(LifeSiteNews) — New Zealand has long boasted that its relationship with its indigenous population is one of the more enlightened. Not anymore. The brutal imposition of house arrest on residents of the Pacific island of Nukunonu because they have not agreed to be vaccinated has revealed that the New Zealand government is willing to ignore basic citizen rights.

A letter late last year from the Office of Council of Nukunonu to the unvaccinated family revealed that extreme pressure was put on them to comply. It set deadlines and saying they are “sad” the family has not complied. It said: “You will remain on house arrest with your wife … and your son … for a further six months until you reconsider your decision. Your daughter … will also be on house arrest starting tonight at 10 pm.”

The family has now been under house arrest for 11 months. Non-complying residents on another atoll, Atafu, were allowed out several weeks ago, but they are not permitted to attend gatherings or meetings. There are no instances of Covid-19 on either atoll.

Mahelino Patelesio, the father of the Nukunonu family under house arrest, describes the situation as “beyond ridiculous.” “Obviously I’m very concerned about my family’s well-being which is why we’re making this determined stand,” he said. He says some locals felt they could not refuse to get inoculated because of community pressure to co-operate.

Patelasio believes the government’s aggression “echoes deeply into NZ government’s attitude to Tokelau people in Tokelau.” To him it reveals contempt by the New Zealand government towards the indigenous population. The government is also cynically putting itself at arm’s length of the issue by using proxies on the island. Ross Ardern, father of the New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Adern, is the Administrator of the area. He has not interfered.

“We are easier to control through a puppet local ‘government’ and installed proxies in leadership, because now you have unquestioning sheep leading a community of fearful sheep into oblivion,” says Patelesio.

Imprisoning Tokelau people who do not comply with the vaccine edicts, which is effectively treating them as criminals, is exactly what New Zealand’s 1990 Bill of Rights, part of New Zealand’s uncodified constitution, was designed to prevent. The inescapable conclusion is that the New Zealand government is breaking its own laws.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/new-zealand-indigenous-family-under-house-arrest-for-11-months-for-not-taking-covid-jab/