Rally in solidarity with Cambodian hunger strikers

Rally in solidarity with Cambodian hunger strikers

By Mike Karadjis

SYDNEY — About 50 people, mostly from the local Cambodian community, rallied outside Auburn Hospital in solidarity with three hunger strikers. The three women, aged in their twenties and thirties, have been on hunger strike since October 16 and 19 to protest the government's refusal to give them refugee status.

Several hundred Cambodians have been detained for three years, first at Port headland and now at Villawood Detention Centre. They arrived in Australia by boat, fleeing the prospect of a return of the Khmer Rouge. Most of the refugees had lived through traumatic experiences under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979.

The women are reportedly in a very weak condition. According to Ricci Bartels, a member of the Action Committee for Refugees in Australia, the women preferred not to go back to Cambodia even if it meant dying in Australia. The three women, as well as another three Cambodians, have received their final rejection notices from the federal government. Some are reportedly contemplating suicide.

The government has pushed regulations to force feed the women, but doctors say this is an ethical problem.

Another activist, Rosanna Barbero, believes the government is preparing the public to accept a mass deportation of refugees. The media response to the very rapid deportation of a recent boatload of refugees from China, which included "Go home and stay out!" style headlines, was part of this, she said.

From GLW issue 81