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Issue No. 128 | 15 March 2002 |
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Why I'm Marching
Interview: The Wedge Buster History: Fighting for Peace Unions: Rattling the Gates International: Facing Retribution Technology: How Korean Workers Used The Web Industrial: Working Futures Review: Rumble, Young Man, Rumble Satire: GG Survival Doomed: Fox-Lew In Charge Of Rescue Bid Poetry: PSST
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review
 Carr and the Fire FightersOn InequalityHarmony Day
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News Woomera - Flames, Razors, Rope and Despair
Adelaide-based lawyer Tirana Hassan has told Labor Council delegates a 34-year-old mother of two children set herself on fire this week. Hassan, who regularly makes the 1000km Adelaide-Woomera round trip as part of the Womera Lawyers Pro bono Group, is scathing about this Government's regard for human rights and international obligations. She says the detention centre, out of sight and mind in the desert and operated by American-based ACM, is purpose-built to de-humanise its occupants and drive them to hopelessness. Australians, she argues, must understand the horrors being perpetrated in their name. "I don't understand what it takes to make a 34-year-old mother of two children set herself on fire as happened again this week. "I don't understand why human beings try to hang themselves from the perimeter fence nor why a 12-year-old boy would write 'freedom' into his arm with a razor. "It takes what they do at Woomera," Hassan says. Numbers Not People Hassan describes a foreboding place where human being are reduced to Alpha Numeric code. "I will say to someone - hi, I'm Tirana Hassan and I'm here to help - and they will reply - I'm WMA 10 15. "The whole place is surrounded by fences, topped by razor wire, then inside there are more fences and razor wire. The people live in dungas, pre-fab buildings, typically a corridor with six rooms off each side. Each room is home to a family. They hang towels or sheets in an effort to get some privacy. "Their every need is dependent on permission from DIMA or ACM. Whether they want shampoo or extra tampons they have to apply to the authorities." Hassan is shocked by the effects of the process - self-harm or those reduced to swaying, catatonic messes. It is, she argues, the result of a deliberate process aimed at removing humanity and hope. "This Government is evading its human rights obligations and demonising these people for its own agenda. They are being treated and portrayed as less than human. "Yes, there are some Afghan shepherds at Woomera. There are also nurses, small business operators and PHDs. All of them are human beings and should be treated as such. We have to raise awareness of this situation and insist on accountability." Hassan praises the history of the labour movement in battling injustice and calls on it to again stand on the side of human rights. Palm Sunday Rally Unionists will join environmental, religious and community groups in raising the issue at a silent march next Sunday. The Palm Sunday Committee, including long-time convenor Senator Bruce Childs, has reactivated the traditional peace march to oppose the Howard Government's scape-goating of asylum seekers. The rally will start at Belmore Park at midday, before a silent march down Broadway to Victoria Park where speakers and bands will inform and entertain. Trades Council delegates impressed by Hassan's commitment and passion conducted an impromptu whip-around to help defray expenses faced by lawyers offering free services to detainees.
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