An enquiry into the Australian Defence Force has found a culture of suicides and abuse, including gang rapes.
One 19 year old soldier, John Satatas, was found dead at Holsworthy Army Base in an apparent suicide. The Portugese-Australian soldier had 'Spiros' scrawled in black pen over his face and body. His family say he killed himself after episodes of physical and verbal abuse from other soldiers including some officers. His family were promised the army would cover costs associated with the funeral, but ended up with a $1300 invoice from the funeral home. His mother Rosa said "Defence did not investigate John's death properly, and we were offered no assistance afterwards." Mark Drummond, a former cadet and teacher at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said there had been as many as 100 gang rapes since the institution was formed in 1986. Though reforms had helped clean up ADF, many culprits had not been dealt with. "I'd guess many gang rapists must still be serving within the ADF" he said. Matthew Liddell, a survivor of the HMAS Westralia fire in 1998, was in severe shock from the death of his friend. He was sent straight back to the scene of the fire, and later killed himself. "Matthew did not want to go back to the Westralia," his mother, Dulcie, wrote. "It did a lot of damage to his mind, like sending someone back into the lion's den after they've already been attacked and mauled." (Source: Herald Sun) The governments of the United States and Australia have decided on a 'free trade' agreement between the two countries. Under the deal, any US investment in new businesses will be exempted from Foreign Investment Review Board screening. The threshhold for screening US acquisitions of existing businesses has been raised from $50 million to $800 million. This would have exempted 90 percent of all US takeovers in the past three years from scrutiny by the board. US Trade Representative Bob Zoellick also said that the agreement "contains important and unprecedented provisions to improve market access for US films and television." US pharmaceutical companies won significant changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, including the right for an review of decisions excluding their drugs from the scheme, extended patent periods, and 'consultations' when makers of generic drugs apply for approval. (Source: The Age) A letter captured from an al-Qaida courier says that the organisation is failing to attract support from significant numbers of Iraqis, undermining claims by the US government that attacks on American troops are organised by al-Qaida, or that Iraq has ever been a significant base for terrorists. The letter says that many Iraqis "will give you refuge...however, they will not allow you to make their home a base for operations or a safe house". Several US commanders have said that the Iraqi resistance generally sees al-Qaida as an unwelcome presence. Having failed to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the US government has changed the emphasis of its reasons for going to war, towards ousting Saddam Hussein and the 'war on terror'. (Source: Associated Press) All the News that Fits weekly anarchist news service visit us on the web - www.apolitical.info email us ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) to subscribe to our email list. 5th annual Australian anarchist conference - Australia Day weekend 2005 - more details soon... -- Visit the proposed Leftlink web site at http://www.leftlink.net/ -- 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] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
