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News :: Civil Liberties & Human Rights : Law & Justice : Politics & Elections : Trade & International Relations : War & Peace |
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The pursuit of justice for David Hicks |
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by ke |
14 Apr 2006
Modified: 12:19:21 PM |
 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 |
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News :: Civil Liberties & Human Rights : Law & Justice : Police & Thieves |
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Willful neglect by DFAT of Australian imprisoned in Argentina |
by karin eliot
Email: karineliot (nospam) gmail.com |
03 Nov 2005
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 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 |
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News :: Nuclear issues |
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Green-Black Alliance reborn in Quorn |
by Rig
Email: sievx01 (nospam) yahoo.com.au |
28 Sep 2005
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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 . |
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Read the full article... (15 comments) |
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Everything is Not Fine and Dandy in Port Augusta |
by Rig
Email: sievx01 (nospam) yahoo.com.au |
09 Jun 2005
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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 |
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Read the full article... (14 comments) |
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News :: Civil Liberties & Human Rights : Refugees & Asylum seekers |
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Notorious isolation unit re-opened at Baxter |
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by adele indy |
25 May 2005
Modified: 04:19:15 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 |
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| Regional features from Oceania |
| oceania :: features |
| Activists Pressure BHP over Roxby Mine |
| by Melbourne Indymedia
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2 Dec 2006 |
 Activists attending BHP Billiton's Annual General Meeting in Brisbane last week questioned the social responsibility of BHP for allowing the Olympic Dam uranium mine to operate outside the law through the Roxby Downs (Indenture Ratification) Act . "While they operate outside the law and with no accountability to environmental and social concerns, the community has no assurance of culpability for accidents. These exemptions represent a racist and environmentally irresponsible outcome for the community." said Ms Stewart addressing the AGM. [Read More] [Audio] |
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| oceania :: features | :: perth |
| ACTIVIST PICNIC - HYDE PARK |
| | 2 Dec 2006 |
| ACTIVIST PICNIC SUNDAY 3rd DEC HYDE PARK 3 pm - all welcome... CALLOUT to all: anarchist, autonomes, queers, feminists, greenies, ferals, randoms and whatevers, come and socialise with other activists in a friendly public environment. Meet in the city corner of Hyde Park, near the corner of William and Glendower Streets. BYO everything. No racism, no sexism, no homophobia. Just activists batting the breeze about politics without the stress of a meeting with an agenda. See you there! Phone: 9371 3791 READ MORE... |
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| oceania :: features |
| Eureka Dawn Walk: Justice for David Hicks |
| by Melbourne Indymedia
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1 Dec 2006 |
 The Eureka152 Dawn Lantern Walk will be conducted this year in Ballarat as a remembrance of the injustice being suffered by David Hicks. "David Hicks is an Australian citizen and a great great grandson of a Eureka stockader," said the Dawn Walk producer Graeme Dunstan. This year is Eureka's 152nd anniversary. |
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| oceania :: features |
| The State and Violence Against Women |
| by Melbourne Indymedia
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1 Dec 2006 |
 State-sponsored violence against women occurs frequently in Australia, without question. This was only emphasised by the recent police violence against women at the G20 protests in Melbourne. [Read more]
Measuring violence against women |
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| oceania :: features |
| Abuse in Tongan prisons - ”Hit in the face with the back of a gun” |
| by Anonymous
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1 Dec 2006 |
| Abuse in Tongan prisons - IMC activist almost arrested It was raining for most of Wednesday and Thursday morning so we didn’t do all the things we had planned for. We talked to people about the brutality in the prisons and met three men who were beaten by soldiers. A woman told us how her neighborhood protected Chinese shops from being destroyed on Thursday, 16th November and an IMC activist was almost arrested outside the Nuku’alofa prison/police station. More If a boat ends up on a reef⦠Tonga Report 3 Our media pass was finally dropped off on Tuesday morning which allows us to get |
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| oceania :: features | :: perth |
| WEST PAPUA NATIONAL DAY: December 1st |
| | 1 Dec 2006 |
| December 1: WEST PAPUA Independence Day Celebrating the West Papuan Struggle for Self-determination. Raising the Morning Star Flag in solidarity! West Papua Independence Day Commemoration Vigil : Friday December 1st 2006 4-6pm - OUTSIDE THE INDONESIAN CONSULATE - 134 Adelaide Tce PERTH. Friday 1st December 2006 is WEST PAPUA Independence Day: Forty five years ago on the 1st of December 1961, the Morning Star flag was flown for the first time officially beside the Dutch Tricolor. At that ceremony as the Morning Star flag was raised, Dutch and Papuan military and police saluted and accompanied |
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| oceania :: features | :: perth |
| Day of Union & Community Protest |
| | 30 Nov 2006 |
| NOVEMBER 30, 2006: Time for General Strike? March and Rally against Howard's IR laws! From the Newswires: Watching giant TVs in a corporate stadium - Unions avoid real and direct action || Be Active on the nationwide Day of Union & Community Protest || Migrante Perth Statement: EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL WORKERS || QUEER BLOC: Union Rally Against Howard and the IR Reforms || Publish YOUR media... DEMONSTRATE: From 10AM Perth Cultural Centre, James St Northbridge in the amphitheatre outside the State Library REV-UP ACTION INFO || Unions WA "As fundamental worker's rights are stripped by the Liberal |
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| oceania :: features |
| 35 Chickens Liberated From West Auckland Egg Farm |
| by AAA
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25 Nov 2006 |
Early on Sunday morning, the 19th of November, animal rights activists broke into a battery hen farm in West Auckland removing 35 chickens.
Activists gained entry into Eggs R Us on Henderson Valley Road, by cutting a large hole in one side of a shed. The shed contained row after row of caged hens.
Dozens of rats could be seen running between cages. Many of the birds were in a poor condition, having missing feathers and red inflamed skin from rubbing on the bars; all the birds were de-beaked. The conditions on this farm were unfortunately standard for this cruel industry; |
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| oceania :: features |
| Revolutionary not Evolutionary – Indymedia Activists' Report from Tonga |
| by Anonymous
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25 Nov 2006 |
UPDATE: Report 2: Soldiers and cops wherever you go
Saturday/Sunday, November 25/26, 2006
Nuku’alofa/Pangaimotu â The city centre of Nuku’alofa has been completely closed off after last Thursday’s riots. Military checkpoints have been set up on every intersection. Only people who work and/or live inside that part of town are let in. Journalists can get a special pass which gives them access to the part of town where most buildings are damaged but unfortunately we have not been able to get media accreditations yet. There are close to 20 of these roadblocks in town.
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| oceania :: features | :: manila |
| Sagada Backpackers Struggle for Freedom, Continues and Intensifies |
| | 24 Nov 2006 |
| 10 (ten) months had passed since the young backpackers and FoodNotBombs volunteers were illegally arrested, tortured, detained and charged with fabricated crimes by Philippine Authorities. The quest for their freedom continues, this includes a minor victory that helped 2 among the 11 detainees pulled-out from jail for being minors. Yet the struggle continues until everyone is free and until every one of us is free. ON November 17th and 20th, International Action Day for the unconditional release of the illegally detained Sagada-bound backpackers was held, targeting Philippine Embassies and |
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| oceania :: features | :: manila |
| AFRA Farmer Leader Shot Over Land Dispute |
| | 18 Nov 2006 |
| SITIO ASAO, Barangay Lawis, Balasan, Iloilo  Ronald Ocson, 41-year old, married with seven children and president of the Asao Farmers and Residents Association (AFRA) was shot by a lone assailant on Monday, October 30, 2006 around six in the evening. Ronald was sitting at the entrance of his father’s house when the shooting occurred. His daughter, 14-year old Rowena Joy, who was also inside the house at that time, was at the window, and saw the alleged gunman drew a pistol and fired at his father. [ Read More ] Related Article: 1 | 2 | 3 |
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| oceania :: features | :: manila |
| Indymedia Journalist Murdered by Paramilitary Thugs |
| | 1 Nov 2006 |
| INDYMEDIA journalist shot dead by Oaxacan paramilitary thugs on the 27th of October while filming the people’s barricade in Santa Lucia- a town in Oaxaca, Mexico. [watch video here] Brad Roland Will- a New York Indymedia journalist was with his camera at the barricades documenting the people’s strike against the Oaxacan Governor Ulises Ruiz before the shooting broke out that took a single bullet to end Brad's life. Prior to the recent killing, the five-month long strike of the Oaxacan people against their tyrant and corrupt Governor caused already a number of activists and civilians alike |
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| oceania :: features |
| Full Circle: The Philippines and the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal |
| by QC IMC
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29 Oct 2006 |
| After Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia, the Philippines will only be the third country in history to be the subject of a session twice by the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT). |
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| oceania :: features |
| Relawan Indymedia New York tewas dalam penyerangan Para-militer di Oaxaca |
| by Jakarta IMC
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29 Oct 2006 |
| beberapa orang lainnya luka-luka dan tewas  Polisi Federal dan Para-militer Meksiko, menyerang barisan barikade dekat kantor pengadilan Oaxaca, di kotamadya Calicanto. Penyerangan ini mengakibatkan beberapa orang luka-luka dan beberapa orang lainnya tewas.
Reporter Indymedia New York, BRAD WILL, tertembak di bagian dada dan tewas sebelum sempat dibawa ke rumah sakit; Oswaldo Ramirez, seorang fotografer untuk Milenio Diario, juga ikut tertembak dan mengalami luka serius dibagian kaki. (Foto oleh : La Reforma) BEBERAPA INFORMASI TENTANG BRAD YANG KAMI DAPAT DARI SESEORANG YANG BERADA DIDEKATNYA |
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