New Zealand on edge as police hunt baby snatcher

The mysterious gunpoint abduction of an eight-month-old baby has stunned New Zealand, a land where such crime is virtually unknown.

Kahu Durie was snatched from her adoptive mother, a high profile Maori lawyer, in Wellington on Saturday.

So far, the kidnappers have sent no ransom demands.

With some fearing it may be race-related, the abduction has dominated news bulletins. Hundreds have phoned police with tips and detectives have identified 12 people for questioning, but will not identify them or describe them as suspects.

Police are also handing out thousands of flyers with the kidnapper’s description in the hope that someone will come forwards with a possible motive.

There is speculation that Kahu’s parents, Donna Hall and Eddie Durie, were targeted in a revenge attack over their involvement in the push for Maori rights. Hall told police the kidnapper was a white man.

Hall is a well known lawyer who deals with multi-million pound legal claims for the indigenous Maori people at a special tribunal. Durie, New Zealand’s first Maori High Court judge, is the tribunal’s chairman.

For generations, the rights of Maori people and their tribes were ignored by New Zealand’s mainly European settlers and descendants.

However, a renaissance of Maori culture and a series of landmark legal cases over traditional land and resource ownership costing taxpayers millions of pounds have shaken New Zealand society, raising uncomfortable issues of race and inequality.

Maori people make up about 15% of the four million population. Most are among its poorest and least educated - Hall and Durie are high profile exceptions.

Kahu’s parents have remained largely out of sight this week, surrounded by family and friends. Hall ventured out briefly for a police news conference and pleaded for her daughter’s safe return.

In an statement charged with emotion, Hall said she had expected Kahu to take her first steps this week.

‘‘You could fix this problem for all of us, by returning her to somewhere safe, with humanity,’’ Hall said in a direct appeal to the kidnapper.

‘‘You can put right the wrong you have done to her and to my husband and myself by wrapping her in a blanket and putting her somewhere safe and dry.’’