Ombudsman accepts police 'twaddle'
By Steve Painter
SYDNEY — The Australian Federal Police have lied to the federal ombudsman over incidents at the Aidex '91 protests in Canberra in November last year, says Denis Doherty of the Anti-Bases Action Committee.
Doherty lodged a number of complaints following police harassment of about 100 protesters who stayed behind to clean up the site of the protesters' peace camp.
Doherty says the police even deny the existence of an undertaking that they would not enter the camp without prior agreement with protest organisers. Yet throughout the protests they had observed this undertaking, even to the point of accompanying a motorist who had mistakenly parked his car in the camp. This alone is proof that the police lied to the ombudsman.
Doherty's was one of a number of complaints over police harassing the peace camp after the Aidex protests had ended. He claims police walked through the camp at 6 a.m. kicking sleeping protesters and knocking down tents.
In the early hours of the morning they also fired a flare, pieces of which fell into the camp. The ombudsman accepted the police story that the flare was fired away from the camp.
The protesters also claim that a police vehicle broadcast machine gun and bomb noises in the vicinity of the camp in the early hours of the morning. The ombudsman accepted police claims that these noises were made by a generator.
Doherty says he is "appalled that the police version of events is patently, transparently lies which were peddled to and apparently accepted" by the ombudsman.
In a response to the ombudsman, Doherty adds that he is "devastated that your office would believe such twaddle".