Amnesty says holding of detainees unacceptable
International human rights group Amnesty International says the holding of
detainees in police cells without charges is a breach of their human rights
and totally unacceptable.
Refugee coordinator Dr Graham Thom says if the people committed an offence
they should be charged before being locked up.
"It's difficult to see how it could ever be justified locking someone up
who hasn't been found guilty of a crime, especially in a democracy like
Australia," he said.
If these people are criminals, charge them, let them defend themselves,
that's what the justice system is there for. If they're not criminals then
you shouldn't put them in a criminal facility."
http://abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-2jan2003-25.htm
Tension
The Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (ANZCP) says more
structured guidelines would have been helpful in the Federal Government's
information campaign on terrorism awareness.
ANZCP New South Wales branch chair Dr Louise Newman says she believes
health professionals will have to carefully monitor the impact of the
campaign on the community, especially the young and those already suffering
mental health problems.
She says the campaign is vague and will only heighten tension in the community.
"They're not exactly very helpful in terms of giving people guidance about
what actually to look for, how to proceed and so on," Dr Newman said.
"Providing people with structure and very clear guidelines is usually more
helpful in those sort of situations than providing very vague and general
warnings which will do nothing but to increase anxiety and alarm."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/2002/12/item20021230121856_1.htm
