By Napatista posted 21 November 05
Draconian Planet
Letter to PM Howard from Stuart Highway in Berrimah jail Darwin re Nguyen Tuong Van on death row in Changi Prison Singapore. as an example now please consider wrting a card to the prisoner from melbourne waiting murder by the Singapore State yourself. Thanks. Condemned Prisoner C856 Nguyen Tuong Van Cluster Registry, Changi Prison 982 Upper Changi Road Singapore 507709
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Letter to PM re: Nguyen Tuong Van
Written by Stuart Highway in Darwin Prison on Friday the 11th November 2005
Dear Prime Minister
I am writing to you in this eleventh hour in the hope that you will intervene to save the life of Australian citizen Nguyen Tuong Van.
As Prime Minister of Australia you are in a position of power to influence the Singapore Government to stay his execution.
Australia and Singapore are allies and have strong military and trade links. You could use these to work out a deal whereby Nguyen Tuong Van could be brought home to serve out a life sentence in Melbourne, close to his family.
The death penalty is abhorrent. I once read of an American boy of 16 or so who murdered both his parents after a fierce argument on a camping trip. It was probably his youth that saved him from the death penalty. After serving years in prison he was released and studied medicine. He became a doctor. He devoted the rest of his life to helping the underprivileged and disadvantaged. He became a model citizen.
Similarly, I believe Nguyen Tuong Van deserves to live.
Please consider this option.
Yours Sincerely
Stuart Highway
Letter to Nguyen Tuong Van
Written by Stuart Highway in Darwin Prison on Thursday the 10th November 2005
Dear Nguyen Tuong Van
I am a member of a Darwin-based drug law reform organisation called Network Against Prohibition. Since March 2002 we have been campaigning for the repeal of all laws against drugs. Our goal is the relegalisation of all drugs which are currently illicit, in order to reduce to a minimum drug-related harm in communities worldwide. We believe that far more harm is done to drug users and society in general by the drug laws than by the drugs themselves.
I am currently serving a 3 month sentence for a conviction of Unlawfully Damage Property as a result of damage done to police vehicles at one of our community rallies in Darwin in October 2002.
I have seen the media coverage of the campaign to save you from execution, and seen your mother plead for your life to be spared.
I feel that the intervention of powerful figures such as John Howard could result in you being brought back home to serve a life sentence in Melbourne, leaving the way open for other options. However, the political will has been lacking.
Therefore, I'm going to write to John Howard asking him to make further, more serious representations to the Singapore Government on your behalf. As you are an Australian citizen that's the least he could do.
As well, I extend a hand of solidarity, as one prisoner of the war on drugs (POWD) to another, through the bars and across the sea.
Solidarity, brother.
Stuart Highway
You can send messages of solidarity and support to Nguyen Tuong Van at the following address:
Condemned Prisoner C856 Nguyen Tuong Van
Cluster Registry, Changi Prison
982 Upper Changi Road
Singapore 507709
http://www.napnt.org/
Related:
The Queensland Nuclear Free Alliance (QNFA) are appalled at the proposed use of Delamere Long Range training facility by US forces for live bombing.
Spokesperson for the Brisbane Peace Convergence and member group of the QNFA Kim Stewart says, "This is a clear show of force to our neighbours in the Pacific with whom the Howard government has been reluctant to sign a non-aggression treaty. We think this is particularly directed at China, the biggest threat to the US dominance in our region.
"The Howard government is walking a knife's edge talking development of our uranium sales with China while at the some time facilitating the US's military posturing.
"This is just another insult to the communities of the Northern Territory who are already having a nuclear waste dump thrust upon them at nearby Katherine. This development poses an increased threat to the RAMSAR listed wetlands of Kakadu and Katherine Gorge. The US forces have a track record of inaccuracy in their bombing, including a near miss of a control tower at Delamere by a 500 pound laser guided bomb in August this year, and a fighter crashed on a nearby cattle station in September 2004.
QNFA are concerned about the presence of nuclear war ships and nuclear weapons in our waters and on our land and the possible use of deplete uranium munitions such as those that have polluted and rendered toxic, dangerous to human health and unliveable numerous US bases including Vieques, Okinawa, Germany, South Korea and Italy.
Pauline Rigby, spokesperson for Depleted Uranium Silent Killers (DUSK) says, "If the bombing is 'so safe' then the Government should have no problems with independent soil tests being taken from the NT and Shoalwater Bay to be assessed at the Uranium Medical Research Center in Toronto Canada.
"What steps are being taken by the Australian Government to 'prove' to the Australian people that DU weapons, 'have not' and 'will not' be used on our soil?
"The Australian Government needs to be aware that if they use or allow the use of 'depleted uranium' weapons, which are illegal under International Law, this places Australia in breach of the Geneva Convention, to which we are a signatory. We are calling on all Australians to reject the Howard government's support of the US military presence in our country and to stand in solidarity with the communities opposing the nuclear industry and the nuclear waste dump being forced on them by the Howard government.
The QNFA demand an end to US forces using our country as a bombing test site.
BPC spokesperson Kim Stewart says, "There is a difference between "helping your allies" and being used by them. The fact is US forces are not permitted to train using live fire or DU on any US territory. What makes that acceptable in Australia?"
The Queensland Nuclear Free Alliance is a network of Peace, Environment and Anti-Nuclear groups dedicated to opposing the industrial and military nuclear cycle and promoting peaceful, environmental and socially just alternatives.
MEDIA:
Brisbane Peace Convergence -- Kim Stewart 0413 397 839
http://www.geocities.com/peaceconvergence
Depleted Uranium Silent Killer -- Pauline Rigby
http://www.dusk-qld.info
Related:
By Anna Migdal [email protected] posted 21 November 05
Walk against warming is being organised around a global day of climate action on December 3rd.
Come and tell the government and media that you want a clean renewable future for Australia, and no more dirty polluting coal. Action is needed to prevent dangerous climate change now.
Call for the federal government to first ratify kyoto, then further reduce coal pollution to save Australia from more droughts, save the Great Barrier Reef. and provide a safe and clean future for all of us.
Sign up to clean energy! dont get your electricity from dirty coal. An organisation called Power to Change will help you to get your electricity from cleaner sources- such as wind and solar power.
Bring your friends!! it will be a fun day for all with bands in Hyde Park North.
Help Create a global wave of protest to press for the urgent action we need to prevent catastrphic destabilisation of our global climate. for more information on international activities visit:
http://www.globalclimatechange.org
http://www.walkagainstwarming.org
By Takver posted 21 November 05
Certain inmates set a series of fires in the Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia, causing $2 million dollars worth of damage and destroying the personal possessions of many asylum seekers/refugees. Now Pamela Curr reveals the truth behind the fires with the Government deliberately mixing criminal deportees with asylum seekers to impart blame and poison the debate on the claims of asylum seekers.
Four fires were lit on Saturday causing one person to be hospitalised and five others to be treated for smoke inhalation. 34 bedrooms were destroyed along with many treasured personal possessions such as family photos, and 58 people were required to be evacuated from the centre.
The Advertiser said Senator Vanstone was appalled detainees had deliberately started the fires and had left taxpayers with a multimillion-dollar bill. "(It) was reckless and seriously endangered the lives of detainees and the Baxter staff," she said.
The ABC reported that four men were being questioned over the fires, with an Immigration department (DIMIA) spokesman saying they were people who have overstayed their visas or had their visas cancelled on bad character grounds.
Pamela Curr continues the story:
Since DIMIA have gone silent, we have collected the following information and reports from witnesses. The facts are
* No Asylum Seeker was involved in lighting the fires.
* Asylum seekers suffered loss of personal possessions and effects.
* One man, an artist with pictures in readiness for an exhibition in Port Augusta lost his entire collection.
* Some Chinese men lost their dearest possessions-photos of their families.
FACT: Three criminal deportees were involved in lighting the fires.
This highlights an ongoing problem at Baxter where men transferred from the prison system and awaiting deportation are placed throughout the asylum seeker compounds.
There is no good reason to do this when there are nine compounds at Baxter, a number of which remain unoccupied. Asylum seekers have always expressed concern and fear that ex-prisoners were placed in their compounds because they saw this as DIMIA attempting to confuse the Australian people by mixing asylum seekers and ex-prisoners to present asylum seekers as criminals.
While some ex-prisoners present few problems, others are angry and violent after many years in the prison system and frighten asylum seekers who have fled violence in their own countries. Asylum seekers report being afraid to come out of their rooms when ex-prisoners are on the rampage. They say that the ex-prisoners bait the guards poisoning the atmosphere for everyone.
These are two different groups with very different needs. DIMIA should immediately separate them. They have the space and facilities available and should do so without delay.
PAMELA CURR
More mishandling of Immigration Matters by the Department of Immigration, and the responsible Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone. She has proven herself incompetent, lacking in responsibility, and failed to reform a racist and derogatory culture in her department established by her predecessor, Phillip Ruddock.
Where is John Howard's ministerial Code of Responsibility that he introduced in 1996? I haven't heard it mentioned at all the last few years.
when they went fishing?
