Cory Cidade, one of those arrested at Makua Beach yesterday,
hugs a friend outside the District Courthouse after posting bail.
The 16 people arrested are to be arraigned today.
Photo by Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said six city permits were issued to the campers yesterday.

The campers will be asked to leave Keaau today during weekly cleaning of the park but will be allowed to return tomorrow, she said.

Meanwhile, backhoes today were clearing the rubble of the Makua encampment.

Eleven men and five women arrested yesterday were charged with obstruction of government operations. Five men were released in the early afternoon after posting $50 bail. The others spent the night in District Court cellblocks. All were to appear at hearings this morning.

Ernest Moritomo, administrator for the sheriff's office, said some of those staying overnight were doing so by their own choice.

Others, he said, refused to give authorities their true identities, making it impossible for release. Another had outstanding traffic violations and could not pay the extra $750 bail.

Access to Makua Beach continues to be limited by state conservation law enforcement officers.

Those officers, whose usual duties include inspecting and enforcing fishery catches and hunting quotas, found themselves serving as media escorts and checkpoint officers.

Michael Wilson, director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the officers will be on hand 24 hours a day for the next few days to monitor the checkpoints at Makua Cave and Yokohama Bay. In the meantime, access to Yokohama Bay is closed, he said.

Mounds of rubble - some of it charred from six fires recently set by beach squatters - were left in the workers' wake, turning the homes of the homeless into mini junkyards yesterday.

A dozen discarded autos, some stacked on top of each other, contrasted with nearby sweet potato patches, which state workers left untouched. Throughout the morning, dump trucks rumbled back and forth down Farrington Highway.

At District Court, deputies meet with supporters of those arrested yesterday at Makua Beach for obstructing government efforts to clear illegal structures. Photo by Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin

But like many others, they knew the eviction was coming.

The Marambas, living at Makua Beach for the past three years, awoke yesterday to the sound of state enforcement officers rousing squatters with the warning to pack up in five minutes or face arrest.

"Everything that we needed that we couldn't take was down there," said 48-year-old Larry Maramba. "We only took the important stuff."

Maramba was able to cram only his wife's clothes into their small car before driving off to nearby Keaau Beach Park to wait out the eviction. Among the items they left behind in their makeshift two-bedroom tent were furniture, beds, a cooking stove and a television set.

Maramba's 49-year-old wife, however, stayed behind in protest and was one of the 16 people arrested when the state moved in after the June 15 eviction deadline expired.

Albert Kane, 56, who has lived at Makua Beach for the past eight years, said state sheriff deputies and public safety officers wearing bulletproof vests swarmed in quickly when the eviction began.

As the officers made their way through the campsites, Kane said they were friendly but firm about the five-minute limitation. Those who resisted were read their rights and arrested. While they were armed, none of the officers had their weapons drawn, he said.

"They were just doing their job," Kane said.