Allegations by asylum seekers of the use of cattle prods by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) when boarding refugee boats, especially at the time of the children overboard scandal prior to the 2001 federal election, have again surfaced.
In an interview with refugees who were formerly detained at the Lombrum detention centre on Manus Island after their boat, the Olong (SIEV-4), was intercepted by HMAS Adelaide, New Zealand journalist Kim Ruscoe, writing in the January 10 Wellington Dominion Post, quotes an Iranian man, Khalil Alibrahimy, as saying that asylum seekers were "treated like criminals, physically abused by Australian guards and kept in line with electric cattle prods".
Alibrahimy's testimony correlates with reports from asylum seekers obtained by Amnesty International. An Amnesty International employee last year insisted in interviews for the BBC documentary Australia's Pacific Solution that asylum seekers had also told him that cattle prods were used on them. He maintained his assertions even when faced with forceful denials by former immigration minister Philip Ruddock in the documentary that "such cattle prods do not exist" in the RAN.
National Greens spokesperson for refugees Pamela Curr also confirmed that she had interviewed a young girl who could describe in detail how "cattle prods" had been used on people in the Woomera detention centre by members of the Combat and Emergency Response Team — the so-called riot squad.
Jack Smit
Greens call for NMD talks to be 'suspended'
On the eve of the visit of US Joint Chiefs of Staff head General Richard Myers to Canberra on January 16, Greens senator Kerry Nettle called on the Australian government to "suspend" negotiations with the US over Australia's involvement in the US national missile defence (NMD) program.
On January 13 defense minister Robert Hill offered the first hint about the contents of the NMD agreement being discussed with US officials, saying the government might incorporate the missile defense systems on three air warfare destroyers planned for the Australian navy.
Hill previously had said Australia would help research the multi-billion-dollar NMD project and had no plans for a ground-based missile defense system on its own soil.
In a January 13 media release, Nettle said that the federal government should "immediately suspend these talks so that parliament can fully scrutinise the implications of Australia's participation in this dubious and costly program".
Nettle said that the Greens "will be moving to establish a Senate inquiry into Australia's involvement in the missile defence program when parliament resumes next month".
She said that the NMD talks were "proceeding in the face of growing concern in the Australian community about the Howard government's latest foreign policy adventurism with the US. To commit to such a program would make Australia part of the expanding US military outreach and lock us in for decades."
Nettle said the Greens will oppose funding a missile defence program. "Committing Australia to spend money on dubious defence proposals is wrong, particularly when there are so many needs in our schools, hospitals, childcare and environmental protection."
She said that the missile defence program, contrary to the government's claims that it will increase "international security", "actually threatens world security by starting a new nuclear arms race involving China, Russia, India, Pakistan and North Korea. If we are not a target already, committing us to such a program will make us a target."
Doug Lorimer
Rally supports Nauru asylum seekers
BRISBANE — On January 9, 100 protesters gathered outside the immigration department office to express their support for the asylum seekers held in the Australian-funded detention centre on the Pacific island state of Nauru.
The protest rally was held a day after 40 Afghan asylum seekers on Nauru had ended a 29-day hunger strike.
The protesters condemned the Howard government's brutal "Pacific solution" and its policy of locking up asylum seekers in internment camps for long periods.
Speakers at the rally included Greg Brown from the Refugee Action Collective, and Hassam Ghulam from the Hazara Ethnic Community of Australia, representing refugees from the oppressed Hazara minority of Afghanistan.
Frederika Steen from the Romero Centre, which assists refugees resident in Brisbane, said a broad cross-section of people had turned out to ask that the asylum seekers be released from "indefinite detention".
"There was great relief that the hunger strike is over and significant scepticism about the federal government's assurances that the refugees are all right", Steen said.
Bill Mason
From Green Left Weekly, January 21, 2004.
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