New Zealand designates Proud Boys a terrorist organisation, says group played key role in US Capitol attack

New Zealand's government has declared that American far-right groups the Proud Boys and The Base are terrorist organisations.

Key points:

NZ officials say the Proud Boys involvement in the attack on the US Capitol amounted to an act of terrorism

They say a key goal of The Base is to "train a cadre of extremists capable of 'accelerationist' violence"

The Proud Boys are now banned in Canada and New Zealand, while The Base are banned in the UK, Canada, Australia and NZ

The two groups join 18 others, including Islamic State, that have been given an official terrorist designation, making it illegal in New Zealand to fund, recruit or participate in the groups, and obligating authorities to take action against them.

The US groups are not known to be active in New Zealand, although the South Pacific nation has become more attuned to threats from the far right after a white supremacist shot and killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two Christchurch mosques in 2019.

The New Zealand massacre inspired other white supremacists around the world, including a white gunman who killed 10 black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

In the US, the State Department only lists foreign groups as terrorist entities.

But the Proud Boys were last year named a terrorist group in Canada, and The Base has previously been declared a terrorist group in Britain, Canada and Australia.

In a 29-page explanation of the Proud Boys' designation published on Thursday, New Zealand authorities said the group's involvement in the violent attack on the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021, amounted to an act of terrorism.

The statement said that while several militia groups were involved, it was the Proud Boys who incited crowds, coordinated attacks on law enforcement officers and led other rioters to where they could break into the building.

The statement said there were unlinked but ideologically affiliated chapters of the Proud Boys operating in Canada and Australia.

New Zealand authorities argued that before the Capitol attack, the Proud Boys had a history of using street rallies and social media to intimidate opponents and recruit young men through demonstrations of violence.

It said the group had put up various smoke screens to hide its extremism.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-30/new-zealand-designates-proud-boys-a-terrorist-organisation/101199016