This week's stories: Government Ignored Rape...Nursing Home Crisis
Impacting On Public Hospital System...Another Liberal Party...It's Not
Terror When Our Government Does It...
An asylum seeker was gang raped in an Australian jail and this was
ignored by authorities, who later sent him to the same jail.
The 23-year-old Angolan man had been returned by the Immigration
Department to the same remand centre in Sydney where he claimed he was
raped by five prisoners.
In a letter written eight months after the alleged rape, he begged to be
removed from Australia because of fear of other inmates.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has found the
Immigration Department had breached the human rights of asylum seekers
by putting them in prisons with hardened criminals.
The most serious finding was that the Immigration Department ignored the
rape claims of the Angolan, listed only as 'Mr AB'.
Mr AB had claimed he was raped at knifepoint at Silverwater in April 1998.
He told immigration authorities in July, but in August was returned to
Silverwater where he was held until he was deported in April 2000.
An investigation failed to substantiate the allegation, but the
commissioner said there was enough evidence to believe his story.
In a letter to the Immigration Department in February 1999, Mr AB said:
"I just want to get away from people who want to put my future in danger
here in an Australian jail."
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock attacked the commission's
"gratuitous advice".
(Herald Sun, November 15).
Victoria's public hospital system is being further overstretched by the
crisis in nursing homes - on any given day, an average of 614 public
hospital beds are taken up by people waiting for nursing home places.
Hospitals say that waiting lists have gotten longer and surgery has been
delayed as a result.
(The Age, November 17).
A political analyst has said that the Labor and Liberal parties are
virtually identical. Looking at the upcoming Victorian election, Dr
David Hayward of Swinburne University's Institute for Social Research
says that the differences are comparable to the differences between Coke
and Pepsi.
(The Age, November 7).
According to a new report by British health professionals, a war against
Iraq could kill half a million people, mostly civilians. 260,000 are
likely to die in the conflict and its immediate aftermath, with a
further 200,000 dying later from famine and disease - the US will target
bombs on water systems and other infrastructure to cripple the country
and will ensure these deaths. In the report's worst case scenario,
nuclear weapons are fired on Iraq in response to a chemical or
biological attack on Kuwait or Israel, leaving a massive 3.9 million
people dead.
(SchNEWS).
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Some other Australian anarchist websites:
www.angry.at/racists - Anarchist/anti-racist music site with free mp3s,
Real Audio, Real Video, band interviews etc. Now with internet radio.
www.dolearmy.org - information for unemployed people.
www.activate.8m.com - anarchist magazine aimed at teenagers.
..
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