*Ø* Blogmanac | Don't let Australia send refugees back to torture and death

Howard: Where is your Christian Christmas spirit?



The Australian Government, led by arch-conservative John "Little Johnny" Howard, has notoriously waged a campaign against refugees for some years. The "Liberal" Party's grimy political landscape is littered with such monstrosities as the SIEVX disaster in which 353 asylum seekers drowned at sea (while Howard's mob did nothing to aid them), and the shipping of many desperate boat people asylum seekers to the tiny bankrupt Pacific island, Nauru, which Howard is paying millions to so as to keep these coloured problems away from Australia's mostly uncaring citizens.

In a stroke of breathtaking hypocrisy, while the Oz government travel advisories tell Ozzies that Afghanistan is too dangerous to travel to, that same regime is saying that Afghanistan is safe enough (for tinted people) to return to. And Australia is fully geared up to send refugees back home to the possible torture and execution from which they have fled.

Meanwhile, some 40 imprisoned men, women and children in the Nauruan hell-holes have quite understandably gone on a hunger strike. Blogmanac readers might remember a few months again when asylum seekers at Woomera, a concentration camp deep within the hot desert of mainland Australia, sewed their lips shut in a s8imilar hunger-strike protest. At the time, Howard's mob, and much of the media, represented this obvious act of deperation as "manipulation". The same is happening again.

I confess a personal interest in such matters. For 12 years I filled out application forms for Aghan women and their children at risk of persecution in Afghanistan. Women living in Pakistan and Iran in dreadful conditions, who were unable to return to their beloved Afghanistan, earlier because of the Communists, and later because of the Taliban. I know firsthand the treatment that men, women and children can receive at the hands of warlords and religious/political bastards in that benighted country. To ship back to Afghanistan any person who is in fear of their life is a crime against humanity, and the Blogmanac urges its readers to stay aware of the subject. Stay tuned as we will not be letting this issue go, as Howard would wish.

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"The Head of Medical Services on Nauru, Doctor Kieran Keke, says so far the Australian Government has ignored his pleas for more assistance, and he warns that if the hunger strike escalates there's a risk someone will die."
Source

Nauru hunger striker 'could die'
December 24, 2003

"A DOCTOR treating hunger strikers on Nauru has warned an asylum seeker could die because of mounting pressure on the island's hospital.

"Hospital medical services head Dr Kieran Keke accused the Australian government of being reluctant to provide the medical support needed as the number of hunger strikers in immigration detention on Nauru swelled to 40 ..."
Source

UN Association demands action on Nauru refugees
Amnesty International (Australia) on refugees
Rural Australians for Refugees

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Shame Little Johnny at church on Xmas Day
"For anyone who isn't dealing with Christmas family stuff tomorrow, may like to support the hunger strikers on Nauru with a little protest.

"John Howard worships at St Giles Anglican Church at Greenwich in Sydney.

"A silent protest with banners such as "No room at the inn again or 'Christian Charity?', 'Do unto others' would hopefully make him a little uncomfortable.

"Anyone up for the challenge?"
Source: Sydney Indymedia