Overseas bid to stop Hindmarsh bridge From SHERRILL NIXON of AAP 16nov99 2.45pm (AEDT) AN Aboriginal campaign to stop the Hindmarsh Island bridge is set to go international with lawyers considering a plan to launch legal action in either the United States or Britain. Ngarrindjeri man Darrell Sumner has applied for leave to appeal to the High Court after the South Australian Supreme Court rejected his request for an injunction to stop construction of the bridge. Mr Sumner claims the bridge – between Hindmarsh Island and the South Australian mainland at Goolwa, about 80km south of Adelaide – amounts to an act of genocide against the Ngarrindjeri. But yesterday, High Court Justice William Gummow refused to expedite the application in a move Mr Sumner's lawyer Len Lindon said was a bad omen for the eventual outcome of the request for leave to appeal. He is now considering how he could bring the matter before an international court or a judge in the US or UK, where legislation outlawing genocide exists, unlike in Australia. "Obviously a US court can't issue an order stopping the bridge but presumably the very fact they've got a genocide act and a torts act that covers it would help to show up the gap in the law here," Mr Lindon said. "The US is the most likely one because they've got lawyers who are used to doing that sort of stuff and the Alien Torts Act has been pretty well tested. "It's about torts (civil wrongs) committed by aliens outside the US but in breach of US law and the genocide act is a classic one." Mr Lindon also said the case could be brought before the International Court of Justice or the European Court of Justice, although that step would be difficult because those actions would need to be sponsored by a country. Construction of the bridge began last month, with the supporting pylons expected to be driven into the ground this week. The bridge has been the subject of legal wrangling for more than five years since claims of "secret women's business" prompted a federal government ban on construction in 1994. The order was later quashed and a royal commission found the women's business had been fabricated. In 1997, the Federal Parliament passed legislation to prevent further challenges to the bridge and in August, the SA government signed a deed with the Hindmarsh Island developers to settle compensation claims and give the final go-ahead for construction. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ 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." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
