Australian Aborigines call for UN peacekeepers to protect them

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Melbourne, 16 May 12 - - An Aboriginal sovereignty movement has asked the United Nations to send peacekeepers to protect them against “increasing aggression by the Australian authorities”. “We have already put the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, on notice that we are in need of UN peacekeepers as the Australian authorities are increasing their aggression against our sovereignty movement,” writes Michael Anderson in a media release approved by the main players resisting the construction of a huge natural gas industry at James Price Point, near Broome in Western Australia.
Anderson is the last survivor of the four men who set up the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and interim spokesperson for the 'Sovereign Union' formed at its 40th anniversary corroboree in January. Several more such embassies have been set up across the country since then, including one at Walmandany (James Price Point), north of Broome. All are being harassed by local authorities.

The protesters accuse Colin Barnett, Premier of Western Australia, in conjunction with WA police, of executing a dictatorship of force towards Aboriginal people, local families and protestors at James Price Point by sending in around 250 police with riot gear to secure clear access for the Woodside company’s staff and equipment to the proposed gas hub site on the West Kimberley coast. On the 14th May 50 riot squad police escorted the Woodside convoy of workers and equipment past a handful of locals protesting the destruction of the land, ocean and cultural landscape.

“The next move will presumably be the destruction of the Walmandany Aboriginal Embassy and another camp on Cape Leveque Road. These camps were established to make a vocal statement about the atrocity of the nature of the proposed Woodside gas hub on the pristine land and sea ecology, and defend the rights of Aboriginal people and locals to have a say in the future of the state of the environment in the Kimberley,” the release says.

 

“Police have been intimidating and harassing local families and their supporters by deregistering cars suspected of having involvement with theDamian-Kelly-2-300px Walmandany Embassy, and have been performing additional drug and alcohol testing on them. The ‘protestors’ are generally concerned local residents, mothers, fathers and families who believe that the proposed gas hub will have a tragic impact on the Kimberley environment.”

The media release in full:

We have already put the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, on notice that we are in need of UN peacekeepers as the Australian authorities are increasing their aggression against our sovereignty movement.

Colin Barnett, Premier of Western Australia, in conjunction with WA police, is executing a dictatorship of force towards Aboriginal people, local families and protestors at James Price Point near Broome, WA. The Premier has reportedly ordered around 250 police with riot gear to secure a clear access for Woodside’s staff and equipment to access the proposed gas hub site in on the West Kimberley coast. Over 600 members of Broome’s rich and diverse multicultural community presented flowers at Broome Police Station on Mother’s Day as a peaceful protest against the heavy police presence, police were later seen dumping the bouquets in a bin, rather than taking them to a hospital or an aged care facility. This sums up the nature of the police stance against the people standing up for the fragile coastal environment that Woodside proposes to destroy in their aim to develop the world’s largest industrial precinct.On the 14th May 50 riot squad police escorted the Woodside convoy of workers and equipment past a handful of locals protesting the destruction of the land, ocean and cultural landscape.  The next move will presumably be the destruction of the Walmandany Aboriginal Embassy and another camp on Cape Leveque Road. These camps were established to make a vocal statement about the atrocity of the nature of the proposed Woodside gas hub on the pristine land and sea ecology, and defend the rights of Aboriginal people and locals to have a say in the future of the state of the environment in the Kimberley. The proposed development site would have significant negative impacts on the Aboriginal heritage values, environmental values and the value of the National Heritage Listed dinosaur footprint trackways.  The two camps currently number only around 12 people, so why has Colin Barnett allegedly demanded such a massive police presence? Broome Shire Council has placed a ‘move on’ order for Embassy residents to leave by this Wednesday.
 
save%20the%20kimberley%20copsThe WA Police Force is clearly being used for Barnett’s business dealings and for political attack; while they should be doing their regular duties in their home areas. The sheer financial cost of flying around 250 police to remote Broome and accommodating them in the town is unjustifiable. The Police Commissioner acknowledged that the first 10 days of the Woodside escort operation costs the taxpayers of Western Australia $1,000,000.  More concerning is the Police commitment is to stay indefinitely.

Police have been intimidating and harassing local families and their supporters by deregistering cars suspected of having involvement with the Walmandany Embassy, and have been performing additional drug and alcohol testing on them. The ‘protestors’ are generally concerned local residents, mothers, fathers and families who believe that the proposed gas hub will have a tragic impact on the Kimberley environment.

We call for Prime Minister Julia Gillard to immediately commence an investigation and call a halt to Premier Colin Barnett using the WA police force as a private army for the purposes of unethical land grabs. Prime Minister Gillard has already shown at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy’s 40th Anniversary in Canberra on 26 January 2012, that she condones the use and abuse of police force and violence against Aboriginal people, by failing to condemn the violent actions of the police on that day and after the event. Further use of police violence has occurred at other Aboriginal Embassies throughout Australia since January, particularly at the Nyoongar Tent Embassy in Perth.

We again state that the Australian government has no sovereignty over Australia and no jurisdiction over Aboriginal people, who have never signed a treaty nor ceded their sovereignty to a colonial force. The Australian government continues to fail to provide any protection against gross misuse of police powers towards Aboriginal people. We call for the immediate scrutiny and involvement of the United Nations in the many human rights violations perpetrated by the so-called ‘Australian Nation’ towards Aboriginal people in Australia.

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Contact:  Michael Anderson 0427 292 492  ghillar29@gmail.com               Sovereign Union

More reporting of Aboriginal activism at http://treatyrepublic.net/

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16 May 2012

 

Statement of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegations to the United Nations

 

The United Nations has heard significant criticisms from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegations over race-based laws currently being considered by the Australian Government.

 

The delegations are rejecting the argument of the Australian Government that the race laws are ‘special measures’ and are therefore not racially discriminatory.

 

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which is currently in session at the UN Headquarters in New York, has been told that Australia is introducing new laws which treat Aboriginal people differently from all other Australians.

 

The Northern Territory ‘Stronger Futures’ Bills will extend the 5 year ‘intervention’ laws, which were first enacted in 2007, for another 10 years.

 

The original laws drew strong criticisms from the international human rights treaty bodies, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

 

Aboriginal people are being subjected to ‘blanket’ prohibition of alcohol, ‘blanket’ income management regimes and government takeover of their lands, while the non-Indigenous people around them are free from these very same laws.

 

The government promised in 2010 that all new laws introduced into the Parliament would be examined to ensure compliance with Australia’s international human rights obligations.

 

However the government is refusing to respond to calls for scrutiny of the Bills or to be accountable for introducing these race-based laws.

 

Times have changed, and it is time for the Australian Government to ‘move on’.

 

Australia must stop the continuing ‘framework of dominance’ over the first peoples and honour its commitment to comply with its international human rights obligations.

 

 

 

Statement issued by:

 

National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples

Secretariat of the National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agencies

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services

National Native Title Council

National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations

<P><IMG style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 20px" align=left src="/image/60711"></P>An Aboriginal leader has taken the fight against the federal government's continuation of the Northern Territory intervention to the United Nations.

The chairman of the National Congress of Australia's First People, Les Malezer, spoke at the UN permanent forum on indigenous issues in New York this week, where he criticised the proposed 10-year extension of the intervention.

 

He said a "major disappointment" was the decision to extend the laws "without the consent of the peoples concerned".

 

The legislation, which has been rebranded as Stronger Futures, is before the Senate and is expected to pass parliament in June.

 

The draft laws include alcohol restrictions and a controversial program that cuts the welfare payments of parents whose children skip school, known as the student enrolment and attendance measure (SEAM).

 

The laws have been opposed as racist by Aboriginal communities in the NT.

 

Mr Malezer told the UN the Gillard government had refused to subject the Stronger Futures draft laws to scrutiny against Australia's human rights obligations.

 

"Aboriginal people are being subjected to blanket prohibition of alcohol, blanket income management regimes and government takeover of their lands, while the non-indigenous people around them are free from these very same laws," Mr Malezer said.

 

"However, the government is refusing to respond to calls for scrutiny of the bills or to be accountable for introducing these race-based laws."

He said the government was operating in a "framework of dominance" over Australia's first people.

 

The Howard coalition government launched the NT intervention in 2007 to address violence and alcohol abuse in remote Aboriginal communities.

In 2009 the UN special rapporteur on indigenous rights, James Anaya, described the NT intervention program under the Howard and Rudd governments as "overtly discriminatory". (http://www.google.com.au/search?q=James+Anaya+Australia&rlz=1I7GGIG_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&redir_esc=&ei=u3O1T7XrMefPmAWM5vj8Dw)

 

Mr Malezer has asked the UN rapporteur to follow up on his 2009 report recommendations.