Asia-Pacific
Pro-WikiLeaks protests in Australia
Hundreds protest against the arrest of Julian Assange and accuse the Australian
government of opposing free speech.
Last Modified: 10 Dec 2010 13:57 GMT
Protesters condemned the Australian government's stand on Assange's arrest as
"outrageous' [via Flickr user: mrreebdoog]
Pro-WikiLeaks demonstrations have been held across Australia against the arrest
of Julian Assange, the whistleblowing website's founder.
In Sydney, around 500 demonstrators gathered on Friday, to push for the release
of Assange, who is in a British jail fighting extradition to Sweden on sex
crime allegations.
A group of WikiLeaks supporters also staged a rally in Brisbane, calling on the
Australian government to respect freedom of expression.
WikiLeaks, which has provoked fury in Washington with its publications, vowed
it would continue making public details of the 250,000 secret diplomatic US
cables it had obtained.
Assange, an Australian citizen, has been in a UK jail waiting for news on
whether or not he will be extradited to Sweden in relation to a number of
allegations of sexual crimes made against him in that country.
Those who attended the rally in Sydney also condemned the Australian government
for its stand on the issue.
"To say to the Australian government, the [Julia] Gillard Government ...
behaviour in the last two weeks has been utterly outrageous, outrageous,"
Antony Lowenstein, one of the organisers said while addressing the crowd.
The US government and others across the world have argued the publication of
cables is irresponsible and could put their national security at risk.
The WikiLeaks website was shut down after apparent political pressure on
service providers, but WikiLeaks said there were now 750 global mirror sites
meaning the data so far released remained publicly available.
Embarrassment
WikiLeaks has continued to embarrass the Australian government, with the latest
batch of leaked cables revealing that Kevin Rudd, the foreign minister. derided
the contributions of France and Germany in Afghanistan.
The cables, published in the Australian newspaper Fairfax, reported how Rudd
likened the European fight against the Taliban to "organising folk-dancing
festivals".
In another of the cables sent to Washington in November 2009 Rudd, as prime
minister, confided that the outlook in Afghanistan "scares the hell out of me".
Protesters in Sydney said they were angry that Assange was arrested after
voicing the truth.
Australia has previously faced some criticism in the media for not standing by
Assange.
Robert McClelland, the attorney-general, and Gillard, the prime minister, have
voiced strong criticism of Assange and WikiLeaks.
Source:
Agencies
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