Let East Timorese refugees stay!
November 26
Not content with support for the Indonesian army, which was responsible
for the decades-long suffering of the East Timorese people, the
Australian government is seeking to deport 1800 East Timorese asylum
seekers, some of whom have lived in the Australian community for up to a
decade. They have jobs, cars, houses and many have children who were
born in Australia — they have made Australia their home.
“During the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, Australia was the only
member of the international community which recognised the annexation,
and continued to provide extensive military aid and training to the
Suharto dictatorship. Many of the 1800 people trying to claim asylum
fled East Timor following the 1991 Dili massacre, when 273 people were
killed by the military,” said Socialist Alliance national co-convenor
Dick Nichols.
Nichols pointed out that “a report in the November 18 Sydney Morning
Herald revealed that an internal Refugee Review Tribunal memo issued in
1995 had referred to a moratorium on the processing of refugee
applications from East Timorese people. This moratorium was in place
until April.”
“The Socialist Alliance condemns DIMIA for its failure to process the
claims for refugee status of 1800 East Timorese who arrived in Australia
between 1991 and 1994 and is outraged by the serving of letters
demanding that they leave Australia within 28 days — at least 84 may be
forced to leave by December,” said Socialist Alliance national
co-convenor Riki Lane.
“These asylum seekers, as were all the people of East Timor, are the
victims of one of the most brutal wars and military occupations of the
20th century. It was backed by successive Australian governments. The
Socialist Alliance demands that both the Labor opposition and the
Coalition government apologise to the East Timorese for the delay in
processing their claims for asylum and that the government immediately
create a special visa category for all East Timorese, entitling them to
full employment, study and welfare rights in Australia”, continued Lane.
“We will support community action, like the 250-stong public meeting in
Darwin on November 17 and the protest outside DIMIA offices in Perth
this Thursday, to force the government to change its outrageous
treatment of East Timorese people.”
For comment: Dick Nichols 0418 281 424 Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713 Riki
Lane 0400 877 819
For more details, visit www.socialist-alliance.org
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