BY KEARA COURTNEY

SYDNEY — A strong statement of solidarity with the plight of asylum seekers was made on September 9, when 1500 people gathered to condemn the federal government's policy on refugees. The rally was organised by a coalition of refugee rights groups, human rights advocates and community organisations.

“The 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention which formulated just principles for those seeking asylum, and to which Australia is a signatory, needs to be defended”, Salvatori Scevola of the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW told the crowd. “Howard's attacks on refugees are aimed at stopping people accessing this right.”

Refugee Action Collective spokesperson Ian Riontoul likened the action to the early period of opposition to the Vietnam War.

“The majority of Australians may support the government's attacks on refugees, but then as now, we know that we support the right things, human rights, justice and freedom. And once more we will fight for what we believe in ... Unlike the government, we welcome the poor. We will free the refugees.”

Rukshana Sarwar from the Afghan Women's Network spoke of the conditions in her native country: the extreme poverty of the rural areas, the denial of education to women, the harsh rule of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban government. She urged the Australian government to “stop the war on refugees. They have suffered enough.”

Sister Susan Connolly from the Mary MacKillop Institute criticised the country's political and religious leadership for not taking a firm stance in support of the refugees, saying “each one is my brother and my sister, each on is your brother and your sister, regardless race, religious conviction or economic potential.”

Pip Hinman, a NSW Senate candidate for the Socialist Alliance, slammed John Howard's attacks on refugees as an opportunist re-election tactic. “Racism weakens the working class' ability to defend itself because it pits worker against worker”, Hinman observed.

NSW Labor parliamentarian Janelle Saffin also spoke out against what she called the “politically incorrect, legally incorrect and morally incorrect attitude towards the 438 Tampa asylum seekers”.

The crowd then marched to Prime Minister John Howard's Sydney office, chanting “No-one is illegal, Free the refugees” and “Stop the war on refugees”.

Organisers urged people to attend a protest on September 23, meeting at Villawood station at noon which will then march to the Villawood detention centre.

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