Apartheid New Zealand: A Catalog of Shame
Posted by te2ataria on March 11, 2009
sent by a reader
This is how pakeha treat Maori and other ‘colored’ people in apartheid New Zealand
Blinded prisoner’s family denied access
- Subject’s name: John Waara
- Crime committed: No one really knows
- Reason for being locked up: Errr …, No one really knows
- Incident #1: He was attacked and blinded with a fork while in prison
- Incident #2: He was attacked again and had the “stitches ripped from his eyes”
- Action taken by the prison authorities to protect him before the attacks: None!
- Action taken by the prison authorities after the attack: His mother and daughter were banned from visiting him
- Reason given: They might speak to the media!
The following article appeared in The Dominion Post
Blinded prisoner’s family banned
The Dominion Post [11 march 2009]
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2249739/Blinded-prisoners-family-banned
The mother and 16-year-old daughter of a prisoner stabbed in the eyes twice in six months say they have been banned from visiting him in prison.
Suzanne Waara said her son, John Henry Waara, 35, had gone on a hunger strike and was refusing medication in protest at his treatment in prison.
Photo removed by moderator K.
DENIED ACCESS: John Waara’s daughter Aroha, 16, and his mother, Suzanne, were turned down they asked to visit him.Photo: ROBERT KITCHIN/Dominion Post. Image may be subject to copyright
She said Waara was discharged from hospital on Monday and returned to 24-hour lockdown at Palmerston North’s Linton prison after an attack that saw an inmate rip the stitches from his eyes.
The Dominion Post reported yesterday that Waara was blinded after being stabbed in the eyes with a fork in October.
The Mongrel Mob affiliate was attacked again in the prison day room while talking to a friend last week. He believes it was the same attacker.
His mother said he was in extraordinary pain. “He told me that he attacked his eyes and broke all the stitches.”
When Ms Waara and her granddaughter, Aroha, asked to visit him in prison yesterday, they were turned down “because we talked to media”. Corrections denies this but a spokeswoman would not say why they had been banned.
Waara told his mother yesterday that he had been placed on 24-hour lockdown for his protection, and was on a hunger strike and refusing medication in protest.
Ms Waara said he would need at least painkillers and antibiotics to treat infection in his eyes.
Corrections has said that Waara was put in protective custody after the first attack, but was allowed to return to the mainstream prison when he complained and assured staff he felt safe.
He refused to co-operate with police on the first attack, and no charges were laid. Police are investigating the latest attack.
It is not known why Waara is in jail.
© 2009 Fairfax New Zealand Limited
Excerpts from an earlier article by EMILY WATT, The Dominion Post:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2206048/Prisoner-blinded-with-fork
John Waara, 34, of Palmerston North, lost his sight in both eyes after another prisoner grabbed him by the neck from behind and stabbed him in the eyes with a fork in Linton prison last year.
He was attacked again last week, he believes by the same person. He would not tell his mother the extent of his injuries because he said he did not want to worry her.
But he said he had had surgery and his eyes had been sewn up after the latest attack.
“He said to me ‘Mum, how did it happen? I’ve had enough. I’m a sitting duck, I can’t see. I can’t do anything,” his mother Suzanne Waara said.
Ms Waara said after the first attack, her son asked for home detention because he feared he would be attacked again. It was declined by the courts and he was sent back to prison.
It is not known what Waara is in prison for or for how long.
Related Links:
Zombie Democracy - Apartheid Fort NZ 
mary said
hi could you please have the photo of my daughter removed for safety reasons i do not wish her photo to be displayed
te2ataria said
The photo has been removed. Moderator K.