BY KERRYN WILLIAMS
CANBERRA — "Protection overboard" was the theme of a May 9 Refugee Action Committee forum, attended by 140 people.
Former diplomat Tony Kevin, once the Australian ambassador to Cambodia, outlined evidence submitted to the Senate "children overboard" inquiry regarding the sinking of an overcrowded boat in October 2001, when 353 asylum seekers drowned.
The media promoted the government's false argument, Kevin pointed out, that the sinking was Indonesia's problem and simply a case of a "greedy people smuggler overloading a boat".
Kevin argued the 353 people died because "some powerful person or agency wanted to send a strong political message that people smuggling must stop".
Kevin said the boat sinking had helped the Australian government, because it resulted in the Indonesian government agreeing to host a conference on people smuggling and to let Australia tow boat loads of refugees back into Indonesian waters. The Australian government also benefited, Kevin claimed, because "people smugglers" were deterred from trying to reach Australia by such means.
Kevin told the crowd he was neither a whistle blower, just a "retired old fart" who knows how to "smell a rat". He argued the following questions needed to be answered by the government.
- Why did the coastguard know that the vessel had left Indonesia while other Australian "border protection" agencies didn't?
- Why was the boat packed with more than four times its passenger capacity — people who were loaded at gunpoint when they objected to the condition of the boat?
- Why did the Australian government's extensive procedures for immediate tracking and interception of boats fail?
"Why is defence minister Robert Hill now claiming [the boat] sank in the Sunda Strait [in Indonesia] — when all public evidence indicates it sank in international waters, 50km south of Java on its way to Christmas Island?", Kevin also asked.
Kevin pointed out that Australian navy vessel HMAS Arunta was only 150 nautical miles away from the sinking boat — its helicopter could have reached the site in an hour, he said — but was not sent to the sinking boat's rescue.
The meeting was also addressed Shaizaer Kayani. It is a year since Kayani's brother Shahraz set himself alight outside Parliament House in desperation at the lack of progress in processing his family's application for asylum. "Mr Ruddock himself and the process carried out by his department were responsible for [my brother's] death and the destruction of my whole family", Kayani told the meeting.
An ombudsman's investigation concluded that the Kayani family had been subjected to inhumane delays, defective processing, bias against the family and broken promises from the immigration department.
The brothers' relatives overseas applied to come to Australia to commemorate the first anniversary of Sharaz's death, but were refused visas.
From Green Left Weekly, May 15, 2002.
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