Wednesday, March 07, 2007

MP3 - Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers - Interview with Max Phillips

February 28, 2007 - The Federal government's secret plan for an even more offensive version of Howard's controversial Pacific Solution - amounts to a wholesale Refoulment program. Howard's new plan is to assist in the deportation the Sri Lankan asylum seekers home via Indonesia in an outright breach of international refugee conventions.

Listen to an interview with Max Phillips (Advisor on Immigration to Greens Senator Kerry Nettle) from RTRFM's Morning Magazine...

From RTRFM's Morning Magazine

27 FEB 2007

MP3 - 10 minutes Click here for the interview:
MaxPhillips_270207.MP3

CONTACT: radiofreeperth@indymedia.org

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BACKGROUND: PERTH INDYMEDIA FEATURE - Secret deals with Indonesia/Australia over Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers

Villawood detainees form human barricade to stop Falun Gong deportation

Another Interview on the issue of Asylum Seekers detained in Australia. From Thursday March 1, 2007. RTRFM's Danae Gibson talks with Ian Rintoul about the Villawood situation and the plight of the latest Sri Lankan refugees:

Here is the link to the MP3:
IanRintoul_010307.MP3


Villawood detainees form human barricade to stop Falun Gong deportation

February 28, 2007 - In a successful attempt to stop the deportation of a Falun Gong practitioner to China, this morning some 100 detainees at Sydney's Villawood detention centre formed a human barricade...
The Refugee Action Coalition of NSW said the detainees assembled in and around a recreation room at the centre to protect the man who is inside the room. He was due to be deported on an Air China Flight departing at 12.20pm (AEDT) today.

Ian Rintoul from RAC told Perth Indymedia that detainees fear there may be further clashes with the 40 to 50 guards and detention centre officers.

"There is 100 detainees, people are coming and going but at any one time there is about 100 and they've got him inside," Mr Rintoul said. "The number of guards has increased, they have used force in the past and that is what is worrying the detainees, that there will be a clash if they try to remove this guy.

"Tensions are very high at Villawood at the moment." He told Perth Indymedia Immigration officials may try to grab him tonight - and a 24 vigl will br kept around the Chinese man who fears persecution and even death if deported to China.

Mr Rintoul said people of all different nationalities are forming the blockade, with one man telling him they were prepared to take "any action to protect this man. He said to me 'this isn't just a Chinese issue, this is a detainment issue, so we're all here'," Mr Rintoul said.

The detainee, Falun Gong practitioner Xiang Tao An, fears he will be forced to become part of a live organ trade. Mr An, 35, believes that his religion means he will be incarcerated on arrival in China. He says he has been detained twice by Chinese authorities in the past and claims he was beaten.

An refugee activist in contact with the detainees, Jamal Daoud, said the stand-off eased after Department of Immigration officials told the protesters Mr An's deportation notice had been cancelled.

"One of the detainees told me that the detention authorities even invited the Chinese detainees to BBQ and drinks," he said. "The detainees are very cautious that the department could try to deport the asylum seeker during the night. But for now, the department is very clearly does not want any standoff with detainees, especially if there is some media involvment."

The detainees protesting on behalf of Mr An are mostly Chinese, but other nationalities are involved due to concern over a recent series of deportations, said Ian Rintoul.

The Department of Immigration said earlier this week that Mr An, 35, was an unlawful non-citizen and would not be in danger if he was sent back. He was detained by Chinese authorities twice for practising Falun Gong before travelling to Australia in 2000.

He was taken into Villawood in 2003 while his claim for asylum was assessed, and was interviewed by a Chinese government delegation that was allowed to visit detainees in May 2005. Mr An's lawyer, Michaela Byers, said: "He fears that they will detain him on arrival, and that he may match someone on a data base who needs an organ transplant."

A report published last year, based on investigations undertaken by a former Canadian cabinet minister, accused Chinese authorities of killing Falun Gong practitioners and selling body parts to foreigners. China, which has banned the Falun Gong spiritual group since 1999, denies the claim.

As of February 2, 2007 there are 224 detainees in Villawood Immigration Detention Centre - making a total of 556 in Australia's IDCs.

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Contact Ian Rintoul: irintoul@ozemail.com.au - Phone: 0417 275713.

Contact Villawood Immigration Detention Centre: Phone 02 8718 9220

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Falun Gong has been the focus of international controversy since 1999, when the government of the People's Republic of China began a suppression of the movement. China claims to have banned the group for what it considers to be illegal activities. The Falun Gong claims that the ban was the result of personal jealousy of the group’s popularity on the part of Jiang Zemin, a former President of the People's Republic of China.

The suppression of Falun Gong practitioners has been regarded by most western governments as a major international human rights issue. As of December 2005, sixty-one lawsuits have been filed in about thirty countries charging Jiang and several other senior officials with genocide, torture, and crimes against humanity for their roles in the treatment of Falun Gong in mainland China.

MP3 Interview with Pine Gap Four: Donna Mulhearn

MARCH 6, 2007: Ten minute MP3 Interview with Peace Activist, Donna Mulhearn - one of the Pine Gap Four – the protestors who got on to property at Pine Gap and are facing some years in jail as a result of their protest against a US military presence on Australian soil...

AUDIO HERE:
Donna+Mulhearn.mp3

PINE GAP SIX WEBSITE:
pinegap6.org/
Pine Gap: Pine Gap is a military spy base for the United States located 20 km outside Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Pine Gap gathers military intelligence and uses a satellite tracking system to pinpoint targets in U.S. bombing raids on Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also the command centre for the 'Missile Defence System', an integral part of the US 'Star Wars' system enabling the US to dominate and control space.

At dawn on December 9, 2005 a ‘Citizen’s Inspection’ took place causing Pine Gap to shut down for five hours. Six hundred employees were denied access into the base and the employee’s cars queued up for several kilometres outside.

Two members of Christians Against ALL Terrorism, Jim Dowling from Daybora and Adele Goldie from Brisbane had entered the Pine Gap military base undetected and photographed themselves on the roof of a building before being arrested. Two other members of the group Donna Mulhearn from Sydney and Bryan Law from Cairns went undetected for an hour before being arrested cutting through the last inner fence.

The four had walked for several hours through desert terrain. Jessica Morrison from Melbourne and Sean O’Reilly from Brisbane held a peaceful vigil outside the front gates around six that morning. During the vigil Sean O’Reilly was arrested for hindering police. Sean was found not guilty in the Alice Springs Magistrates court.

Jim Dowling, Adele Goldie, Bryan Law and Donna Mulhearn have been charged under the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952. The Act has not been used previously and carries a maximum jail sentence of 7 years, with an additional two years for taking photographs within the base. The four will be appearing in the Alice Springs Supreme Court; a trial date is soon to be set.

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Donna Mulhearn: From Sydney, Donna was a human shield during the war in Iraq in 2003. She later returned to Iraq under occupation as a humanitarian aid worker to set up a shelter for street kids in Baghdad and support refugee families. She is a former journalist and political adviser who is now an independent writer and speaker on non-violence, spirituality and politics. Her latest Middle East trip included her third visit to Iraq as well as four months in the West Bank of Palestine

Donna joined the action to inspect Pine Gap with first-hand experience of the damage the facility has done to innocent people. “While staff at Pine Gap pin-pointed missiles in Iraq, I experienced the impact of them,” she said. “They call it a military strike; I saw it as murder of civilians”.

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RTRFM:
rtrfm.com.au

BACKGROUND:

Five Arrested at Pine Gap spy base
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=default&featureview=419

Alice Springs storms Pine Gap
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=default&featureview=356

Peace Activists Arrested at Pine Gap
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=default&featureview=290

Pine Gap 4 in Court Wed A19 Charged Under Previously Unused Law
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=18199

The Pine Gap Six - Background
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=17146

The Pine Gap 6 - Sean O’Reilly found not guilty
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=17025

Pine Gap Activists Face Court
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=16772

Citizens inspection team shuts down Pine Gap
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=14982

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US military base to be built in Geraldton, WA
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=default&featureview=473