Your Passport
Above this is a page from your passport. It sets out the government’s promise - and its moral and ethical duty - to do what it can to protect Australian citizens and to make sure that they are not subject to arbitrary, irrational arrest or subjected to torture at the hands of another country or power. Perhaps our passports don’t mean what they say any more.
Articles
The continued incarceration of David Hicks is a shocking indictment of the current government. Our democratic way of life and the freedoms and rule of law that we have fought for demand that he be returned to Australia to stand trial if he has committed an offence against our laws. If he has not not, he should be freed immediately.
Exactly, Sir!
Wasn’t the War of Jenkin’s Ear in 1739 fought over an individual English seaman arbitrarily held, mutilated and tortured by the Spanish? ….. Not that we should go to war against the Bush regime, of course.
A recurrent theme of last night’s stirring Human Rights Event at Federation Square, “Melbourne Conversations” (with Professor Larissa Behrendt, Julian Burnside QC and Major Michael Mori) was the terrible neglect and abandonment shown by mainstream Australia, and particularly by the Federal Government, not only of the now notorious case of poor David Hicks in Guantanamo Bay, but also, on our own shores, the less obvious but no less reprehensible plight of refugees in detention, and (perhaps most significantly but least noticed or most ignored) of many people in our own Aboriginal community. To each of these, it may be suggested the Commonwealth has fallen down woefully in affording “every assistance and protection which he or she stands in need”.
I think many Australians are a bit fearful of travelling overseas now (especially to America). The Howard government has clearly shown that it is not prepared to assist it’s citizens when they get into trouble overseas.
Sadly, human rights seem to be very low on the Howard government’s list of priorities these days.
I am the holder of 2 passports - British and Australian. I have lived in the UK for 11 years but have always identified myself as Australian in my travels if asked. However the current Australian government’s compliance with the illegal detention of David Hicks makes me a little shameful to continue to admit that. I cannot bring myself to call myself “British” (although at least the UK government got its citizens back) so I might settle for being “European” given I have a EU passport. I can safetly say I am proud of the idea of being an EU citizen with its superior standards of law and civil rights that makes Australia and the US look like they are in the dark ages. Add to that the superior European culture… well there is no comparison.
Nobody can convince me that David Hicks was ‘on holiday’ and wasn’t involved with the Taliban/Al Qaida - even if he only polished their shoes and not their guns! There was/is a war on and wé got attacked by that lot of gruesome, cruel, idiot, deceiving Islamists of which David Hicks was part and who caused total and gruesome havoc amongst the population of Afghanistan and who don’t know what the word ‘humanisme’means!
Ludricous therefore to say that ‘we poor Australians don’t dare to go to the USA’ - while you poor Australians were bombed three times on Bali - by muslims! And keep fingers crossed it won’t happen to you while nót leaving Australia.
That doesn’t mean that I excuse the way the USA treats people in Guantanamo Bay - but most of them would be all too happy to blow you up sky-high to ‘Allah’!
Joanna, you should read the article by George Williams and get the facts straight.
As many people have stated i do believe that something should be done about David Hicks as it is time he was put through the due process and Tried in a court of law. But, it is becoming apparent that even if he is found guilty that there is a minority that will continue to protest for his release. Our Government appears to have done everything in his power to help Mr Hicks, and to say otherwise is ridiculous (have we all forgotten about Mr Mamdouh Habib who was released?). I dont know what it is about this man that rallies so much support. Shappelle Corby is in prison in some of the worst circumstances you could imagine but there is no more marches on the Indonesian embassy to get her back here to serve her sentence, or Van Nugen who was hanged in Singapore after tremendous pressure from our federal Government and to no avail.Van’s case is a prime exaple of how our government can’t just say to another country, “Hey, Dont do that!”, the PM has done his best and should be applauded.
If our government has done all it can and deserves to be applauded, how is it that Britain and every other western country has been able to get its citizens out of the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, and we haven’t? The truth is that our government has failed to do anything, until it looks like it could have an impact on an election, and even then their response is inneffective. It is deplorable and unacceptable.
And I don’t think that you can compare Shappelle Corby, who was convicted of a criminal offence within six months of apprehension, to Hicks, who has waited over five years to see the inside of a makeshift, unjust courtroom.
In some quarters there is jubilation that a date has been set for Hicks’ trial. That news is good but it is also bad. Hearsay evidence and evidence extracted by severe coercion, which some would call torture, is to be permitted. If he is convicted under such circumstances, I am sure the campaign for his release will continue. A guilty verdict from this Commission will not be accepted by those who believe in due process and the rule of law.
In response to Mr James Boggs, I ask you to go back and read my comments entirely and take back the statement that our government cant get our citizens returned home. Mr Mamdouh Habib was set free after lobbying by this government because his case was not justified for continued detention and that he posed no major threat, unfortunately for David Hicks there is too much evidence to allow this process to take place. It is obvious you have jumped on the bandwagen with this, start by reading Piers Akermans column in the Sunday Telegraph (11/03/2007) who quotes significant facts about Mr Hicks, and you may just get some idea as to why the majority of Australians do not want this man set free in Australia. I agree Justice should be swift and has taken too long, but, i do believe either in 4 months or 4 years ago Mr Hicks has too much to answer for to be found completely innocent. And as I said before I believe The Federal & State Governments have done all they can in this matter. Thank You
Two sides to this story… “if you lie down with dogs… you’ll wake up with fleas” and David has learned this the hard way… And Mr Fraser has hit the nail on the head with the lack of due process which Australia should consider long and hard in future dealings with the USA. There are rules in which Western society has agreed to follow and the Americans have not followed these. I would be very nervous being an American travelling anywhere near the middle east. So as you can see David H and the USA have been very thoughtless in their actions… and the possible consequences. With the Government’s response… if they got him out and DH blew up something… they’d be damned… and if they did nothing… they’d be damned… Ironically no winners. Cheers!