Release the Videos
by an anonymous supporter
The single most important area of concern with regard to Australia's
refugee policy needs to be the private video collection presently
being held by Australian Corrective Management (ACM).
Here is the ultimate opportunity for Howard and Ruddock to prove
their case that the people being held in detention centres around
Australia are unruly, violent, aggressive, rude law-breakers.
Obviously ACM also supports this belief, and they would not be taking
footage of anything but the most damning evidence against the asylum
seekers. This evidence must be made available, to counteract all of
the malicious gossip about our friendly reception centres being
anything but humane.
We have been told that the ungrateful residents at these friendly
reception centres have trashed equipment, injured guards, staged
riots, stock-piled weapons, and just generally done everything they
could to show a lack of appreciation for the kindness and care that
ACM personnel have tried to show to them. Certainly the videotapes
will show that. They will also show the efforts that ACM personnel
have made to accommodate and placate these terrible people. The
sooner the tapes are made available the better... for the security of
the country, not to mention the security of the present Government.
Here is Howard's chance to make up for the unfortunate mix-ups that
occurred with regard to his children overboard allegations. This
time there will certainly be no need to doctor the evidence.
Obviously the tapes were not made to show detainees in a flattering
light, so Howard has nothing to lose by showing them. And if guards
may have resorted to using tear gas, capsicum spray, or some other
harsh treatments from time to time, the tapes will most certainly
show proof of the life-threatening need for those actions to have
been taken, and the sensitivity and regard for women and children
with which they were taken.
There must be good reasons for not allowing the secular media inside
the centres. After all, one never knows whether a TV cameraman might
slip a weapon to one of those dangerous people, or, worse still,
organise a mass breakout. But the public doesn't need TV cameramen,
with all of their biases against the Government, when ACM has their
own videos of what conditions are really like inside. Now, for the
first time, the public can see for themselves what holiday camps our
Government has provided for these people of questionable racial and
religious backgrounds.
Panoramas of the neatly arranged portable buildings and of children
playing happily in the dirt will show that families have nothing to
complain about. There certainly will be no pictures of children in
handcuffs as some have alleged.
Detainees standing around idly in compound open areas until their
medications are handed to them through holes in the fence will put
paid to any suggestions that they are treated like animals in a cage.
People will be able to see for themselves the beds on which guests
are allowed to sleep, even during daylight hours, as an alternative
to standing around in the open compound.
We will hear guards referring to their clients by their real names,
as outlined in our Minister for Immigration's policy with regard to
the operation of these three-star hotels. It will put paid to claims
that guests at these hotels are addressed and referred to only as
numbers.
But most damning to those who come asking for protection from our
country, will be the many scenes of violence... against guards,
against one another, and against themselves. We will see pictures of
parents forcibly sewing the lips of their children together, people
attacking guards with all those knifes that we have been told were
taken from prisoners... sorry, from clients. There will be footage
of the contraband discovered during orderly inspections of the
camp... things like mobile phones and photograph frames.
We will see refugees actually holding medical personnel back (as
stated by our Prime Minister), doing all they could to stop doctors
and nurses from assisting fellow refugees at Curtin who were
unconscious and feared dead. These monsters will be shown for the
callous, lying people that they are.
There may even be pictures of the hundreds of Easter demonstrators
who were never arrested for the violence that they poured out on all
of ACM's guards on Good Friday. From that evidence, arrests can
finally be made. There will, no doubt, be pictures of the people
caught wielding Swiss Army knives and car repair tools during the
demonstration. That should shut up the protesters themselves, who
all claim that there were no weapons, and that it was only half a
dozen people out of a thousand who threw punches at any of the guards.
What a great opportunity for Howard and Ruddock to silence their
critics forever, and to let the whole world know what is really
happening behind the razor wire! How fortunate to know that ACM has
been filming it all... or at least the bits that will best promote
their cause. Yes, bring it out in the open and shut the mouths of
all the Government's critics.
On the other hand, if Howard and Ruddock refuse to release the
videotapes, then their critics will all have the excuse they need to
form their own opinions or, worse still, they will feel entitled to
support such biased and unjust groups as Amnesty and the U.N. in the
conspiracy that these sorts are waging against our two noble statesmen.
Release the tapes and save the nation!
Phone: 0407-238805
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