Hawaiian activists want U.S. out

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>hawaii-nation >[hawaii-nation] Hawaiian activists

want U.S. out >Mon, 29 Jul 2002 20:25:14 -1000 > > > > >FL MORRIS /

FMORRIS (AT) STARBULLETIN (DOT) COM >Hawaiians observed Hawaiian Independence Restoration

Day at Thomas >Square yesterday. From left, Morgan Torris, Kawika Liu and Baron

>Ching lowered the American flag and replaced it with the Hawaiian >flag in a

symbolic ceremony. >

>------ >

>Hawaiian activists want U.S. out > >100 people gather to commemorate the 1843

withdrawal of British >forces > >Honolulu Star-Bulletin >Monday, July 29, 2002

> >By Treena Shapiro >tshapiro (AT) starbulletin (DOT) com > >Hawaiian activists

commemorated Hawaiian Independence Restoration >Day in Thomas Square yesterday

with calls for the United States to >end what they believe is an illegal

military occupation. > >For some of the 100 people in attendance, recent

events, such as the >City Council's preliminary passage of a revised

condominium >leasehold conversion bill and challenges to the constitutionality

of >programs that give preference to native Hawaiians, made the occasion >even

more poignant. > >Yesterday's event commemorates July 31, 1843, when Britain

ended its >five-month military occupation of Hawaii and recognized Kamehameha

>III as the rightful sovereign. > >"We call on the United States to end its

fraudulent 104-year-old >occupation of our homelands," said event organizer

Kekuni Blaisdell. > >"It took Britain only five months to withdraw from its

unlawful >colonial occupation. Why must it take the U.S. over a century to go

>home?" > >Blaisdell said the Hawaiian's fight for sovereignty is a fight for

>survival. > >University of Hawaii professor Noenoe Silva said that Hawaiians

have >been involved in the same fight to recover their land since it was >first

occupied. > >"There's all different kinds of ways of taking our land, but it's

>always the same struggle," she said. > >"The U.S. military is taking land from

us again to defend America. >The City and County of Honolulu is trying to bust

the Queen >Liliuokalani's Trust," Silva said. > >She referred to a bill before

the City Council that would allow >qualified leasehold owner-occupants to gain

title to the land under >their units by using the city's condemnation powers to

force the >owners of the fee interest into selling at a price determined by an

>independent party. > >The Queen Liliuokalani Trust funds more than 300 social

programs in >part from revenues derived from lease interest fees. > >"That was

her (Queen Liliuokalani's) land she inherited from her >ancestors. From time

immemorial that land belonged to her family and >she put it in trust for us

because she knew that we were being >impoverished," Silva said. "If they force

that sale, they're going >to bust the trust." > >Keanu Sai, Hawaiian kingdom

minister of the interior, did not >characterize the event as a protest. >

>"We're not seeking independence. We're already independent. We're >just

exposing it through celebration of our past." > >Many members of the Hawaiian

community have been angered by >challenges to government programs that had been

designed to help >them, such as those offered though Kamehameha Schools or the

Office >of Hawaiian Affairs, he said. > >"If someone keeps taking something

away from you, you get mad, >especially when they're the ones who said you can

have it and >created the programs, and then they take the programs away. That's

>deceitful," Sai said. > >However, he added. "This day, really, legally and

historically, has >nothing to do with what's happening now. What's happening

now is >directly attributed to Hawaii being occupied by the United States." >

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