Last ditch Aboriginal effort to block UN Security Council seat

17 October 12 - - An Aboriginal sovereignty movement is making a last ditch effort to stop Australia getting a seat on the UN Security Council, where voting begins tomorrow (Thursday).

Michael Ghillar Anderson, Chair, Interim National Unity Government, Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia and Leader of the Euahlayi Nation, has sent the letter below to all UN Ambassadors in New York.

"This letter sent to all UN Ambassadors in New York is a last ditch effort to oppose Australia's bid for a seat on the UNSC. It is imperative we notify members of the UN of Australia's position in terms of world affairs. 

“Neither political party can get its immigration and refugee policy right.

“Australia shows it doesn't have a mature capacity to articulate foreign policy under international law. The inexperienced and damning statement by Foreign Minister Bob Carr, in proposing the assassination of the Syrian President, is against all international codes of practice.

“It is one thing to think about despicable acts but to publically espouse them is an unconscionable act. Clearly Bob Carr fails to exhibit any sense of diplomatic discretion when it comes to trouble spots around the world. 

“This demonstrates why Australia should not hold a significant and highly responsible position in world affairs.

“In respect to our own people , Australia clearly fails to articulate sound social justice policies, but rather confronts First Nations people under the original 'rules and disciplines of war' and thereby applies rules of a police state as a methodology to continually confront Aboriginal people around this country. Statistics of the imprisonment and arrest rates is clear evidence attesting to these police actions."

16 October 2012

Your Excellency

Re: First Nations oppose Australia’s bid for a seat on the Security Council

As leader of the Euahlayi nation and an elected representative of the Gomeroi nation in northwest New South Wales I wish to reinforce our opposition to Australia’s bid for a seat on the Security Council.

My previous letter dated 27 September 2012 raised objections on three issues namely: Australia is a colonial power with a constitution which is an Act of the British parliament; Australia in breach of UN Conventions and fails to comply with treaty body procedures; and Australia still has no effective law against genocide.

Australia is a country that constantly violates international treaties in respect to its human rights abuses within its own borders, as recorded in the many submissions to UN treaty bodies on the treatment of First Nations Peoples and refugees.

Australia is immature and unable to develop its own independent thinking. It is not surprising that this immaturity stands out in a recent media statement on national ABC TV by Foreign Minister Bob Carr. On 8 October 2012 during the ABC Four Corners program on Syria, the Foreign Minister proposed that the ‘assassination’ of the Head of State, President Bashar al-Assad could be a solution to the Syrian crisis:

‘This sounds brutal and callous but] perhaps an assassination combined with a major defection, taking a large part of its military, is what is required.’ 

[Transcript at: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/10/04/3603727.htm]

As one commentator wrote:

Carr’s words were carefully chosen. As an experienced (if currently unelected) politician he knew very well the comment would attract attention. But there are good reasons why foreign ministers rarely promote assassination: it violates diplomatic protocols, is against international law and probably constitutes a criminal offence under Australian law.

Clearly, Australia is currently unable to be a responsible member of the Security Council.

Furthermore, Australia’s colonial mindset is exemplified in its attitude towards the imprisonment of Aboriginal people. We are but 3% of the population but the imprisonment rate is increasing. The imprisonment of Aboriginal women is up by 60% between 2000 and 2010. We are alarmed by the way Australia criminalises ‘otherness’.

The Bureau of Statistics reveals:

Between 2001 and 2011, imprisonment rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians increased from 1,267 to 1,868 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners per 100,000 adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. In comparison, the rate for non-Indigenous prisoners increased from 125 to 130 per 100,000 adult non-Indigenous population.

[http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/875C813AF74635EBCA25795F000DB4EF?opendocument]

Australia continues to be a colonial state of Britain and as such Australia has no place on the Security Council. The Head of the Australian state is a foreigner in the guise of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, who, through her agent the Governor-General of Australia, is the Commander in Chief of our armed forces under British Admiralty law.

We implore you to support independent thinking nations who are much more mature in world affairs.

Sincerely

Michael Anderson, Chair

Interim National Unity Government

Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia

and Leader of the Euahlayi Nation

Mogila Station

PO Box 55, Goodooga NSW 2838  

+61 (0) 427 292 492   ghillar29@gmail.com   www.sovereignunion.mobi