By Chris Martin and Lisa Macdonald
An Amnesty International delegation, in Australia until March 30, found that "the overall human rights situation" for Aboriginal people in this country "remains serious, particularly regarding the implementation of the recommendations made in 1991 by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody".
The three delegates, from AI's international secretariat, and its London and Botswana offices, received almost daily reports of ill-treatment by police officers while they were in Australia. They were also told that police continue to intimidate and harass relatives who do not accept official explanations of about deaths in custody and instead call for further investigations.
Presenting a preliminary report on their findings at a media conference in Sydney on March 29, delegate Heinz Schurmann-Zeggel said, "The way the criminal justice and penal systems function makes Aborigines particularly vulnerable to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment". According to the delegation, some prisoners have been kept in leg-irons, handcuffs and chains for up to 24 hours a day over a period of several days.
This visit is a follow-up from visits in 1987, 1991 and 1992 which led to the issuing of an AI report in 1993. Schurmann-Zeggel told the conference, "We are appalled to see what little progress has been made in addressing these abuses since our last visit to Australia in 1992". He said Aboriginal deaths in prison actually increased during 1995 and that while Aborigines make up only 1.3% of the population in Australia, they make up 24% of those in custody related deaths. This situation is worse for juveniles. In WA, Aboriginal youth are 52 times more likely to be arrested than non-Aboriginal youth.
The delegation identified the failure of some states, Queensland in particular, to decriminalise drinking in public as the source of much of the problem. They described Queensland police officers talking openly about giving Aborigines a "ham, cheese and tomato" — drunk and disorderly, resisting arrest and assaulting police.
The delegates characterised police-Aboriginal relations as a "climate of fear" and said that they found no evidence that the Australian criminal justice system has any will to implement the recommendations of the deaths in custody commission.