In scenes familiar from the Howard years, victims of the Rudd/Gillard's government asylum seeker policies protested today in Darwin by burning property and climbing to the roof of the immigration prison. The protesters were apparently Indonesian crew of asylum seeker boats unhappy about how long there cases were taking to get to court. Under Australian law they face a mandatory minimum five year jail term. Many of the crews of these boats are poor Indonesian fisherman who are just another group of people victimised by our racist hysterical policies on asylum seekers. Lucky Oscar Schnidler didn't have to come before an Australian court! Below is a text from The Age on the protest.
NO BORDERS! NO NATIONS! CLOSE THE CAMPS!
Detainees at Darwin's immigration detention centre have been rioting this morning, lighting fires, brandishing poles and jumping on the roofs of buildings.
The violence erupted about 4am local time when two Indonesian men facing people-smuggling charges climbed a tree at the centre and refused to come down, Immigration Department officials said.
They were joined by other Indonesian men and the situation escalated about 8am, when the rioters set fire to rubbish and mattresses they had piled up in the grounds of the centre.
At one point, more than a dozen men were standing on the roof of one building, yelling. Some of them brandished two-metre-long poles, which they used to stop security guards from climbing up.
The men also jumped between the roofs of demountable buildings at the centre, and one man threw a chair from the roof.
Some of the men took off their shirts and wrapped them around their heads.
The Indonesians were protesting that their cases were taking too long to be heard in court. Under Australian law, all the crewmen on asylum seeker boats face people-smuggling charges, which carry a minimum of five years' jail.
The riot continued for more than seven hours. Screaming and banging could be heard from behind the high-wire fence of the centre, hundreds of metres away.
But an official said the incident had ended mid-morning. No buildings or structures were set alight.
For several hours, police surrounded the centre, which is in the grounds of the Coonawarra Naval Base. A helicopter also hovered over the centre, while fire crews were called to extinguish the blaze which sent a huge plume of black smoke across the outskirts of Darwin.
There are 151 Indonesian detainees at the centre, which is holding a total of 487 people. In the compound where the violence erupted there are 97 Indonesian detainees.
NT Police have ordered media to leave the area and are refusing to comment.
Source: smh.com.au