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Sorry not for everyone
28 July 2014

Tuhoe leader Tamati Kruger says many in the iwi will never accept an apology from the police.

Police commissioner Mike Bush has been in Ruatoki meeting families caught up in the raids seven years ago.

A formal ceremony to apologise to the whole tribe is being organised for next month.

Among those visited was activist Tame Iti, who served a 30 month sentence on weapons charges arising out of the investigation into alleged military-style training camps being run in the Ruatoki valley.

Mr Kruger says others were whanau who had no connection at all to the alleged camps, but were unlawfully detained by police and had property taken.

He says there are still some who want no contact with the police.

"There are people who were extremely hurt and traumatised by it. An apology would be in their view not useful at all and I think they will harbour for a long time a suspicion and even a hatred for the police and for other authority and we will just have to work with that over the years and hope that it does not fall into the next generation," he says.

Tamati Kruger says the apologies have taken a year to negotiate, and there will be a ceremony in Ruatoki next month where commissioner Bush can apologise formally to the tribe as a whole.

FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH TAMATI KRUGER CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjA1MjY=

To read the original Radio Waatea news item visit here.

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