Sedert die dae van Jan Smuts wat meer tee gedrink het by die Koningin van Engeland as haar eie man het onse Thabo sy voete onder menige tafel ingedruk. Ek is bevrees dat dit nie genoeg onder sekere Suid-Afrikaanse burgers s'n was nie. Sy ewige soeke na vrede in Afrikalande is verbysterend. Dít, terwyl die vure van 'n burgeroorlog in ons eie land lustig brand. In watter land word meer burgers deur hulle eie vermink en vermoor as juis hier? Dan is daar Mbeki se hantering van die wapenskandaal waarvan die stof maar steeds nie wil gaan lê nie. Hoop hy om dit aan die volgende president en sy kabinet oor te laat? Dan praat ons nie van die koue aanslag van VIGS wat hy in 'n oomblik van onkunde, of dalk oorgretigheid, totaal ontken het tot vermaak van talle en afsku van menseregteaktiviste dwarsoor die wydte van hierdie planeet nie. Sy inmenging in die Mantokwessie het die tipe van modder op die gesig gelaat wat nog lank daar gaan wees en tot menige bespreking gaan lei. Die mees onlangse inmenging wat tot die ontslag van Pikoli gelei het, spreek van self. Laat mens wonder hoe baie blapse kan een mens maak voordat hy struikel. Waar staan hy werklik ten opsigte van die Selebikwessie en alles rondom hierdie duistere saak?
Teen dié tyd weet almal dat Jacob Zuma die ANC-leierskapsverkiesing loshande gewen het met 2 329 stemme teenoor Mbeki se 1 505. Die Zuma-faksie het ook skoonskip gemaak sover dit die res van die hoogste posisies in die party betref.
Dat Zuma daarin geslaag het om Mbeki te klop, is geen geringe prestasie nie. Immers geniet Mbeki die steun van die sakewêreld, die media, die koloniale mag Brittanje wat hom oor die afgelope jare konstant met Suid-Afrika bemoei, asook die oorblyfsels van die vorige Afrikaner-establishment in die vorm van Nasionale Pers, Marthinus van Schalkwyk en die Afrikanerbond. Een van die segsmanne van dié groepering, prof. Willie Esterhuyse, het ʼn sleutelrol onder Mbeki gespeel om hom van inligting te voorsien oor hoe Afrikaners beter verdeel en verdruk kon word.
Met Zuma se verkiesing betree die land ʼn nuwe, potensieel stormagtige fase. Terwyl Zuma oor die afgelope jaar of twee uitgereik het na Afrikaners, is sy oorwinning egter ook verseker deur die linkse faksie in die vorm van Cosatu, die ANC-jeugliga en die SAKP. Watter invloed die linkse faksie oor hom uitoefen, is in dié stadium nog onseker.
Vanuit die buiteland gaan daar groot druk op Zuma toegepas word om nie te veel aan Suid-Afrika se ekonomiese beleid te torring nie. As ons praat van die buiteland, dan is dit veral Groot Brittanje wat sal poog om soos altyd in die verlede ons binnelandse beleid te beïnvloed om Britse belange voorop te stel.
Die mynhuise word hoofsaaklik uit Londen beheer en dus sal Brittanje wil sien dat mynwinste en –produksie nie geraak word nie. Daarteenoor staan Brittanje, asook die vele Britse nie-regeringsorganisasies wat in die land bedrywig is, radikale grondhervorming voor sodat Afrikanerboere finaal van hul eiendom ontneem kan word. Soos mnr. Willie Lewies van die TLU dit al so dikwels gestel het, sal die grondlose Afrikaner in daardie geval ʼn “swerwersvolk” word.
Die Boer-Britstryd gaan dus onder Zuma se presidentskap voortduur en afhangend van wie se kant hy kies, sal Afrikaners dit moet ontgeld, aldan nie. Vanweë die feit dat Brittanje, asook die VSA, tot dusver die Mbeki-faksie geondersteun het, wil dit voorkom asof Afrikaners darem ʼn billike kans staan om invloed op ʼn Zumaregering uit te oefen. Sodoende kan ons boere, asook Afrikaanse onderwys en kultuur, van die gewisse ondergang gered word waarvoor hulle onder Mbeki bestem was.
Op Pietersburg was die ANC duidelik sterk verdeel tussen die Zuma- en Mbeki-faksies. Die vraag is nou: kan die ANC in die afsienbare toekoms in twee skeur? Myns insiens is dié moontlikheid glad nie uitgesluit nie. Die Mbeki-faksie het nog glad nie gaan lê ná die bloedneus by die partykongres nie. Hulle beheer nog steeds die staatsapparaat en mag dit gebruik om Zuma nog verder in hofsake vas te draai of hom selfs tronk toe te stuur. In so ʼn geval sal die Zuma-faksie waarskynlik tot revolusionêre optrede in die vorm van massa-aksie, betogings en selfs die bestorming van die Uniegebou oorgaan om die Mbeki-faksie uit die kussings te lig.
Soos gesê, geniet Mbeki steeds die steun van Brittanje en kan die Britte via hul magtige media en hul intelligensiediens allerlei planne bedink om Zuma uit die weg te ruim, letterlik of figuurlik.
Wat Afrikaners egter moet besef, is dat die volgende twee jaar aan ons geleenthede bied om te midde van die grootskaalse verdeeldheid in ANC-geledere, asook die Britte wat beheer begin verloor, ons belange te bevorder en moontlik selfs terug te keer na die politieke spel in Suid-Afrika.
Hoewel hy taamlik onvoorspelbaar is en te eniger tyd ʼn ommeswaai kan maak, is die populistiese Zuma ʼn interessante figuur in die SA politiek. Anders as Mandela of Mbeki, word hy nie soos ʼn marionet vanuit Engeland beheer nie en geniet hy steun op voetsoolvlak en veral onder Zoeloes. Hy is die spreekwoordelike swart Piet in die pak kaarte wat die spel deurmekaar kan krap.
Ons Afrikaners moet nou begin saamstaan en kyk of ons nie hier ʼn paar kastaiings uit die vuur kan krap nie. Reeds meer as ʼn jaar gelede het ʼn klein groepie van ons die versiendheid gehad om te sien dat daar ʼn magsverskuiwing aan die kom was en het daarom vroegtydig met Zuma gesprek begin voer. Hierdie gesprekke moet voortgaan en ons moet probeer om in ruil vir Afrikanersteun toegewings van Zuma te verkry, veral indien hy onder druk van die Mbeki-faksie, die Britte, asook Groot Besigheid in Suid-Afrika, sou kom.
Die logika van “my vyand se vyand is my vriend” wil hê dat Zuma die Afrikaner se vriend is. Dit mag ook wees dat die Afrikaner-Zoeloe-alliansie waaroor daar al jare lank in regse Afrikanerkringe gedroom word, met Zuma se hulp tot stand kan kom.
So iets sal egter slegs gebeur indien Afrikaners met verbeelding, intelligensie en vasberadenheid begin optree.
MEDIAVERKLARING OP 19 DESEMBER 2007 DEUR PRAAG (PRO-AFRIKAANSE AKSIEGROEP)
PRAAG wens mnr. Jacob Zuma geluk met sy verkiesing as president van die ANC. Ons verwelkom dit en hoop dat die groter begrip en samewerking met Afrikaners waartoe hy hom reeds verbind het, nou verwesenlik mag word.
Mbeki self het ʼn verdeel-en-heersstrategie teen die Afrikaner gevolg. Uit die reste van die ou Broederbond en die Nasionale Party is meelopers soos Marthinus van Schalkwyk of prof. Willie Esterhuyse van Stellenbosch geïdentifiseer wat bereid was om mee te doen aan ons verdrukking. Die oorblywende Afrikaanse media, asook staatsonderwysinstellings, is op Sowjetagtige wyse aangewend om ons volk met skuldgevoelens te breinspoel en ons van ons identiteit te beroof. Die konstante propaganda-aanslag deur Afrikanermeelopers in Afrikaans het soos ʼn oorlog of ten minste ʼn besetting deur ʼn vreemde mag gevoel.
Zuma se verkiesing kan ʼn groot bydrae lewer om die toenemende klimaat van konfrontasie tussen Afrikanerboere, kulturele aktiviste en gewone Afrikaners aan die een kant, teenoor die ANC-beheerde staat aan die ander kant, te ontlont.
In sy gesprekke tot dusver met PRAAG-verteenwoordigers het mnr. Zuma hom onderskei as ʼn goeie en simpatieke luisteraar. Getrou aan die Afrika- en Zoeloekultuur koester hy harmonie in die land. Harmonie kan egter net bewerkstelling word indien Afrikaners billik en regverdig behandel word en hul vryheid en outonomie op tasbare wyse herstel word ná die verdrukking van die Mbeki-jare.
As Afrikaanse kultuurorganisasie is PRAAG verbind tot dialoog met die nuwe Zuma-administrasie wat sonder twyfel ook binnekort die staat sal beheer.
Hierdie stuk is ʼn blote tussenspel voor die finale aflewering in my huidige drieluik van rubrieke wat begin het met Een minuut oor twaalf, Twee minute oor twaalf – ʼn Boer in die vreemde en binnekort deur ʼn derde aflewering gevolg sal word.
ʼn Vriendin vertel my die staaltjie oor iemand wat sy ken wat in die laat sewentigerjare, toe “Spaanse villas” hoog mode hier te lande was, Spanje besoek het as deel van ‘n georganiseerde toergroep. Klaarblyklik, so gaan die verhaal: Op die toer was ‘n “Tannie” van Kroonstad, wat Spanje besoek het met die uisluitlike doel om Spaanse woonhuisargitektuur te bestudeer, sodat sy dan met haar terugkeer haar eie “outentieke” Spaanse villa kon ontwerp. Ten anskoue van die relatiewe eenvoud van die ware Jakobusse, het sy toe met teleurstelling, amper skok, die uitspraak gemaak: “Ag nee wat, daar is baie beter voorbeelde van Spaanse villas in Bloemfontein!” Nou ja, in Pretoria is daar sekerlik “baie beter voorbeelde van Toskaanse villas as in Toskane”.
Dit wil vir my altyd voorkom asof Afrikaners en persoonlike finansiële rykdom nie ʼn goeie kombinasie uitmaak nie. Gaan kyk gerus na die volstruispaleise van Oudtshoorn. Hoewel dit lyk soos sprokiespaleise, moet mens ingedagte neem dat sprokies spreek tot die oordadige fantasieë van kinders. Vir seker moet daardie geboue behoue bly want ten minste is hulle deur argitekte (ten minste sommiges; so verstaan ek) volgens sekere riglyne ontwerp. Boonop het hulle geskiedkundige waarde en getuig hulle van die volstruisveermodegier in Europa tydens daardie era. Met die ontdekking van die binnebrandenjin sou dames met sulke volstruisveerversierde hoede egter gou soek na eenvoudiger hooftooiselontwerpe. Die “hoë” snelhede van die oopkapmotors van die vroeë 1900’s het gou korte mette met sulke beveerde hoede gemaak. Dit was dan ook die einde van die volstruispaleise. Miskien is dit ook maar beter so.
Tydens die AOB is Boere wat die wapen neergelê het en trou aan die Britse kroon gesweer het, toegelaat om terug te keer na hul plase en met hul boerderye voort te gaan. Soos ek die geskiedenis verstaan, het sulke “Boere” vinnig ryk geraak. In ʼn landbouekonomie wat deur die “verskroeideaardebeleid” van die Engelse vernietig is, sou hierdie boere vinnig finansiële opgang kon maak om aan broodnodige tekorte te voorsien. Ook sulkes sou dan vinnig hulself aan argitektoniese oordadigheid oorlewer. Dit is dalk deels die rede waarom daar ook in die Transvaal sulke Viktoriaanse paleise bestaan. Dalk kan mens hulle “Veraaierspaleise” noem. Weereens is dit die uitdrukking van oordadigheid. Soortgelyk aan vandag is dit klaarblyblik die materiële ambisies van diegene wat swaarders weeg as enige beginselsaak. Tog wil dit voorkom asof baie van die hedendaagse pasrykes wel argitekte gebruik het wat argitektoniese beginsels gerespekteer het, al is die huise, soos in die Oudtshoorn geval, oordadig kitsch.
Ons eietydse Stepdford-huisvroue en hul megalomaanse mans, wat net so leegkop soos hul eweknieë in die Hollywoodproduksie is, trek egter al te dikwels hulle eie ontwerpe op. Van my kinderdae af onthou ek hoe my ouers geril het as mense sê hul “trek self hulle huisplanne op”. Nou ja, ek het enkele huise in SA gesien wat deur mense, met werklik goeie smaak, self ontwerp is, maar daar is maar min sulkes. Wat die “self-optrekkers” met die baie geld en min smaak, nie begryp nie, is dat enige goeie argitektoniese styl gebasseer is op formules en skale. Bestudeer gerus die klassieke argitektuur en dit is onmisbaar opsigtelik vir die oog wat daarvoor soek. Gaan kyk na die Kaaps-Hollandse huise uit die 1700’s en vroeë 1800’s en jy sal sien dat argitekte soos Thibault en ander daardie beginsels godsdienstig toegepas het.
Terselfdertyd het SA ʼn leërskare van argitekte wat geensins probeer om die publiek op te voed nie, maar net daarop uit is om vinnig geld te maak. Behalwe Toskaanse veiligheidsbuurtes en ander ewe kitsch privaatvillas omring deur “privaatparke”, verskyn pseudo-Bisantynse kantoorparke en toringgeboue met walglike oordadigheid.
Hoewel baie Kapenaars ook ʼn stewige klap van leëkop-Stepfordagtigheid weg het, het inwoners van daardie provinsie, meer onlangs, hulself begin verdiep in woonhuisstyle wat eenvoudiger weergawes van die outentieke Kaapse styl weerspieël. Kapenaars is besig om hul argitektoniese wortels te herontdek en dit op eenvoudige en onderbeklemtoonde wyse uit te druk. Jammer om te sê, maar daar was nog altyd meer styl en smaak in die Weskaap as hier in die Noorde waar fortuinsoekers gans te veel invloed gehad het.
“Argitektoniese Beginsels” behoort ‘n verpligte skoolvak in ʼn toekomstige volkstaat te wees. Maar nou ja, ek dink nie die Stepfords van Pretoria is die stoffasie wat gemobiliseer kan word vir ʼn volkstaat nie. Wie gaan al daardie Italiaanse teëls poleer, al die gange skoonvee, die marmerverftegniek (asof dit nie erg genoeg is dat so ʼn tegniek enigsins bestaan nie) van die suile instand hou, om nie te praat van die parke om hierdie villas nie? Hoe gaan daardie koppe wat met handelsmerke en swak smaak gevul is nog enige ruimte kan maak vir ideologiese intellek, veral as dit beteken dat dat jy self jou eie vuilwerk moet doen? Die behoefte aan materiële weelde oortref alles.
Die feit dat daar in die noorde van Pretoria ʼn winkelsentrum met die naam Kolonade is, spreek boekdele… Hoeveel Afrikaners het al van die Bauhaus gehoor? Hoeveel ken die name van bekroonde Suid Afrikaanse argitekte soos Gawie Fagan, Pius Pahl, Revel Fox e.a.?
In ʼn volkstaat sal huise klein en funksioneel wees. Gaan kyk maar in Nieu-Seeland, Australië, Swede of enige plek waar daar nie goedkoop swart arbeid is nie. Suid-Afrikaners wat in Nieu-Seeland aanland, is geskok oor die “lae lewenstandaard” omdat huise so klein is. Nee, dit is nie lae lewenstandaard nie, dis logika. Kleiner huise beteken minder werk, beteken jy kan dit self behartig! Ek dink nie die Stepfords van Pretoria sal goeie of gewillige volkstaters uitmaak nie, maar meer hieroor in my volgende aflewering waarvan hierdie as blote tussenspel moet dien.
Losing its position as the top donor could weaken Washington’s influence over the World Bank, which is the largest provider of development assistance to poor countries, and over the policies that decide how its cash is spent.
The Washington-based lender conducts a fund-raising campaign among its richer members every three years to determine funding for the International Development Association. The IDA is the bank’s lending arm.
After negotiations that began in March in Paris and ended with two days of talks in Berlin, Britain promised US$4.2 billion ($5.4 billion) for the period from July 2008 through June 2011, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told reporters in a conference call.
The US Treasury said it pledged US$3.7 billion to the bank’s International Development Association fund, up 30 per cent from its contribution three years ago and the largest increase since the Carter administration in the 1970s.
A senior Treasury official applauded Britain’s move, which amounts to an increase of about 50 per cent.
"We made our decision based on what we thought was a solid number — one of the largest increases the United States has ever made — and the UK obviously put in an even greater amount, which means that the overall number for IDA goes up. We think it’s great what the UK did," said Clay Lowery, Treasury assistant secretary for international affairs.
Lowery said the United States "has no problem" with Britain being a larger donor, adding that it is "good for poor people, which is frankly what we’re mostly concerned about."
Forty-five donor countries, the most ever, promised a record total of US$25.1 billion at the Berlin talks, with a further US$16.5 billion coming from the bank and previous donor pledges for financing debt forgiveness, officials told the news conference.
The total of US$41.6 billion, also a record, represents an increase of US$9.5 billion over the previous funding period and will support around 80 countries, mainly in Africa.
In a coup for Zoellick, who is in China this week, Beijing was one of six nations joining the list of donors for the first time, along with Cyprus, Egypt and the three Baltic states.
"We’re feeling pretty positive, but I’m glad I don’t have to do this every year," Zoellick said. "The donor community has demonstrated its full commitment to helping countries overcome poverty and achieve sustainable growth, especially in Africa."
IDA-financed projects support education, basic health services, clean water and sanitation, as well as environmental safeguards, infrastructure and policy and institutional reform.
The latest talks were complicated by slowing economic growth in rich nations and the weakening dollar, which inflates contributions by some other countries when calculated in the US currency.
At the same time, the bank’s mission is widening, with governments demanding more help in developing sophisticated economies and markets.
The United States, whose economy is almost six times as big as Britain’s, wanted to hold on to its No. 1 spot as the bank’s largest donor, but it is also struggling with a budget stretched by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US share of contributions has slowly declined from 22 per cent in 1960, the year of the fund’s inception, to about 14.7 per cent of the fund in the new round.
Britain’s share is now 16.7 per cent of the fund.
In comparison, after the previous round of IDA negotiations in 2005, the US share was 13.8 per cent and Britain’s was 13.2 per cent.
The US$3.7 billion US contribution, which Congress must approve, will be split into annual appropriations requests over the next three years.
Germany made the fourth-biggest contribution to the new funding round, boosting its pledge by 18.57 per cent to 1.514 billion euros ($2.8 billion), the Development Ministry said.
The British handover to Iraqi forces is seen as the beginning of the end for Britain, which plans to cut its troop numbers dramatically.
With Australia planning to withdraw its combat troops, the United States will soon be the only country left.
Al Qaeda is already trying to make mileage out of the latest development, saying the pull-back by British troops shows insurgents have gained the upper hand.
Basra is the ninth of Iraq’s 18 provinces to resume responsibility for its own security. The British Commander there is Major-General Graham Binns:
"I commanded the coalition troops who entered Basra in April 2003. Four-and-a-half years later I have the privilege of handing the city and the province back to Iraqi control," he said.
"I came to rid Basra of its enemies and I now formally hand Basra back to its friends."
But not everyone believes Basra is from free of its enemies. This resident doesn’t trust the Iraqi troops who are now in charge.
"The police and army are from the militias. Who do we speak to? If you go to the police station you’ll be killed the next day."
The, 4,500 British troops in Iraq won’t be leaving immediately but they are taking a back-seat role, focusing instead on training Iraqis.
Britain will reduce its troop numbers to 2,500 early next year and a decision on a complete pullout is expected within months.
The Australian Government is yet to announce exactly when and how Australia’s 500 or so combat troops will be withdrawn, but Ron Huisken from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University says the impact in Iraq will be more symbolic than strategic.
"Our move is elevated because we were one of the three musketeers if you like, the three that went in from the beginning," he said.
"So there’s a bit of extra symbolism that attaches to our withdrawal of combat troops. But in combat terms it’ll make very little difference at all."
Al Qaeda is already attaching symbolism to Britain’s handover in Basra. The group has posted a video on the internet of its second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who says it shows insurgents are gaining the upper hand there.
Dr Michael McKinley, a senior lecturer in international relations at the Australian National University, says that’s not an accurate interpretation.
"Not entirely. Clearly the British wanted to get out of southern Iraq and they have wanted to get out for a while and they have actually suffered some small military reverses – some of their outposts have actually been overrun by local militia," he said.
"I think the British were not prepared to give an indefinite undertaking. Nobody really would be.
"But the British are getting out with the fear that there is no clear, dominant party in southern Iraq, there are some competing Shia factions, and that is very much a cause for concern."
Only US forces left
Dr McKinley says the British troops’ handover of power in Basra has symbolic importance.
"The significance really is that this is the last of the major contributions of the ‘coalition of the willing’ from outside the United States to go," he said.
"I mean, Australia is there, but the British were always stronger in numbers than Australia. So this is quite important symbolically. It marks the effective end of the British commitment in a significant way."
He says that leaves the United States hoping its own strategy will work.
"It leaves the United States on course for what it wants, which is, it will – even when they have the ‘drawdown’… of their forces – the United States is still talking about at least 50,000 will be in Iraq to look over things," he said.
"There will be at least 50,000 private military contractors supplementing that US presence.
"So, it means basically that it’s like a wish list. They’re hoping like hell that it’s going to work."
Alexander York, 33, from Essex, was sentenced to a maximum of five years in jail yesterday for the manslaughter of Rudi Boa, 28, a biomedical student from Inverness.
The incident happened in January last year at a caravan park in southern New South Wales, where York had become friendly with Mr Boa and his girlfriend, Gillian Brown. The Scottish couple had just arrived in Australia, and headed to Tumut, a picturesque town at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, to pick fruit.
Their neighbour at the Blowering Holiday Park was Alexander York, who had been in Australia since April 2005. The three of them got on well. On the night of Mr Boa’s death, they had spent the evening drinking at a pub in Tumut, the Star Hotel.
Towards the end of the night, however, they became embroiled in the creationism versus evolution argument, and it escalated into a shouting-match in the pub. Mr Boa and Ms Brown were both adamantly opposed to York’s Christian fundamentalist point of view.
Sentencing York in the New South Wales Supreme Court yesterday, Justice Michael Adams said: "Although this became perhaps a little sharp-edged, it did not really amount to anything.
"For some reason, however … the offender’s mood changed suddenly and he began to abuse Ms Boa and Ms Brown. There was no hint of a physical confrontation and what happened amounted to little more than a verbal contretemps."
The row had been defused by the time the backpackers left the pub separately, but all three were drunk, and tempers flared again after they returned to the caravan park.
Ms Brown told the court that York, who had been making dinner, attacked the couple outside his tent and delivered a single stab wound Mr Boa with a kitchen knife. York claimed he lashed out in self-defence after being attacked by Mr Boa.
He was found guilty of manslaughter but acquitted of murder, and ordered to serve at least three years in jail. The judge said he was giving him a relatively lenient sentence partly because of the accidental nature of the stabbing.
"I do not believe that he took aim, but rather thrust out," he said. "I think he knew that the knife was in his hand … but he did not actually turn his mind to the potentially serious consequences of doing this.
"The offender’s act was done impulsively and on the spur of the moment. I do not think the offender was aware of how seriously he had harmed Mr Boa."
The judge added that York was "a person of good character" and that the offence was "a complete aberration". York, unshaven and dressed in prison uniform, sat impassively as he was sentenced. Mr Boa’s sister, Debbie, broke down when York was led into court, and during the sentencing.
A spokeswoman for the New South Wales office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said: "Justice Michael Adams QC took into account that part of the sentence has been served. Mr York is eligible for release in January 2009."
Belgium’s political tensions entered the glamour stakes after it was revealed that the new Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch.
Alizee Poulicek, who comes from the country’s French-speaking region, was booed by some of the 4,000 audience when she admitted that she could not understand a question put to her in Dutch at the contest on Saturday night in the main Flemish city of Antwerp.
Poulicek, a 20-year-old language student, speaks French, Czech and English, but Flemish tabloid daily Het Laatste Niuews headlined its Monday edition with: "Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch".
The paper underlined that the "community crisis in our country" — where there is no government six months after general elections amid bickering between leaders of the main French and Flemish parties — "has insinuated itself into even the lightest sector."
Poulicek’s victory "is not going down well," the daily said.
She said she had been taking Dutch lessons before the contest and has pledged to improve her standard in one of Belgium’s three official languages, along with French and German.
The incident did not hurt her image with television viewers who voted for her, but Flemish journalists assailed her with questions at a press conference, highlighting her deficiencies in their tongue.
The Flemish community accounts for 60 percent of Belgium’s 10.5 million people. A further 3.5 million live in Wallonia and one million in the largely Francophone, but officially bilingual Brussels.
RUATOKI, New Zealand – Armed police stormed into this quiet village at dawn, threw up roadblocks, shot out truck tires and forced families out of their homes at gunpoint.
The rare show of force, with its dark subscript of terrorism and assassination plans, stunned this placid nation where beat cops don’t even carry guns. It has since sparked charges of racism and inflamed historical resentments.
The October raid was part of a nationwide sweep in which 16 people were arrested and authorities said they shut down military-style camps on Maori ancestral lands where both Maori militants and environmental activists trained.
But a bid to charge 12 of the 16 with terrorist activities unraveled on technical grounds, triggering complaints of police heavy-handedness. While the facts remain unclear, the way police handled the case has strained relations with the 540,000-strong Maori community, which makes up 15 percent of the country’s population.
What many found most appalling were the tactics used to arrest three of the suspects in Ruatoki and the nearby town of Whakatane, both home to the uncompromising Tuhoe – the only Maori tribe that still rejects the government’s sovereignty, 167 years after the British colonized the islands. For some, the raids stirred memories of repression of Maori more than a century ago.
"They came in here like in a B-grade film," said Tame Iti, a well-known Tuhoe activist arrested in the Ruatoki raid. "It was an attack on the community. It was an attack on me as a freedom fighter, and as a sovereign person of this country."
The town of Ruatoki is dotted with small houses, some just sheds, that lie in flat fields by a rural highway on the northern of New Zealand’s two main islands.
Iti said police stormed in and held his family including children at gunpoint, firing two shots into tires on his truck to immobilize it.
After the arrests, protests broke out in a dozen towns and cities and abroad in the United States, England and Australia, itself home to 250,000 Maori.
The police actions against the Tuhoe "set back relations between Maori and the government 100 years," said Pita Sharples, co-leader of the Maori Party and a member of parliament.
Authorities said that during 18 months of covert monitoring, they had heard armed activists at the camps – in the forested hills of Te Urewera, the Tuhoe ancestral lands – talking of political assassinations and bombing power plants. The arrested included some white New Zealanders.
In a controversial move, local newspapers published police intercepts of those conversations. In them, the suspects discuss using "sudden" and "brutal" attacks to divide "Aotearoa," the Maori name for New Zealand. The suspects also surmise that foreign terror groups would be blamed, according to the newspaper accounts.
Iti said the camps he was involved in taught bush survival skills and firearms safety, something he has been doing for Tuhoe and other youth for 30 years. He rejected any connection to terrorism.
Iti was charged last year with reckless use of a shotgun and desecrating the New Zealand flag at a Maori ceremony on Tuhoe lands. The charges were dropped after he pointed out that it was an Australian flag and that he had fired into the ground.
The Tuhoe said four weapons were seized in the raids, but Detective Inspector Bruce Good told The Associated Press there were 20, including AK-47 assault rifles, shotguns, rifles and pistols, plus silencers, scopes, ammunition and firearms parts.
The government planned to charge 12 suspects under the Terrorism Suppression Act, enacted following the 9/11 attacks. But Solicitor General David Collins, the country’s top justice official, ruled the anti-terror law was too complex to apply in this case.
The arrested, now free on bail, face lesser charges of illegal possession and use of firearms.
The Maori are descendants of Polynesians who migrated to New Zealand about 1,000 years ago.
Tuhoe, the most isolated and poorest of the Maori tribes, are proud that their ancestors refused to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, which created New Zealand under British sovereignty.
The treaty guaranteed the Maori could keep their lands, forests, fisheries and culture – commitments Maori say were broken as European settlers flooded in.
In 1867, colonial troops invaded Tuhoe territory and confiscated much of its land. Twenty years of guerrilla fighting ensued.
The Tuhoe resistance has won wide respect from other Maori, who remain proud of their fierce warrior heritage. Other Maori have been "colonized" by European culture, the Tuhoe say.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said police and the government will need to start building bridges over the divide. They face an uphill battle, particularly with the Tuhoe.
Sharples, the Maori Party co-leader, said invoking the Terrorism Suppression Act has branded all Maori as possible terrorists with international links.
It "could create repercussions on peoples’ attitudes to authority and the police in the future," he said. "It’s created further mistrust by Maori of the authorities."
