BY SARAH STEPHEN
SYDNEY — Green Left Weekly spoke to STEPHEN HOPPER, a solicitor who has been representing a number of the Indonesian-Australian families who were raided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and ASIO at the end of October.
While ASIO claims it had evidence that those raided may have "links" with the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist group, suspected of involvement in the October 12 Bali bombings, Hopper dismissed the raids as a fishing expedition.
"Despite what [ASIO head Dennis] Richardson has said, the only link between those who have been raided is their attendance at meetings addressed by Abu Bakar Bashir. Some didn't even talk to Bashir." Bashir is alleged to be a JI leader.
Hopper said it was significant that no charges had been laid against those raided in recent weeks. "You'd think that after turning people's houses upside down, rifling through their most private possessions, [ASIO and the AFP] would be getting near to arresting someone", Hopper noted. "I think the raids were politically motivated. It's part of a political campaign by the government, to make our security forces look good."
The primary motivation of the raids was to send a message to the general Australian population, Hopper added. "The government is using ASIO as a blunt instrument to hit the populist nerve in the Australian community."
Hopper told GLW how the raids were exposed. On October 30, one of Hopper's clients, Jaya Basri, had condemned a raid on his family's home at a media conference. Afterwards, Basri and his family went with Hopper to see Basri's father, Ali, who lived nearby. To their surprise, Ali's home was being raided by ASIO as the Basris and Hopper arrived. Hopper immediately notified the television stations, which sent news crews to film the raid. Angry ASIO officers tried to order the camera crews off Ali's property, Hopper recounted.
The federal government was embarrassed by the negative publicity that the raids received in media. "As soon as there was publicity, the raids stopped", Hopper explained.
To keep the pressure on the government, on November 3 Hopper organised a protest outside Prime Minister John Howard's Sydney residence, Kirribilli House, by six families who had been raided. The families asked Howard to come out to talk to them over a cup of tea. Romzi Ali, secretary of the Islamic Society of Manly-Warringah, told the November 4 Sydney Morning Herald: "We are trying to tell him they don't have to come to our houses, we will cooperate with them. We have nothing to hide."
Hopper is concerned about the legislation currently before the Senate to strengthen ASIO's powers. He believes the extra powers will be abused and "and used in a political way".
Moshen Thalib, who lives in Lakemba, contacted Hopper because he had provided Bashir with a place to stay during some of his Australian visits. Following the Bali bombings, Thalib thought ASIO officers would want to speak to him, so he asked Hopper to contact them and invite them to interview him. ASIO declined. Two days later, they raided his flat.
"When [Thalib] was raided, he wasn't allowed to ring anyone except a taxi to take his children to school. He wasn't even allowed to call his lawyer. I'm getting advice at the moment on whether [ASIO's] warrants allowed people to be detained at the scene." Hopper suspects that they did not, which means that the detention of families for up to five or six hours while their homes were searched was unlawful.
Hopper told GLW he also represents clients who were raided by the Australian authorities in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US. As with the most recent raids, nobody has been charged.
However, ASIO agents have continued to visit some of the families raided after September 11. "One of my clients who was raided last year has had two subsequent visits from ASIO. There was no criminal investigation. He told them all he knew and didn't want to talk to them any more. My client got a silent number, but ASIO continues to ring him".
"Two families who had been raided by ASIO agents after September 11 were raided a second time by the AFP, who took exactly the same statements that ASIO had taken. Two young guys were targeted because they had gone to Mecca, then to Pakistan. One was handed a leaflet outside a mosque in Pakistan which had information about Islamic training camps."
Hopper believes the "jackboot policies" that the government is using have been counterproductive from ASIO's point of view. "They have decreased the chances of people being willing to cooperate. The [raids] play into the hands of people like Osama bin Laden, because they can say 'See, it's all Muslims they're picking on', and increase their support."
From Green Left Weekly, November 20, 2002.
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