appreciate him as one of the most Christ-like priests I have met. Peter has the capacity to act in highly creative ways to ensure that the Gospel is demonstrated in life.

He planted - with others - a city garden on waste land on the edge of the Auckland motorway. With the Dominican nuns in St Benedicts, he had created an entire wall of the church property painted by graffitti artists who were being hounded by the city authorities. (more…)

David Eames; 2/5/08

Religious radicals who attacked the top-secret Waihopai spy base more likely hampered New Zealand’s ability to drive a hard bargain at the trade table than crippled the US ability to wage war, says one intelligence expert. Peter Cozens, head of Victoria University’s Centre for Strategic Studies, says the mysterious Marlborough base is used strictly to collect and analyse information - often of “a political, trade and diplomatic nature” - for the New Zealand Government. Members of the Anzac Ploughshares movement infiltrated the base in an early-morning raid on Wednesday.

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2/5/08

Charges of sabotage will not be laid against three protesters accused of damaging a protective dome over a satellite dish at the Waihopai spy base, police confirmed today. Dominican friar Peter Murnane, 67, along with farmer Samuel Land, 24, and organic gardener Adrian Leason, 42, were arrested after allegedly breaking into the Marlborough base early on Wednesday morning. The group, calling themselves the Anzac Ploughshares, said they had broken into the spy base to protest against the war on terror. They were charged with intentional damage and entering a building with the intent to commit a crime.

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Jarrod Booker; 1/5/08

A Catholic priest who took in and kept tabs on freed Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui is one of three people charged with inflicting an embarrassing blow to a top-secret spy base. Dominican friar Peter Murnane joined organic gardener Adrian Leason and Hokianga farmer Sam Land in yesterday’s early-morning raid on the Waihopai satellite communications interception station, near Blenheim. They used sickles to puncture one of two 30m rubber balloons that protect radar aerials from the weather. Prime Minister Helen Clark called the raid “a senseless act of vandalism”, and the head of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) ordered an urgent investigation into the base’s security.

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They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift sword against nation; and there shall be no more training for war. Isaiah 2/4 This morning, 30 April 2008, we entered the Waihopai Spy Base near Blenheim. Our group, including a Dominican Priest, temporarily closed the base by padlocking the gates and proceeded to deflate one of the large domes covering two satellite dishes. At 6am we cut through three security fences surrounding the domes - these are armed with razor wire, infrared motion sensors and a high voltage electrified fence. Once inside we used sickles to cut one of the two 30-metre white domes, built a shrine and knelt in prayer to remember the people killed by United States military activity.

See: http://ploughshares.org.nz/