The Advertiser Aboriginal sit-in vows to stay put 27dec99 A DEFIANT Aboriginal protest group remained at its North Tce site last night after a dawn raid by police and Adelaide City Council officers. With 20 police looking on, council officers doused a ceremonial fire and confiscated tents and banners. But protest leader Kevin Buzzacott, draped in an Aboriginal flag, remained at the site last night and has invited more Aborigines to join his protest against the "genocide" of his people. He will hold a breakfast meeting at 9am today in Prince Henry Gardens, outside Government House. "They have destroyed the ceremonial fire for peace, taken our food, tents, banners, everything is gone," Mr Buzzacott said. "We must defend our rights and reclaim our land back. We are refugees in our own land." The protesters, mostly Aborigines, have been based in Prince Henry Gardens since December 16 to protest against uranium mining at Olympic Dam. The police officers, two local-law officers from the council and 12 council cleaners attended the site shortly after 6am yesterday. When protesters refused to leave, council staff removed tents and banners. They then hosed the site, removed graffiti and repaired damaged lawns and gardens. A council officer asked Mr Buzzacott whether he wanted to keep any coals or remnants from his ceremonial fire, but he declined. The council's chief executive officer, Jude Munro, ordered the action for 6am. She denied Mr Buzzacott's suggestion the camp was removed because of the South Australia Day celebration planned for North Tce tomorrow. "Their unwillingness to respect city by-laws left me with no other option," she said. "These regulations apply to all people using our city and the continued flaunting of them by the protesters could no longer be tolerated." By-laws were breached by lighting a fire, camping, erecting tents and canvassing. Ms Munro said the protesters could reclaim their equipment when council business resumed on Wednesday. "Adelaide has a long and honorable tradition of protesting in the city," she said. "We support their rights to a legal protest and don't want a volatile situation. "There was some discussion in raised voices, but no person assaulted anyone else. "Some stayed (at the site) and we are pretty comfortable with that. We support day-time protests." However, Ms Munro said it would contravene by-laws if protesters again camped overnight and she would "carefully evaluate" what action to take if such a situation arose. "I will not put my staff into a dangerous situation," she said. "If there is a large contingent of people... where there could be violence, I will not put my staff into that situation." Police leaving the scene were confronted by the protesters' legal adviser, Len Lindon, who demanded to know "who authorised this operation". He accused police of condoning the "genocide of Aboriginal people". "It's all right, it's just the Abos, just the boongs � it doesn't matter," he said. Premier John Olsen said Adelaide City Council and its officers had acted within the law. "In Australia we recognise the rights of people to protest," he said. "But the protest taking place on the parklands was in breach of many council by-laws." Mr Olsen believed the issue would be resolved "over the next few days" after Government officials and the Olympic Dam mine operator, WMC, met the protest group. Mr Buzzacott had a genocide claim against WMC thrown out of the Supreme Court on Thursday. ------------------------------------------------------- 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/
