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 .. -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink