Associated Press Friday, February 12, 1999 Aboriginal group ends fire-burning protest in Australia CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Aboriginal protesters accepted an offer of talks from Australia's prime minister today, calling a truce in a week of demonstrations in which they burned ceremonial fires on the parliament lawn. Prime Minister John Howard proposed the protesters hold talks with his minister on Aboriginal reconciliation over a series of grievances. Howard's relations with the Aborigines soured after he pushed through a law last year severely restricting their land rights. The Aboriginal group welcomed the offer to hold talks with the minister, Philip Ruddock, on Monday. ``It shows that there is hope there,'' Aboriginal elder Kevin Buzzacott said. Since last Monday, the group has been lighting a ``sacred fire of peace'' on the lawns of Parliament House in the capital, Canberra, demanding Howard meet them to discuss their complaints. Firefighters doused the fire on Wednesday and police seized 211 ceremonial sticks which the protesters said each represented one year of suffering by Aborigines since the first white settlers arrived in Australia in 1778 aboard British convict ships. Authorities said the fire and the sticks were unauthorized structures. The group returned undeterred, however, and on Thursday lit an even bigger fire. They later moved the fire to their unofficial tent embassy, which has existed on the lawns outside Old Parliament House since the 1970s. The dousing of the fire prompted Labor opposition spokesman Nick Bolkus to accuse Howard's government of racist violence, a statement Howard denounced as a slur. Howard then sent an envoy to the protesters with the offer of talks. ``We all are custodians of the earth,'' said Buzzacot, accepting the offer. ``Blackfella, whitefella, whatever color. We are all here to look after the earth,'' he said. Aborigines now number 353,000, a tiny minority in the country's mostly white population of 18.7 million people. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
