The Government's so-called "terrorism raids" have featured in a US State Department analysis of human rights around the world.
The report, released yesterday in Washington, noted New Zealand police arrested 20 people "some of whom were Maori, in October 2007 on various weapons charges, including unlawful possession of rifles.
"The arrests reportedly stemmed from an investigation begun in 2005 after hunters told authorities they had seen a group of men training with firearms in a camp in a remote mountain area," the State Department said.
"Maori MPs and others in the Maori community criticised police conduct of the raids that led to the arrests as excessive and heavy-handed".
Authorities had dropped charges against one defendant due to lack of evidence, and the other 17 cases remained pending with no scheduled trial date.
"The Government did not file any terrorism charges against these defendants," the department reported.
The report on New Zealand was bland by comparison with the toughly-worded analysis the department delivered on some other nations where it cited killings of election protesters and acts of politically motivated torture, beatings and rape.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in releasing the report, said the US held itself to the same standards it used to assess other countries, and some cases, such as Afghanistan, the report criticised countries closely allied to the US.
New Zealand was described as a place where "authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces" but noted that "indigenous people disproportionately experienced societal problems"
The State Department was released just as Justice Minister Simon Power headed to New York to report to the United Nations on how New Zealand's human rights obligations are being managed.
Mr Power will next week present New Zealand's Fifth Periodic Report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, though the ABC reported he is also expected to face questioning over two days from the committee of 18 countries on police use of Tasers.
The State Department report made no mention of Tasers in its examination of NZ arrest procedures.
It found little evidence of official corruption, but noted the case of former MP Phillip Taito Field, sentenced to six years in jail for 11 convictions of bribery and corruption and 15 charges of obstruction of justice.
But the report did re-raise the commercial sexual exploitation of children in New Zealand, though noted the prosecution of brothel owners found exploiting underage girls for prostitution.
Under the heading of "ethnic minorities", the report noted Pacific Islanders experienced societal discrimination, and that Asians also reported discrimination.
And there was a continuing pattern of disproportionate numbers of Maori on unemployment and welfare rolls, in prison, among school dropouts, in infant mortality statistics, and among single-parent households. Maori also made up 51 percent of the prison population and 42 percent of people serving community-based sentences.
