Rimpac violates ‘every core value we have as Māori’, says activist – Te Ao Māori News

Next week, the Royal NZ Navy will take part in a US-led military exercise in Hawaii that was cancelled by opponents due to objections from the Kānaka Maoli and fears of environmental destruction.

Although the military exercise is called Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), it involves nations that are not geographically close to the Pacific – Brunei, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Israel.

Recently, there have also been loud protests by peace activists and other groups against Israeli involvement, demanding New Zealand’s withdrawal and condemning its involvement as complicity in genocide.

“As a signatory to the Genocide Convention, New Zealand has an obligation to prevent genocide and should not cooperate militarily with a genocidal regime,” said Dr Arama Rata (Ngāti Maniapoto, Taranaki and Ngāruahine), an organiser of Mātika mō Paratīnia, a group of Māori in solidarity with an international movement to liberate Palestine.

Participation and resistance of the former government

In 2020 Te Ao Māori News interviewed then-Secretary of Defense and former soldier Ron Mark, who concluded that participation in RIMPAC was important. We I also spoke to Cancel Rimpac Coalition spokesperson Teanau Tuiono, who had four major issues with Rimpac’s participation.

Mark said RIMPAC placed New Zealand alongside strategic partners, including the Five Eyes, the Five Power Defence Arrangements and “friends in NATO”, with the aim of developing people-to-people relationships and operational capabilities to ensure compatibility, interoperability, efficiency and effectiveness.

Tuiono said his biggest concern was the rivalry between China and America. The military exercise was led by the US, which “disinvited” China in 2018.

Tuiono disagreed with Mark’s comments about the importance of practice and preparation, arguing that the “disinvitation” showed that politics was at stake and urging that New Zealand should remain independent.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government was still considering joining Pillar 2 of Aukus, despite warnings that doing so would breach the Rarotongan Treaty and contribute to global tensions because the security pact aims to contain China.

The NZ Herald reported warnings from China’s ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, who said it appeared New Zealand was “taking sides” because US diplomats had said the purpose of AUKUs was to preserve US hegemony, which positions the US as the dominant world power.

But Rata said Aukus was “a complete betrayal of the Pacific that would fuel militarism and nuclear colonialism and bring us closer to a groundless war against China, with our homeland being the casualty zone.”

Other concerns raised by Tuiono at the time included the Covid-19 pandemic, its impacts on the environment and marine life, and the impacts on Hawaiian Whanaunga and indigenous Kānaka Maoli people, whose environment, oceans and marine life would be affected.

Tuiono said New Zealand should listen to Pacific relations officials who did not support RIMPAC’s use of their ocean.

Environmental destruction and sex trafficking

Environmental groups in Hawaii have long expressed concerns about the military exercises.

Hawaii Public Radio reported on the environmental dangers to marine mammals from active sonar systems and explosions, which can cause permanent hearing loss, internal injuries and death.

The US Navy said it was committed to the environment and trained in damage reduction.

Yet Hawaii has a long history of military pollution.

These include the discharge of 28,000 kilograms of toxic nitrate compounds into the sea, the emission of hydrogen cyanide, mustard bombs and radioactive waste, as well as the dropping of bombs, rockets and torpedoes.

In 2021, the U.S. Navy announced that an oil leak had contaminated the Halawa Well, which supplies a fifth of Honolulu’s drinking water. A U.S. congressman described the disaster as a “crisis of astronomical proportions.” Residents suffered symptoms including headaches, nausea, vomiting, rashes and peeling skin and were later taken to court in Honolulu, where victims claimed health problems including seizures, asthma, eczema and balance problems.

“Military exercises have led to ecocide, completely destroying the environment and making many islands and atolls uninhabitable,” Rata said.

She also said that the presence of military personnel was associated with sexual violence against local women and girls.

Kathryn Xian of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery said during RIMPAC that “pimps and sex traffickers from out of state” would travel to Hawaii.

In 2014, the U.S. Pacific Fleet Office of Public Affairs stated that it was aware of the “scourge of human trafficking and sexual slavery” but that it continued to perpetrate it.

In 2018, the UN Commission on the Status of Women hosted an anti-trafficking campaign called “She is All Women” during RIMPAC to raise awareness.

The benefits of Rimpac for New Zealand

Defense Minister Judith Collins also supported RIMPAC because of its interoperability, but Rata argued that the government likes to portray interoperability as “beneficial to our security interests.”

“In reality, we risk becoming an extension of the US military in the service of its priorities, at the expense of our own security interests, which undermines our sovereignty.

“We must seek to disengage militarily from the United States and Israel, which have an appalling track record of illegal foreign interventions and violations of international humanitarian law.”

The people-to-people relationships Ron Mark discussed are consistent with the US touting RIMPAC as a means of promoting trust and prosperity, something Rata said he found ridiculous.

The recent governments of the United States and New Zealand said the incident was of great importance for the security of the region.

“When you look at the experiences of our relationships in Hawaii, Kanaky, the Marshall Islands and elsewhere, it is clear that the greatest security threat to us as indigenous Pacific peoples is the presence of foreign military forces, coupled with the threat of climate change. These military exercises are a threat to our security and our lives,” she said.

Pacific interests

Both Tuiono and Rata called on the government to listen to and support Kānaka Maoli, who is against the exercises.

Rata argued that participation in RIMPAC was contrary to Māori values ​​and the interests of the Pacific.

“Rimpac reinforces colonialism in our Moana and violates all the core values ​​we hold as Māori: Kaitiakitanga, Whanaungatanga, Mana Motuhake. “Māori is not something we as Māori should have anything to do with.”

Instead, Rata said New Zealand should focus the Pacific region’s priorities on climate change, nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

“Māori have always engaged in ‘international relations’ with Indigenous peoples in Te Moana nui a Kiwa and beyond, based on our own tikanga, yet the Crown has consistently breached its duties under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the United Nations Indigenous Peoples Declaration by preventing Māori from expressing their rangatiratanga internationally and by failing to consider the impact of Crown decisions on Indigenous peoples.”