THOMAS KENNEALLY REFERS TO SIEVX AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB 9 July 2003 Extract:
"There are many things that have happened in Australia recently to fret a dumb citizen like myself on land and sea. First let us look at the contrast between two boat journeys. In June this year two British rowers were rescued in the Indian Ocean by the RAN and brought back to Perth. They were gracious enough to say they were 'sorry and embarassed' about their rescue. The HMAS Newcastle and no doubt its highly skilled crew diverted at some expense to find them. So it should have done, even though the necessity of two Brits to row round the world might have, to some people, a Spike Milliganesque aspect to it. More than two years ago [sic] SIEVX - 'Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X' - sank with the loss of 353 people, mostly women and children. The ADF's border protection exercise Operation Relex failed to carry out an effective safety of life at sea aerial search for SIEVX. SIEVX... sank with its great loss of life approximately 60 nautical miles south of the Sunda Strait in Australia's operational border protection zone. Of course the government has got very used to indifference towards SIEVs. Less than two years ago the people of SIEV4 were left in the water for nearly an hour before they were allowed to be brought on board the Adelaide. Due to their wallowing and thrashing there some nifty pictures were taken which could later be used to bolster the 'children overboard' lie. As for apparent contradictions of policy on land of things that seem irrational to some of us us - we have only have to contrast the government's desire to liberate the Iraqis of Baghdad and elsewhere from tyranny while on our own ground we have punished and detained 152 Iraqis who were egregious enough to try to escape from the tyranny we deployed troops to answer and to appeal to Australia for asylum. Hassan Sabbagh who is a man I know has been in detention in Woomera and Villawood for nearly three years. As Adele Horin remarks 'you would have to commit a violent crime and have a criminal record' to get jailed for such a period. He has lost two children and a brother under Saddam's regime. I think the children he lost were fairly adult and once again our government knows, REALLY knows, that at heart he is a mere opportunist and tells us not to be fussed about him. He and other of Philip Ruddock's broken men and women contribute to the air of communal depression which UN Observer Justice Bhagwati found in our detention centres but whose finding our government as we know so blithely dismissed. Of course it is a matter of a kind of Dickensian delight to know that Australasian Correctional Management which runs these places is a subsidiary of the Wackenhut corporation of the US. I might ask this of the brave subsidiary ACM and of the government which employed it after tender: 'What was it that needs to be corrected in an asylum seeker or an asylum seeking family? Was it the asylum seeker's reaction to tyranny which had to be corrected? Or was it his expectation that having fled tyranny Australia would give him breathing space and a place at the table of the Commonwealth? Was it that expectation that had to be punished or corrected? But why would our government use a company which is accustomed to running private jails? Another indication of punishment. Even the name of the company implies that the belief of asylum seekers that far-off Australia could offer salvation must be overturned and must be punished. The last time I looked this penal company didn't have a policy for families and children. But the facilities it runs are as equally high-walled as those of Silverwater jail. In late 1997 says one of DIMIA websites proudly, following a tender process, the government contracted our service delivery including 'gardening, catering, health, welfare and education services at immigration detention centres to Asutralian Correctional Services Pty Ltd.[sic] Thank god for our ancestors sake that the British government in conveying its convicts to Australia didn't outsource 'gardening, catering, health, welfare and education services' to a subsidiary of a foreign nation. I have only been to Villawood actually a total of three times, but I have to say from the first I was outraged by the scale of the walls and the nature of the institution. It didn't take long to find that depression was a major problem of inmates and I had it confirmed by many former detainees I met on the outside who were under Temporary Protection Visas and other arrangements. The depression was the outcome of the slowness of the processing of application for refugee status and the slowness of the systems of recourse and the gratuitousness and inconsistency of the world DIMIA imposed - and their friends who were offering all these crash hot services imposed - upon the asylum seeker." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This list is hosted by http://sievx.com SIEVX-NEWS is a low-traffic list for disseminating news about the SIEVX Affair. To unsubscribe: send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe sievx-news' in the body. All other requests/comments to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
