Annexation report
may be worthless

A U.S. spokesman says
the draft is 'in no way
binding on us'

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

A United Nations draft report that noted Hawaii's annexation by the United States may be invalid may not be the milestone local sovereignty leaders believe it to be.

Carlos Aranaga, a spokesman for the U.S. Mission at the United Nations in New York, called the report "a footnote to a minor document by an obscure body of the United Nations."

"It is in no way binding on us," said Aranaga, noting that it is a draft of an advisory report. "The chance of this report getting any notice or activity on the Security Council is nil.

"I'm not dismissing this, but it's not something that's a very high-profile issue at this point," he added. Aranaga had not seen the report.

The report recommends that Hawaii be returned to a United Nations list of Non-Self Governing Territories -- making Hawaii eligible for decolonization.

Hawaiian representatives have appeared unsuccessfully before the United Nations in the past requesting that Hawaii be re-listed as a colony.

Local sovereignty leaders have welcomed the report, saying it's been a long time coming that the international community recognized what really happened in Hawaii 100 years ago.

But even they concede that the report is only a first step in a long process.

The U.N. Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities must still accept testimony from U.N. members and indigenous groups.

A final version will go to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The U.N. General Assembly must then adopt the report.

Even if Hawaii is returned to that list of non-self governing peoples, questions Hawaii must face is who will vote on self-determination -- only native Hawaiians or all people of Hawaii?

Hawaiians for years have contended that Hawaii's annexation by the United States was illegal.

President Clinton's 1993 apology to native Hawaiians recognizing that the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy was unlawful validates what they had been saying all along, they say.

The recent discovery of more than 20,000 signatures of native Hawaiians who voted in 1897 against annexation has spurred local sovereignty groups in their fight for self-determination.

Gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle said responsible leaders should make clear that there is no chance of annexation being nullified.

"Yes, there were injustices and we need to correct them, but we are a state in America and we'll remain a state in America," Lingle said.

Hawaii's U.S. Sen. Dan Akaka declined to comment on the report but continues to believe that current domestic and international remedies are "insufficient" to meet the unique circumstances of native Hawaiians, said his press secretary Paul Cardus.