[asia-apec 1269] APEC in NZ - from Scoop Online

[APEC Monitoring Group]

             A Scoop Exclusive - Inside APEC Series
            Thursday, 26 August 1999, 4:52 pm
            Article: Selwyn Manning - Scoop Auckland

    by Selwyn Manning
    As the third reading of the SIS Amendment Bill No. 2 is put before the
New
    Zealand Parliament, a Canadian Anti-APEC campaigner warns of spy
    infiltration of New Zealand groups. Those particularly targeted are
    organisations and individuals openly critical of the coming Auckland
APEC
    leader’s summit.

 But he also warns, passive groups and letter to the editor writers must
also
    be aware.
    He backs up his claims by pointing to official Canadian documentation
    produced at the ongoing Royal Canadian Mounted Police public complaints
    commission in Vancouver.

The documents reveal how he and his outspoken colleagues were bugged,
    watched, taped, photographed and videoed in the run up to, and during,
    Canada’s APEC leader’s meetings in Vancouver 1997; how groups were
    infiltrated by agency spies.

 New Zealand, the campaigner says, can expect even more covert operatives
    than what was discovered in Vancouver. He cites moves by New Zealand
Police
    to crackdown on protesters, arresting them for using loud-hailers close
to
    constables is a sign of harder things to come. He says the drafting of
SIS
    Amendment legislation which straightens the SIS’s arm in collecting its
    information from New Zealand citizens, and the paving of way for
overseas
    security agents to carry weapons on New Zealand soil, is all part of a
    hardening state attitude to those who possess opposing views.
    The bungled burglary by New Zealand SIS agents on GATT-Watchdog
spokesperson
    Aziz Choudry’s house in 1996 also shows, he says, how determined the SIS
is
    to search for information.

The break-in occurred just before APEC trade ministers met in Christchurch
    in July 1996. Two SIS agents were caught at Choudry’s home. They had
entered
    his house, disturbing documents, but nothing seemed to have been taken.
    The break-in also coincided with an alternative forum on free trade
    organised by GATT Watchdog, a coalition of NGOs and community groups
    campaigning against GATT/WTO, APEC, the MAI and other free trade and
    investment arrangements.

 All this mirrors his Canadian experience prior to APEC 1997 in Vancouver.
    Then, the Canadian authorities set up a special organisation called
Threat
    Assessment Group [TAG] to gather intelligence on anti-APEC groups,
student
    organisations, unions, groups protesting Canadian indigenous rights;
even
    the Canadian Catholic Church came under the spies eyes.

TAG included agents from the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service, Defence
    Department officers, Royal Canadian Mounted Police special branch, and
    customs officers. Other countries also were involved, particularly with
    security. CIA and FBI were active.

 Other countries undertook their own covert surveillance. Indonesia got into
    trouble with the Canadian authorities for overstepping the mark.
Indonesian
    agents wanted to know what rights they had if they shot protesters. Five
    were later arrested while doing their own surveillance on anti-APEC
groups,
    two were arrested for being inside a secure area and mounting recording
    electronic equipment on top of a hotel roof.

The Canadian campaigner’s name is Jonathan Oppenheim, a leader in the
    Canadian organisation APEC Alert.
    Oppenheim was and is an outspoken critic of APEC and the free-trade
ideology
    which drives the meetings. He became one of a large number of so-called
    leaders which were targeted by intelligence agents. All associates of
the
    leaders were scrutinised. The information passed on to elite security
    officers charged with creating a cacoon of silence and peace around
those
    attending the 97 APEC leader’s summit.

 “TAG was set up to monitor protest groups. They were also concerned about
    people who came to our meetings. If we talked to someone they monitored
that
    as well. If someone wrote a letter to the editor with a view which
    criticised APEC, they too were monitored.

 “It is incredible how paranoid they [TAG] were. APEC is a pretty unpopular
    organisation and to monitor everyone who is opposed to it is a pretty
big
    job.

 “They even monitored the Anglican Church of Canada, which was basically a
    bunch of 60s plus grannies who sang a few anti-tunes.”
    Oppenheim says anyone, any group which had a view contrary to APEC was
    investigated by TAG’s agents: “It wasn’t intelligence gathering of
groups
    suspected of acts of terrorism, it was any organisation, even those most
    passive.”

 At the time, Oppenheim and his associates knew little of what cloak and
    dagger operatives were taking place around them: “We didn’t have a clue
at
    the time that we were being monitored. They never did openly come to our
    meetings. They never made direct contact or talked to us. There was
never
    any overt presence. But since we have waded through their paper trail,
notes
    after notes after notes on anything from a talk to a discussion to a
rally
    was recorded.

 “They would take pictures, they had profiles of all of us, they even
checked
    to see if we were on welfare. They then used the photographs to identify
us.
    A number of us were arrested.”

TAG mounted a pre-emptive strike on APEC Alert members. Jaggi Singh another
    leader was arrested prior to any protest action taking place.
    The pre-arrest of Jaggi Singh surprised the groups and the Canadian
public
    at how determined the authorities were to prevent those critical of APEC
for
    having their say.

Singh told Scoop this week: “You can be sure that all anti-APEC groups [in
    New Zealand] are being monitored in some way, as well as various
‘radical’
    Maori groups. The documents I have seen from APEC Vancouver show that
even
    mainstream groups are the subject of monitoring. For example, here the
    British Columbia Federation of Labour, the Anglican Church of Canada and
the
    Canadian Federation of Students were all targeted.”

Oppenheim says members were arrested on warrants they knew nothing about and
    later found out the warrants did not exist: “I’m sure the same is about
to
    happen in Auckland, if not worse,” he says. “Worse because of the clamp
down
    on megaphone use, the breaking into people’s homes, it is all the same
as
    what we witnessed.”

 Here in New Zealand, seasoned campaigners also expect the spies are
    watching.

Scoop met this week with APEC Monitoring Group spokesperson Aziz Choudry. He
    confirms that like in Canada, police have been taking photographs and
    videoing while anti-APEC campaigners protest. They are building up a
    identikit file on all those who believe APEC is wrong, he says.

 Choudry says the invasion of privacy experienced by Canadian APEC critics
is
    a clear indication of what is happening here and of what the security
    agencies of other countries expect of New Zealand authorities.
    Oppenheim says official Canadian documents obtained after APEC show the
    intelligence gathering didn’t stop once the APEC leader’s returned home:
    “The police continued to gather information on protesters, it became
quite
    obvious that they regard activists with a huge amount of suspicion. Any
    decent is regarded quite antagonistically. Certainly they saw a
terrorist in
    every corner.”

 New Zealand anti-APEC groups, Oppenheim says, should not get too paranoid
    about infiltration: “We had nothing to hide. We were peaceful but the
police
    and TAG still felt they had to infiltrate us. It was a huge invasion of
    privacy. And it is important to expose the paranoia and infiltration. I
    think it is pretty serious how anyone who showed any view contrary to
    pro-APEC was and is regarded as an enemy of the state.”

 His advice to New Zealanders is: stick to your views, let your views be
    known, disregard any infiltration of your organisations: “It is
important
    just to be open. In our [the Canadians] case it was the Government that
had
    things to hide. The documents which have become known through the courts
and
    official investigations have shown that to be the case.”
    ENDS

  Visit Scoop for all your APEC news.
    * Scoop’s Inside APEC Series: - Stories To Come: An Exclusive Interview
With
    Aziz Choudry - An Interview with Canada’s Jaggi Singh - the Police’s
    Response - APEC Releases - and much much more.
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