|
Feature Articles |
Create or login to a User account? |
| Local News and Commentary |
|
|
News :: Civil Liberties & Human Rights : Law & Justice : Politics & Elections : Trade & International Relations : War & Peace |
|
The pursuit of justice for David Hicks |
|
by ke |
14 Apr 2006
Modified: 11:19:21 AM |
 Adelaide-born David Hicks has been incarcerated in the United States' notorious military prison at Guantanamo Bay for over 4 years. Unlike other countries such as Britain which have successfully negotiated the return of their nationals, the Australian Government has consistently refused to negotiate for a fair deal for Hicks, who now faces trial under the controversial military commision system. Hicks, who has a claim to British citizenship, achieved a victory on 12 April 2006 when the British Court of Appeals dismissed the UK Government's attempt to overturn his citizen's rights. In Adelaide on the same day a public meeting was organised by Fair Go for David, bringing together Hicks' legal counsels and his father to update the large audience on the progress of the campaign to bring him home.
Read the legal updates at the public meeting
Fair Go For David |
|
|
|
News :: Civil Liberties & Human Rights : Law & Justice : Police & Thieves |
|
Willful neglect by DFAT of Australian imprisoned in Argentina |
by karin eliot
Email: karineliot (nospam) gmail.com |
03 Nov 2005
|
 On 4 February 2003 Australian man Stephen Sutton was arrested in a joint Australian Federal Police/Argentine police operation in Buenos Aires.
After being held for two an a half years without charge, he was finally convicted of drug trafficking, and sentenced to 11 years in an Argentine prison. This conviction was despite ANY drugs being found on Stephen or in his hotel at the time of the raid.
Moreover, when Stephen was 15 he had a rare type of scalp tumour removed, and according to his family 'was never the same ... and seemed to stay in this age bracket'. This fact alone suggests it is more likely that, if indeed there is ANY connection between Stephen Sutton and the drug trade, Stephen was exploited by unscrupulous others, tricked into being an unwitting drug mule in what has been described as a 'transnational organised crime syndicate'.
Now Stephen Sutton is seriously ill in prison with tuberculosis, and being denied basic health care. His concerned family have been consistently fobbed off by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and even threatened with imprisonment themselves under the Privacy Act for discussing their own frustrations with the system.
Stephen's older sister Ann Cluse, from Salisbury Downs discusses her experiences dealing with government bureaucracies that appear completely uninterested in offering basic protection to an Australian citizen abroad in dire trouble.
Does being in prison mean you have lost all human rights?
Are there are other Australians imprisoned overseas enduring similar neglect from Australian Consular agencies?
Is this a systemic problem?
Read more....
background to Stephen Sutton's situation
Interview with Stephen Sutton's sister
Stephen Sutton support website
Letter from Stephen Sutton
Photo caption: Stephen Sutton with his niece Dee, in Australia |
|
|
|
News :: Nuclear issues |
|
Green-Black Alliance reborn in Quorn |
by Rig
Email: sievx01 (nospam) yahoo.com.au |
28 Sep 2005
|
|
As Australia’s uranium industry looks to expansion and the nuclear power debate ricochets around parliaments across the nation, Indigenous groups and environmental organisations concerned about the nuclear industry’s destructive impacts met in Quorn, in South Australia’s southern Flinders Ranges . |
|
Read the full article... (5 comments) |
|
Everything is Not Fine and Dandy in Port Augusta |
by Rig
Email: sievx01 (nospam) yahoo.com.au |
09 Jun 2005
|
The Baxter immigration detention centre is an obvious blight on the image of this town, however there is a more deep-seated conflict. This is the intensification of policing operations aimed at the town’s Aboriginal population and the underlying racist sentiment that drives it.
In February of this year a STAR force team was used against Aboriginal people congregating on an area of foreshore. The STAR force team was deployed at the request of the Local Council and police. The Council cited serious public order issues as the reason for this aggressive action, however in the context of Port Augusta’s history of white settlement and Aboriginal dispossession, this seemed like yet another act in a long line of racially motivated abuses by the white land-owning establishment |
|
Read the full article... (7 comments) |
|
News :: Civil Liberties & Human Rights : Refugees & Asylum seekers |
|
Notorious isolation unit re-opened at Baxter |
|
by adele indy |
25 May 2005
Modified: 03:19:15 AM |
 Just in case you were thinking that the release last night of 3 year old Naomi Leong from the Villawood immigration prison marks a change for the better in Australia's brutal and unyielding treatment of refugees, think again. The ghosts of Tampa and SIEV-X are not so easily dispelled. The notorious 'Red 1' isolation compound in Baxter Detention Centre is being used again, after being closed since the February release of Australian Cornelia Rau who had been wrongfully held there for over two months. Ask any asylum seeker who has been locked up in "Management" at Baxter about their individual experience and you will hear reports of humiliation, physical and mental cruelty, and deprivation of basic human rights. An African asylum seeker was forcibly taken to Red 1 compound last Saturday (21 May). He has not been able to make any phone calls since being placed in the compound. Baxter refugees staged a protest on May 23 to highlight the situation of the man placed in Red 1. Mira Wroblewski, National Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) spokesperson, said her organisation is extremely concerned about this development. "Detainees who are psychologically fragile after years of detention, are again being punished by being placed in isolation units." RAR is concerned that detainees who are put into Red 1 compound have no right of appeal, and their placement in this compound is under the control of individual employees of GSL, the company contracted by the Australian Government to run detention centres. "GSL is able to operate with secrecy and its actions lack accountability", said Ms Wroblewski.
Meanwhile Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has used the controversial and illegal deportation of Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez to the Philippines 4 years ago to again push the barrow of the necessity of a universal identification system, claiming that its lack made it difficult to identify people who did not provide correct information to authorities. This is a highly spurious argument given the existence of extensive inter-linked government databases such as the Movements and Reporting System that contains details of ALL individuals' movements in and out of Australia, holding data from 1980.
LINKS:
Notorious isolation unit re-opened at Baxter
freed from life in detention
Cornelia Rau's first press conference (video)
more Rau digest from mainstream wires
Ruddock 'in dark' on Alvarez
Personal Information Digest-Border Control and Compliance Division |
|
|
|
Liz vz Kevin Buzzacott verdict and sentence |
|
by Lara, Canberra - 0439 601 277 |
08 Apr 2005
|
|
|
|
Read the full article... (1 comment) |
| | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next Page |
| Regional features from Oceania |
| oceania :: features | :: perth |
| Chernobyl Day Action: Wed 26 April |
| | 25 Apr 2006 |
| From the newswire: "REMEMBER Chernobyl Day - 20 YEARS. Wednesday, 26th April. Meet on the lawn in front of Art Gallery, near Perth train station overpass, at 11:30am, Wednesday 26th April." Read More... Chernobyl - a timely reminder: The 20th Anniversary of the nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl is an opportunity to oppose the nuclear industry. Greens Dr Deb Foskey says: "The catastrophic health impacts of the Chernobyl disaster are only now being understood... We don't need an industry that creates poisonous waste that lasts for thousands of years." The link between the nuclear power |
more...
|
| oceania :: features | :: perth |
| Announcing Migrante Perth |
| | 24 Apr 2006 |
| ANNOUNCING MIGRANTE PERTH "A specter haunts the world, and it is the spectre of migration" - Hardt & Negri Recently, the Perth chapter of an international NGO named Migrante International was inaugurated in Perth. Migrante Perth is a proactive organisation composed of radical Filipinos organising locally, nationally and transnationally, around migrant worker and human rights issues to do with the Filipino diaspora. Migrante's activities include various initiatives such as education, training, advocacy, affirmative action, cultural events, and consciousness-raising. Story. Most Filipino |
more...
|
| oceania :: features |
| Seditious Intent: Short Film Collection |
| by Melbourne Indymedia
|
24 Apr 2006 |
 Seditious intent is an online collection of 17 short films all dealing with the Australian Government’s draconian new anti-terrorism laws. The laws make it an offence to: - bring the Sovereign into hatred or contempt;
- urge disaffection against the Constitution, the Government of the Commonwealth or either House of the Parliament;
- urge another person to attempt, otherwise than by lawful means, to procure a change to any matter established by law in the Commonwealth;
From the slick to the raw and edgy, ranging from fiction, faction, animation, claymation, subverts to adverts, all the Seditious |
more...
|
| oceania :: features |
| New Zealand Workers prepare for a Showdown with Nats |
| by AIMC
|
23 Apr 2006 |
| The Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) which represents 50,000 workers in 10 industries has announced its intention to hold a mass stopwork meeting and then march on Parliament on July 20 – 90 days from today. [Press Release] The protest action has been planned to scare Wayne Mapp, the National Party industrial relations spokesperson, into scrapping the Employment Relations (Probationary Employment) Amendment Bill, which would allow employers to sack new workers within ninety days of starting a new job. “It will affect everybody – from a 16-year-old starting his or her first |
more...
|
| oceania :: features |
| Aksi Pawai Bhinneka Tunggal Ika: Ribuan masyarakat menolak RUU Pornografi |
| by Jakarta IMC
|
22 Apr 2006 |
| Karnaval Budaya menolak RUU APP  Karnaval Budaya Menolak Rancangan Undang-Undang Pornografi (RUU Anti Pornografi dan Pornoaksi/RUU-APP) dengan tema “Pawai Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” berlangsung hari ini (Sabtu, 22/4).
Sejak pagi hari ribuan orang dari berbagai elemen masyarakat – aktivis perempuan, seniman, artis, masyarakat adat, budayawan, rohaniwan, mahasiswa, komunitas waria, komunitas muslim perjuangan, dll – berdatangan menuju titik berkumpul di Monumen Nasional (Monas). Aksi ini dikoordinir oleh Aliansi Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.
Mereka yang datang tampak mengenakan pakaian tradisi Jawa, |
more...
|
| oceania :: features | :: perth |
| Easter Vigil at Perth Immigration Detention Centre |
| | 19 Apr 2006 |
| Easter 2006: Edited from Perth Indy Newswire: In solidarity with actions around the world for the Global Days of Action on refugee rights, a small group of refugee rights activists held a two and a half day vigil outside the Detention Centre at Perth Airport. Eight activists spent at least some time at the vigil and there were two or three people there almost all the time. Five of us were Baxter 05ers, two of whom were planning to go to Villawood but circumstances intervened... Full Report On Friday afternoon we made the banner drawing attention to the Refugee Detention Centre, simply because |
more...
|
| oceania :: features |
| Indigenous Camp eviction looms |
| by Melbourne Indymedia
|
20 Apr 2006 |
 The Camp Sovereignty protest site in Melbourne's Kings Domain Gardens faces the threat of eviction after police visited the camp on Friday morning. The camp was established for the Commonwealth Games to serve as a base for actions coordinated by the Black GST campaign to highlight the on going resistance of Indigenous and non Indigenous people to the illegal occupation of the Australian continent. [Full Story] |
more...
|
| oceania :: features |
| Lake Cowal Easter Protest Halts Mine |
| by Melbourne Indymedia
|
20 Apr 2006 |
 Mining operations at Barrick Gold's Lake Cowal Project in western NSW were stopped for over five hours on Easter Sunday when a group of nearly one hundred protestors walked on to the mine site to highlight concern over the mine’s safety and social implications. The group, including Wiradjuri traditional owners and a cross section of locals and others from around Australia, were part of Easter protests against the newly opened gold mine. [Full Story] |
more...
|
| oceania :: features |
| Riots in the Solomon Islands |
| by smush
|
19 Apr 2006 |
| Riots broke out in the Solomon Islands after Snyder Rini was declared prime minister. However, there are caims that votes were bought by Mr Rini's financial backers. "Not only promises but gifts of money. So how can you fight that?" said Francis Billy Hilly, a spokesperson for the opposition. It has been reported that an angry crowd threw stones at the Parliament building, resulting in tear gas being fired by the police. Cars and buildings were set alight in Honiara and several Australian and New Zealand police officers were injured. [ Photos 1 | 2 ] In 2003, Australian and New Zealand troops |
more...
|
| oceania :: features |
| Taurewa Land Occupiers Hopeful of Halting Sale |
| by Sam Buchanan
|
18 Apr 2006 |
| Members of the Tuwharetoa Iwi occupying land in the central North Island say they are optimistic that a proposed sale will be halted. Taurewa Marae has been established on one of the blocks currently controlled by the government body Land Corp which make up the Taurewa Sheep Station near to National Park township. The land has been deemed surplus to government requirements and a proposal to sell the land for a development, reportedly to include luxury accommodation and a golf course, has emerged. However, residents of the marae say Land Corp officials, who recently visited the occupation, |
more...
|
| oceania :: features |
| Greenpeace menyerukan disepakatinya kerjasama Inggris-Indonesia untuk menghentikan pengrusakan Hutan |
| by Jakarta IMC
|
7 Apr 2006 |
 Di hari kedatangan bersejarah Perdana Menteri Inggris, Tony Blair, ke Indonesia, Greenpeace menyerukan kedua kepala negara Inggris dan Indonesia untuk menerapkan mekanisme yang mengikat secara hukum untuk menghentikan kerusakan yang sedang berlangsung di hutan-hutan alam terakhir Indonesia.Hutan alam Indonesia, bagian dari Hutan-hutan Surgawi Asia-Pasifik (1), sedang mengalami kerusakan lebih cepat dari hutan manapun di bumi. Hal ini disebabkan oleh permintaan Uni Eropa, AS, Jepang dan Cina.
Pada tahun 2004, Inggris merupakan mitra dagang terbesar untuk produk-produk kayu di Eropa dengan |
more...
|
| oceania :: features | :: manila |
| Punks Held Offline Sit-in at Commission on Human Rights |
| | 5 Apr 2006 |
| MANILA-- At least 30 punks held a sit-in protest at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) of the Philippines head office in Quezon City on Friday, demanding an impartial probe into the alleged brutal torture of 11 peers by police in Benguet province, north of Manila. The demonstration coincided with a scheduled court hearing against the torture victims in La Trinidad, Benguet, on charges of homicide in connection with a February 10 raid on an army base.[ Read More ] |
more...
|
| oceania :: features | :: manila |
| Bringing Street Protest to Cyberspace |
| | 22 Mar 2006 |
| NEWSBREAK! (28/3/2006) HACKTIVISTS expressing solidarity with the 11 political prisoners known as the Sagada 11 have hacked and defaced the website belonging to the National Defense College of the Philippines. Their website now reads, "We don't need the government, we don't need the military, we need JUSTICE AND LIBERTY for the SAGADA 11!", along with several links encouraging people to show their support.[ Read More ] UPDATES! (26/3/2006) VIRTUAL SIT-IN ends today, says BrigadaElektronica in a message forwarded through emails, the group thanked the participants who corageously joined the |
more...
|
| oceania :: features |
| Govt Does the Unjust by Invoking Justice |
| by QC IMC
|
19 Mar 2006 |
| From Crispin Beltran to Dinky Soliman, the government is making a mockery of the justice system. It wants to silence legitimate dissent by arresting selected personalities on trumped-up charges, even to the point where these have become patently outrageous and ridiculous. |
more...
|
|
|
|
