From the Sunday Star-Times:

Ex-National Front leader starts militia
11 June 2006
By TIM HUME

Kyle Chapman quit as New Zealand’s National Front chief citing family reasons, but now he is recruiting members for his own far-Right organisation.

Former National Front leader Kyle Chapman has formed a secret survivalist militia and is recruiting members of the far-Right organisation for the “eventual takeover of New Zealand”.

Details of Chapman’s Phantom Recon Militia are revealed in policy documents, photos and emails he sent to an anti-racist activist posing as a white nationalist.

The photos, believed to have been taken at a rural South Island location, show Chapman and others dressed in military-style combat gear posing with replica weapons and in front of an ex-Army Land Rover.

Chapman, who lives in Christchurch, resigned as leader of the National Front last year, citing the pressure his involvement brought for his children, but told the Sunday Star-Times at the time his anti-immigration views had not changed.

The militia is described in its policy manual as a military-based underground organisation committed to securing “a safer and protected people”. The group was committed to “making change any way we can… If that includes militant action, then we will do what we have to do”.

Chapman, 35, told the activist in online exchanges that the militia was “the future of the movement in NZ”.

“We are getting interest from guys who never wanted to be in the public eye now as they always wanted to join something like the Klan but not the Klan itself. All I’m interested in now is building the army I thought the NF could be.”

The manual urges members to provide supplies, such as weapons and ammunition, balaclavas and army surplus, and urges them to recruit new members from certain fields, including former military staff, gunsmiths and medics.

When contacted by the Star-Times, Chapman admitted he knew of the organisation but would not discuss its activities.

The group’s manual urges members to “never tell anyone anything about the organisation” and reminds them they “must understand the secrecy and covert nature of all tasks and training”.

The document instructs members on how to carry out intelligence gathering activities, advising them to groom sources in government departments, and gives them guidelines for devising codenames.

It also gives advice on how to deal with questioning by police, recommending members learn about the Terrorism Suppression Act, have lies prepared if caught in possession of firearms, and never disclose information on fellow members. “Even if you do go to jail it would not be for too long.”

Chapman said in his emails he was recruiting members from the ranks of the National Front.

He criticised his successor at the helm of the National Front, Sid Wilson, as “not a good leader”.

Wilson said he had heard of the militia and knew Chapman had been meeting young skinheads in Auckland to recruit them for the group.

“He’s been doing everything he can to destabilise the National Front for some time - he realises he made a mistake in leaving.”

He believed the militia was an effort by Chapman to regain his sway over the country’s white nationalists.

The militia’s manual includes an urban survival plan recommending shelters are secured with snipers, and advises members to always have a back-up plan, “like if the whole city is under water the plan could be to meet in the hills”.

Defence Force spokeswoman Major Denise Mackay said the weapons depicted in the photos were not those in use by the military, but said the vehicle appeared to be an ex-Army Land Rover withdrawn from service and auctioned this year. It was not illegal to wear a military-style uniform unless it was worn with intent to defraud.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson said there was nothing illegal about the militia unless its members committed specific offences. “People congregate in groups… You’ve got gangs, you’ve got a whole range of groups. This would just be another one of them.”