The Australian We stay, say black campers By SARAH STOCK 14aug00 ORGANISERS of an Aboriginal tent embassy, which aims to draw international attention to indigenous conditions during the Olympics, will defy threats to close the camp. Activists at the Sydney camp said yesterday their numbers had doubled from 16 to 32 over the weekend after South Sydney council applied to the Land and Environment Court on Friday to have them removed. The council approved the tent embassy last month but says negotiations have broken down over restrictions on the site. These include limits on the size and number of tents at Victoria Park, near Sydney University, as well as an unguarded fire and problems with allegedly unlicensed drivers. But the activists claim 11 restrictions on their activities, presented to them by the council, were unreasonable. They are expecting the council to serve them notice to quit today, but say they will not move. "There are only two things we agree on - that there be no drugs and alcohol and no violent behaviour towards passers-by," said Rusty Kilpatrick, a camp co-ordinator. "The rest of the restrictions are worded so badly they are ridiculous. For instance, they say we can only have four people here overnight, which would severely compromise our safety. They also say we are only allowed to operate at sunrise and sunset, but who does that? The tent embassy has always been a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week embassy." Mr Kilpatrick said the activists would have to be arrested before they would leave, but would do so peacefully. "We want all the world media here to see we are not the aggressors," he said. Someone involved with the Olympics is pressuring them to do this, but this would be the absolutely wrong time to do so." South Sydney Mayor John Fowler said last week Olympic protocols required community consent to protest on behalf of Aboriginal people, but this had not come from either the state or metropolitan land councils. He said the camp's leader, Isabel Coe, had not been endorsed by any representative group other than herself. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
