PRESS RELEASE - BAXTER CONVERGENCE 2003
by Marilyn Shepherd 11:43pm Sun Jan 19 '03 (Modified on 9:48am Mon Jan 20
'03) article#40840
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The situation has become untenable and this Easter thousands of activists
from all over Australia plan to descend on Baxter for the purposes of
demonstrating their dissatisfaction with Australia's xenophobic mandatory
detention policies.
PRESS RELEASE - BAXTER CONVERGENCE 2003
TO WORLD MEDIA
Woomera in the South Australia outback has been a bone of contention in
Australia for the past three years. Most of the world has now heard of this
desert hell-hole used to imprison asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by
boat. Women, men, children, babies, grandparents and the disabled all are
forced to live for months or years in tin sheds while their applications
for protection are being held.
The inside is like a vast and deranged MAD MAX movie script. It is nothing
but 20 acres of dust and gravel, no trees, no shade, no view, just desert,
flies, heat and endless boredom.
At Easter 2002, after watching from vast distances of the country,
thousands of activists descended on the town outskirts of Woomera to hold
demonstrations and bring the conditions to the attention of the world.
They succeeded far beyond their wildest dreams when 50 refugees were broken
out from behind the palisade fences and razor wire to escape into the
desert and give interviews for the world media. Young men from Afghanistan
told how the Taliban were better, they pleaded not to be treated like
animals and children screamed behind the fences "freedom, freedom" as their
mother collapsed in anguish.
Behind the fences the refugees were later handcuffed, teargassed and thrown
to the ground, they were beaten with batons and then locked into tin sheds.
This was all denied by the Australian government but was later revealed by
former staff members at Woomera that even a 7 year old boy was beaten with
a baton.
After a year of further breakouts, hunger strikes, fires and growing public
dissent most of Woomera was burnt to the ground on 30 December 2002, and
all the women and children moved to Baxter, 200 kilometres south of Woomera.
Unfortunately, Baxter is worse than Woomera, and a good deal of it was also
burnt to the ground. In Baxter the refugees are surrounded by 9000 volt
electric fences, they can only see the ground and the sky, the guards can
do what they like as no-one can see in.
This is the new "humane" face of mandatory detention, which has been
condemned by every human rights group in the world, including the UNHCR,
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, UNICEF, UNHRC, every Australian teacher,
doctors, lawyers, every church and even the Pope last year.
However, in the face of such attacks the government of Australia recite a
mantra "they are illegal, they should not have come, we have to protect our
borders, it is their own fault, they can go home anytime" and it a whole of
government mantra.
For the sake of honesty the people incarcerated have been locked up for as
long as 5.5 years, without charge, without trial or hope of release and
come mostly from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The situation has become untenable and this Easter thousands of activists
from all over Australia plan to descend on Baxter for the purposes of
demonstrating their dissatisfaction with Australia's xenophobic mandatory
detention policies.
Please check the website http://www.baxterwatch.net for further details and
offers of support for the refugees.
Marilyn Shepherd
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.baxterwatch.net add your own comments
Still Out There!
by [EMAIL PROTECTED] 9:48am Mon Jan 20 '03 comment#40855
More than just give interviews to foreign press, many escaped refugees were
aided to freedom by brave protesters.
Most were caught at roadblocks and more than 20 Woomera protesters face
serious charges and possible jail terms. They deserve our support.
Some of the refugees are still free!
SHUT THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS!
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=40840&group=webcast
