Showing posts with label Australia Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia Politics. Show all posts
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Friday, 3 June 2011
REFUGEES in Kuala Lumpur's suburban slums say they have been tortured in Malaysia's detention centres.
Gruesome personal accounts include claims of beatings with rattan canes and whippings - a fate that could await the 800 refugees the Federal Government intends to send to Malaysia as part of its controversial detainee swap.
Lay Maung, who was caned three times, said he was tied up and made to turn his head away from the prison officer so he could not see his face during one ordeal.
With the refugee's arms and legs extended, a man wielding a 1.2m rattan cane, pulled back and sliced the stick into his bare buttocks.
Like the 55,000 Chin Burmese refugees, Mr Maung's crime was that he wasn't a Malaysian citizen.
His UN Commission on Human Rights refugee card expired the day before he was arrested on the street in late 2009.
"I fainted after one cane," he said through an interpreter.
"They make you turn away from the man who canes you so you don't see his face. You can't sit or lie down for days.
"I spent a year in prison after that."
Pa Khau, 47, wanted in Burma because he is from the Christian minority, says he was whipped three times. And, pointing to his scarred, crippled hands, he told how soldiers broke his thumbs and fingers.
"The police and (paramilitary civilian corps) RELA pick on us because they want to make money from us," Mr Khau said.
"When they took me to the Thai border, after a year in prison, there were refugee agents waiting to meet us. Those men pay money back to the Malaysian immigration officers to let us back in."
The Herald Sun unearthed dozens of alleged brutality cases involving Malaysian authorities.
While human rights groups criticise the tactics, RELA, immigration officers and police are supported by Malaysian law.
That law will apply to the 800 boat people to be shipped to Kuala Lumpur by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she has no intention of pretending to believe in God to attract religiously-inclined voters.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was a regular at Canberra church services and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is known as a devout Catholic.
In contrast, Ms Gillard says that while she greatly respects other people's religious views, she does not believe in God.
Ms Gillard has been quizzed on personal topics including her attitude to religion and her relationship with her partner during interviews this morning.
She says does not go through religious rituals for the sake of appearance.
"I am not going to pretend a faith I don't feel," she said.
"I am what I am and people will judge that.
"For people of faith, I think the greatest compliment I could pay to them is to respect their genuinely held beliefs and not to engage in some pretence about mine."
"I grew up in the Christian church, a Christian background. I won prizes for catechism, for being able to remember Bible verses. I am steeped in that tradition, but I've made decisions in my adult life about my own views.
"I'm worried about the national interest. About doing the right thing by Australians. And I'll allow people to form their own views about whatever is going to drive their views.
"What I can say to Australians broadly of course is I believe you can be a person of strong principle and values from a variety of perspectives."
Meanwhile Ms Gillard has rejected claims that she is soft on Israel.
Former ambassador to Israel Ross Burns made the accusation in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Fairfax press reported.
Ms Gillard's partner Tim Mathieson works for prominent pro-Israel lobbyist Albert Dadon's real estate company Urbertas Group.
"I've seen that letter to the newspapers, that's not right," Ms Gillard said today.
"I've made up my own views about Israel and made them known publicly well before there was any suggestion that my partner would work in a property group associated with Mr Dadon."
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