[asia-apec 1015] APEC 99 - Protest backdrop to hearing on spy plan

[Gatt Watchdog]

Protest backdrop to hearing on spy plan
by Eugene Bingham
New Zealand Herald, Auckland, 8/2/99

WELLINGTON - Placards and protesters will be outside Parliament
this week as a high-powered committee of MPs considers proposals
to boost the legal powers of spies.

The committee, including the Prime Minister and the Leader of the
Opposition, is due to study 130 submissions on an amendment to the
law which would give the Security Intelligence Service the right
to break into people's homes.

About half of those who sent in submissions have asked to appear
before the committee during its deliberations tomorrow and on
Wednesday.

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, who is also the Minister in Charge
of the SIS, said submissions would be held in public unless there
were extraordinary circumstances.

But the man who indirectly caused the proposal to change the
legislation will not be one of those sitting in the committee
room.

Aziz Choudry, whose Christchurch house was broken into by the SIS
in July 1996 in a breakin the Court of Appeal later declared
illegal, said he had not "dignified" the committee by making a
submission.

Although he is in Wellington - to attend protests over a meeting
of senior officials from Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation member
nations, Mr Choudry said he would not go to the hearings.

Instead, there will be protests outside Parliament against the
amendment.

"They can tap our phones, listen to our conversations, read our
mail, e-mail, faxes, even the words on our computer screens," said
Mr Choudry.

"So why does the Government now want the right to break into any
place in New Zealand - even though we know they've been doing it
for many years?"

Mr Choudry noted the irony that the amendment was being heard
while the Apec meeting was on.

"Apec meetings have become synonymous with human rights abuses,"
he said.

Intelligence agencies, police and military intelligence units had
targetted activists to suppress dissent, avoid potential political
embarrassment to visiting VIPs, and create a false sense of
stability, security and consent to outside observers and the
domestic audience.