May 29, 2012
May 29, 2012
May 29, 2012
May 29, 2012
Last night before I went to sleep I check the news to find out that Australia was one of the first countries to start expelling Senior Syrian Diplomats. Listening to William Hague this morning- it would seem that over night, this is been reciprocated by a number of other ‘western’ countries.
Yesterday I woke up again to the terrible news that the continued violence in Syria has brought more bloodshed. As I left for my run I noticed Kofi Annan sitting down with Syrian leaders in an attempt to stop the spill.
While my world keeps going around as clock work, it would seem for many
Syrians, their world is still falling apart.
The Syrian leader faces intense criticism from his Arab brothers and the
world’s leaders. Kofi Annan has continued his attempts at trying to tell
President Assad to stop the killing. He is no longer welcome in the
European Union and his wife, Asma al-Assad is face virtual exclusion from
birth lands of the United Kingdom.
For Syria the Arab spring has been long and costly. Concerning still is
that there Gaddafi Style Rhetoric seems to be streaming from official
channels. Any government opposition is accused of being a terrorist and is
painted as being un-reasonable.
During the press conference held after the Security Council’s urgent
meeting, I watch the British ambassador to the United Nations skilfully
play down the terrorist accusations made by the Syrian government against
the Free Syria Army. He clarified that the United Nations did not see the
unrest as terrorist related. But clearly Syria does.
The Security Council is slow going and this morning (at least on my side of
the pond) there was speculation that perhaps Russia could diplomatically
pull its finger out and perhaps allow the Security Council to take some
action.
The point of the Security Council is that the world won’t stand by and
allow massacres of this scale to happen over and over again. Assad needs to
realise that the patients of the rest of the world is running out.
April 23, 2012
April 23, 2012
Asylum from the Asylum Debate
There has been much said about Australia’s policy of mandatory detention. Both sides of politic are winning votes by promising they will be tough on Asylum Seekers.
Too many times I have had contact with someone who announces they are sick of refugee’s and think they are all just queue jumpers. Hating people for seeking asylum has become an acceptable part of our culture. Why? Because our political leaders don’t have the backbone to stand up and support basic human rights. Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard alike are not doing enough to educate the Australian public. The truth, unfortunately, isn’t worth as much air time. Refugees take up less than 7% of Australia’s average immigration intake, with most immigrants being on some sort of business/work visa. Nearly all refugees that come to Australia arrive of QF52 or other Asian originated flights. They don’t come on boats and they don’t jump queues. Speaking of queues- there is no magical queue where you show up and take a number and wait in an orderly fashion. There is a department which deals with a tonne of claims but churning through the easy ones and working on the harder ones when they can. It’s as simple as that.
At the moment the government is in a transition phase where they are moving towards community based processing rather than detention based process. But they are not moving fast enough. A young vietnamese girl has pleaded to the Government to re-think, even the transitional “community” based phase. 10 year old children shouldn’t be depressed because they are held in detention with out charge- at least not in this country.
History will be a harsh judge on Australia’s action during the time. We should all be ashamed that we are not doing more.
February 17, 2012
February 17, 2012
Get Serious on Syria
The Arab Sping is about to hit its first birthday. What started as protests spread over Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and it would seem is still burning.
Right now Syria is looking like the place of concern, though so are other Arab states like Bahrain and maybe even Oman. It seems as though the Assad regime is pulling out all the stops in its attempt to keep control over the “rebels”.
The United Nations Security Council resolutions have been block by China and Russia on the basis that neither country wants to interfere with any other state, but the General assembly has still be able to vote in a resolution with UK Foreign Secretary claiming a “strong message” has been sent to Syria.
Its interesting thought that a Libya style intervention hasn’t been discussed. The reports of deaths are on par with what was happening in Libya. It was at this stage that the “Western” Branch of the international community decided to do something about it. France, Italy and the United Kingdom got together and organised a NATO lead intervention. When shit hit the fan in Libya the humanitarian needs of Libyan were spruiked as being the priority numero uno- naturally and NATO was “forced” to “Take action”.
Yet right now the international community is waiting for UN resolution and asking neighbours like Turkey and Jordan to help put pressure on the Assad government. This is a much softer approach to the “get in, get Gadaffi, get out” approach. Clearly the humanitarian needs of Syrians fall second to the fact that Assad hasn’t pissed off nearly as many people as Gadaffi. No one is really bothered, or annoyed by him and the fact that a few hundred people keep dying almost daily as the military “steps up” doesn’t seem to warrant a Libya type of response.
The right to self determinationfor a state becomes irrelevant once the citizens of that state are no longer protected. Uprisings like these are a desperate plea for democracy and should be taken seriously by the international community. Harsh military responses like that which Assad has ordered cannot be tolerated.
Though intervention (which was technically part of the Bush doctrine) has got a bad wrap after Iraq and Afghanistan, surely the success of Libya should perhaps provide some weight to this argument. Are we really going to wait for Assad to turn into Gadaffi before we take real action?
February 16, 2012
10 years on
Guantanamo Bay has been open for business for a full decade now. The
military base, affectionately know as Gitmo, has taken a bit of a back seat
since the US left Iraq and since operations in Afghanistan have been
closing down. But it is a place that we need to keep in mind
There are people who have been held in Guantanamo for over a decade now.
None of these people have been charged or convicted, let alone sentenced.
Their detention is mandatory and there are no avenues of appeals. Pleas of
guilty seem to flow left, right and centre.
Ten years on the biggest question that comes to mind is “why is this place
still open?”
David Hicks is the Australian guys who’s book caused minimal controversy
when it came out in Australia in 2010.He was one of the first foreign
fighters who was taken to Guantanamo after he was found by the Northern
Alliance in Afghanistan. The man explains what he was doing in Afghanistan,
how he got there and his reasons for going. He describes how he was
captured, how he was handed over to the Americans, how he was interviewed
by a Journalist whilst he was filthy and covered in lice from a makeshift
Afghani prison. He goes through details of beatings, interrogations and
plain torture. He recounts being kept in a cage in the open, sweltering in
a shipping container, freezing in air-conditioning, blacked out in darkness
and of course sleep deprivation.
One thing he does point out though is- when is it ever ok to treat human
beings in this way?
President Obama’s first broken promise was to shut down Gitmo and every
since then he has been playing a hard game with congress over what to do
with the stricken prison. The United Nations has looked upon this as a “
failure of US governments to ensure accountability for the serious human
rights violations that have taken place.”
Here’s hoping Guantanamo Bay will be closed before the next decade it out.
