20 Dec 2013

Urewera raids report 'disappointing'

8:48 am on 20 December 2013

One of the people illegally stopped and searched in the Urewera raids says a long-awaited Human Rights Commission report is disappointing, despite criticising police actions.

The report says people caught up in the Operation Eight raids were subjected to unnecessary trauma and not enough was done to support them afterwards.

It also found the police trampled on the basic rights of innocent people, including children, during the raids.

The Commission's report says the breaches included armed officers confining children for several hours without food, and the police stopping and photographing people at roadblocks without consent.

Mere Nuku, who was stopped at a road block in Ruatoki, says the report is not as in-depth as she had hoped.

"There was much more than what is actually being talked about in the report. I expected something bigger than that."

She says tamariki who were stopped by the police will never recover from what happened to them, and the community is still healing, six years on.

Huka Williams, who was held at gunpoint during the raids, says compensation and a formal apology from police, is now the way forward.

Police Commissioner Peter Marshall said in a statement he welcomes the report's findings and says police have already taken steps to better deal with children and other vulnerable people when executing warrants.