[PEN-L:902] (Fwd) 1636 HAWAII: Annexation could be declared invalid

[Bill Rosenberg <w.rosenberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting development in the debate on indigenous rights...

Bill

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Sat, 15 Aug 1998 09:25:52 +0000
From:          David Robie <robie_d@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject:       1636 HAWAII: Annexation could be declared invalid
To:            Nius <nius@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-to:      robie_d@xxxxxxxxx
Organization:  Journalism, University of the South Pacific

Title -- 1636 HAWAII: Annexation could be declared invalid
Date -- 15 August 1998
Byline -- Pat Omandam
Origin -- <A HREF="mailto:niusedita@xxxxxxxxxxxxx";>Pasifik Nius</A>
Source -- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, posted by sppf@xxxxxxxx, 11/8/98
Copyright -- Star Bulletin Status -- Unabridged -------------------

UN REPORT: ANNEXATION COULD BE DECLARED INVALID

Hawaii's annexation by the United States could be declared invalid,
according to a United Nations report.  The report said the situation
of native Hawaiians now takes on a "special complexion" because of,
among other reasons, President Clinton's November 1993 Apology
Resolution to native Hawaiians.

The study recommends Hawaii be returned to a U.N. List of
Non-Self-Governing Territories - a list of indigenous peoples
colonized by another country.  Such action could make Hawaii eligible
for decolonization as well as a U.N.-sponsored plebiscite.

The 73-page unedited final report, submitted after nine years of
reviewing treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements
between nations and indigenous peoples, was filed July 30 in Geneva.

For Hawaiian groups such as Ka Lahui Hawaii and Ka Pakaukau, which
have pushed the sovereignty issue at the international level for
nearly two decades, the timing couldn't be better.  Over the next two
days, Hawaiians and others will gather at Iolani Palace to observe
Hawaii's centennial annexation anniversary.

An international audience

"Its perfect timing," said Mililani Trask, an attorney and governor of
Ka Lahui Hawaii.  "I couldn't have asked for anything more."

Trask said this is the first official U.N. document that not only
makes reference to Hawaii, but finds against the validity of the
treaty of annexation and calls for the United Nations to re-list
Hawaii as a colony.

Attorney Hayden Burgess said, "Many of us have been waiting for the
report for many years."  But it is just the first step in a long
process the U.S. government undoubtedly will fight, he said.  "The
United States is not going to give up that easily," he said, pointing
out that the nation has been trying to abolish the committee that
would review the issue.

Burgess has been to the United Nations many times to ask that Hawaii
be re-listed as a colony, speaking for local organizations and the
World Council for Indigenous Peoples.

Trask said that the report, expected to be posted on the U.N. Web site
on Saturday, shows that an international audience is watching with
interest how the United States handles its native Hawaiian situation,
one which U.S. State Department officials consider a "domestic
problem."

"It means that we now have a clear interest being expressed by other
states (nations) to support our effort and expressing interest now on
receiving the real story about what's happening in Hawaii," she said.

Trask, who received a copy of the report in Geneva, will speak about
it tomorrow during the annexation events.  Naysayers, she said, have
repeatedly doubted whether Hawaiian activists would be effective in
the international arena.  But the report goes a long way to show how
viable these international claims really are, she said.

Both Ka Lahui and Ka Pakaukau believe there isn't any way to achieve
Hawaiian autonomy or independence within the U.S. system.  But there
is in the international system.

Treaty 'appears unequal'

Miguel Alfonso Martinez of Cuba, the special chairman who prepared the
report for the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations, wrote
that Clinton's apology resolution recognizes the 1893 overthrow of the
Hawaiian monarchy took place unlawfully.

"By the same token, the 1897 treaty of annexation between the United
States and Hawaii appears as an unequal treaty that could be declared
invalid on those grounds, according to international law of the
times," said Martinez, who was appointed to head this project by the
U.N. human rights commissioner.

"It follows that the case of Hawaii could be re-entered on the list of
non-self-governing territories of the United Nations and resubmitted
to the bodies in the organization competent in the field of
decolonization," he said.

Hawaii was placed on the U.N. list in 1946 as a colony under the
United States, but was removed in 1959 when it became an American
state. Others on the list include Guam, American Samoa, and Puerto
Rico, which was removed from the list previously, but returned, Trask
said.  The General Assembly of the United Nations voted to put New
Caledonia back on the list in the late 1980s over protests of the
United States, France and Great Britain.  But the political atmosphere
has changed, Burgess said.  "Now there is very little opposition to
the U.S."

If Hawaii is returned to the list, he said, the first most important
question will be:  "Who are the people to be decolonized?  Is it only
native Hawaiians, or is it all of those who suffered as a result of
the overthrow?  The thing Hawaii needs to address is to see itself in
the mirror and ask itself, who are we who have been decolonized?  I
don't think it's going to work to just limit it to the native Hawaiian
race.  It was a nation that was overthrown, not just native
Hawaiians."

Then, if the matter reaches the voting stage, the question will be who
votes, Burgess said.  "The exercise of self-determination must be done
by people who were colonized."  And they must be given choices, he
said, such as whether they want to maintain state status, or be
independent, or have a free association with the United States.

The working group, which recently met, sent the Martinez report to the
U.N. Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection
of Minorities, where it will accept testimony from U.N. members and
indigenous groups.  A final edited version goes to the U.N. Commission
on Human Rights, and to the U.N. General Assembly, for adoption.

So far, the United Nations has accepted three progress drafts as
official
U.N. documents, including one that contained accounts by Queen
Liliuokalani
on the push by foreigners to limit the monarchy's power and to seek
annexation.  Liliuokalani's description of Hawaii's political climate
during her time changed the complexion of the issue, Trask said.

'Give our people the choice'

Meanwhile, Ka Pakaukau's Kekuni Blaisdell told a U.N. decolonization
committee seminar this June in Nadi, Fiji, that 17 colonies remain on
the U.N. list, with three in the Pacific pressing for
self-determination with an option for independence.  Blaisdell said
colonialism in the Pacific, in various forms, has accelerated and
intensified rather than declined. The United Nations in 1990 mandated
to eradicate colonialism by the year 2000.

"It is imperative," he said, "that we indigenous peoples become more


involved in the dominant, western decolonization process, that we
generate our own initiatives and that such actions be recognized."

Entitled to vote

A U.N.-supervised plebiscite would entitle Hawaiians to vote for a
form of government, such as incorporation as a U.S. state, free
association or an independent or autonomous government.

Hawaiian groups will focus lobbying efforts on U.N. member nations
that signed treaties with Hawaii before it became a state.

"We're not saying give Hawaii independence, we're just saying re-list
Hawaii," Trask said.  "Have the U.N. take a look at it, and give our
people the opportunity to make a choice, which we never had in 1959."

Tom Coffman, whose book "Nation Within" about America's annexation of
Hawaii has generated widespread discussion, said the U.N. report is
"really important because what I've found in my research of the period
of 1893 to 1898 ... was that over and over the question of whether
Hawaiians would be allowed to vote on annexation came up, and over and
over, the Republic government conspired with annexationists in
Washington to prevent Hawaiians from voting."

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