"I am very, very puzzled, in this country they say I am not allowed to kill myself, but on the other hand they want to return me to people who will kill me. "
Farrokh Shiri, Iranian asylum seeker. HMP Exeter, 15th March 2001I know I am taking some of your prime time but I am sorry for any inconvenience caused. My name is Qamar Naseeb Khan (aka Stephen Khan). I am the only child, born and brought up in Pulwama, a town in the Indian Sector of Kashmir about 40 Km from the border with the Pakistan sector. The Kashmir dispute has bedevilled relations between India and Pakistan for 54 years since independence and turned a region known to generations of travellers for its mountains and lakes into one of the world�s worst nuclear flash points. Since 1989, 70,000 people have been killed, 12,000 women have been raped and approximately 200,000 are held illegally and are being tortured at various camps in the Indian-held Kashmir by the Indian authorities.
My father was a carpet exporter and also owned a printing press, which was sometimes used by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front JKLF, one of the groups seeking independence from India, to publish political material. In 1994 whilst I was at the Srinager where I was studying a Diploma of Mechanical Technology I received news that my father had died. I was subsequently advised that my father had been torture and killed by the Indian security forces that claimed that he had weapons hidden in his press.
I returned immediately to my hometown and went with my mother to see my father�s body on which the injuries as a consequence of torture were clearly visible. My mother became extremely distressed, collapsed into coma and was taken to hospital. She never came out of the coma and three months later she died. I remained at her side in the hospital throughout this period.
Following my mother�s death I became deeply depressed as I felt I had no one else in the world and little reason to live. One of my uncles had been looking after the family home and my father�s business affairs. He tried to console me and told I should put the deaths of my parents behind me. He also said that he would look after me like a son and persuaded me to return to my studies, which I did.
Part of the way through the following year, 1995, a friend came to me and advised that my uncle had been arranging for my family�s property to be transferred into his own name by bribing officials (which is very easy to do there). I returned to my hometown and confronted the uncle who denied [that what had been said had happened]. I then went to see my friend�s father who produced documentary evidence of title transfers and so on. When I confronted my uncle again [I] was disowned and ordered out of the house. I was unable to obtain support from other relatives because the uncle had poisoned them against me on the grounds that if they supported me they would find themselves in trouble with the authorities because of my father�s and my association with the JKLF.
In this circumstance I returned to Srinager where I obtained support and assistance from my best friend and his family who took me in whilst I continued with my course which I completed the same year. During this period partly as a result of my anger about my parents� deaths I became increasingly involved with the JKLF. My friend and me participated in protests and obtained anti-government literature that emanated from Pakistan. In March 1996 I was at a house with four friends. The Indian security forces raided the house and took us to Raj Bag interrogation center [where]we were questioned and tortured. The security forces accused us for assisting the militants and helping in border crossings. They had searched the house for munitions but only found literature.
After ten days my friend and me were being moved to the central prison along with the commander/section leader of a militant group. Associates of this man attacked the vehicle in which we traveled. This gave my friend and me an opportunity to escape, which we took, as [we] believed we were being taken to be executed.
We hid in various parts of Kashmir for the next nine months, sometimes in the forest and sometimes in safe houses in towns, staying only for very short periods in any one place. By the end of 1996 my friend�s father was able to make arrangements for us to stay with someone in Punjab. So we went from Kashmir to Punjab via a circuitous route traveling mostly at night. In Punjab also Indian security forces were looking for us. By May 1997 we had obtained false travel documents through our contact in Punjab and flew to Thailand and then Singapore. Shortly afterwards my friend flew from Singapore to the UK leaving me behind. As the Singapore authorities would not allow me to stay, I made arrangements with another man from Kashmir who I befriended and some others to travel to Papua New Guinea where I [sought] asylum [as a] (refugee). Unfortunately PNG Immigration laws were unable to help me because there are no asylums in PNG. I did receive help from a number of Churches and N.G.O�s organizations in PNG. I illegally stayed there more then one year, [the] PNG Immigration Department was aware of my circumstances and living situation, where I often informed there Department of my movements in PNG. Experiencing many difficulties living in PNG for refugees and foreigners are frequently subjected to assaults and robbed. To survive in PNG was extremely difficult. Being illegal hardship was an everyday situation for me, without proper documents I could not seek employment to support myself, regularly I went without food every week of my stay in PNG. Christian communities helped me with my stay in PNG, relying on other people to support me was very depressing. I was looking at other avenues to make my future normal and independent for myself. There was no future in PNG or receiving refugee asylum by their department, my main priority was to seek asylum in PNG they denied my request and left me no alternative but to seek refugee asylum in another country. A friend [informed me ]a boat was leaving for Australia that day. There was no time to consider the present opportunity. It was a terrifying journey as I had never learnt to swim and several times we were caught in storms out of sight of land.
We arrived in Australia on 9th September 1998 at Queensland, gave ourselves up to the authorities and applied for Protection Visa. I spent a year at Port Hedland Detention Center. On January 11, 1999 the Refugee Review Tribunal decided not to grant me a protection visa. Since then I had appealed to Philip Ruddock, Minister for Immigration on a number of occasions but was turned down by the Minister & the Immigration Department, even though my Solicitor Ms Mary Anny Kenny from Southern Community Legal and Education Services (SCALES), Amnesty International Australia, Kashmir Council of Australia and a few political figures made representations on my behalf. Still the Immigration Department has not decided to give me liberty or death. Actually what Immigration wants is for me to give them in writing that I don�t have any problems in India and that I want to go back, but as long as I�m in Australia my life is safe (which human being wants to die?). The Immigration Department made an assessment that if I would return to India, I can reasonably relocate within India but I know it�s impossible, so how can I give them a written statement that I want to go back, submitting the letter they wanted would be suicidal for me. I�m fighting between life and death, after having spent years in detention waiting for my uncertain future. I think Immigration [has kept me]deliberately in a condition of physical and psychological hardships for so long, to deter others. My psychologist is concerned that "Mr. Khan suffers Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and his mental condition is aggravated by the length of time he has been in detention and the restrictions imposed upon him in that environment"
Philip Ruddock MP said, "asylum seekers appeal to the Federal Court to stop their removal from Australia". In my case I didn�t appeal to the Court and Department of Immigration don�t know what to do with me. By Immigration Law if an applicant didn�t appeal to the Federal Court he has to be removed within a short time but I spent over two years since I was refused by the RRT. They are keeping me alive but have taken away my youth, my freedom, my self-esteem and my dignity.
If I�m deported back to India I am positive that I will be arrested and detained at the airport under the National Security Act 1980, for questioning as to how I left India illegally. My resemblance is very strong Kashmiri traits, it is well known from information provided by (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US State Department and Human rights lawyers) the Indian Security officials use methods of torture and violence in questioning detainees under the National Security Act. If deported I will be at high risk by the Indian Security Forces because I escaped [as a ]suspected militant and believed to be a member of the Mujahidin (Militants) because they helped secure my freedom from captivity. I appear as a serpent�s egg which must be destroyed before it is hatched by the Indian Security Forces, on arrival if deported by the Australian Immigration Department.
Yours truly
Stephen Khan.
PIDC
The good people of Australia.
This is an open letter to the Australian public to scrutinise for themselves the preposterous claims by the Immigration Department concerning our stay here in your country. It is very degrading to see and hear your prominent men in the corridors of power making juvenile statements in a bid to make Australia unattractive to asylum seekers.
For too long the inequitable legal status of refugees in the detention centres has been a serious contributor to the sorry state of many, especially the children detained in these centres. It is simply quite archaic - and totally incongruous - that in a modem Western society, laws exist which promote discrimination against a segment of the community that has no choice as to its predicament. We have fled to this country to seek refuge from the appalling conditions that have been thrust upon us in our homelands.
The Immigration Department policy crusaders continue to demonstrate an abysmal lack of understanding (or perhaps a deliberate misrepresentation) of the attendant problems in regard to locking people up for a very long time. Hard-earned taxpayers' money is being used to maintain laws, which arguably violate human rights. In our world of isolation, we wake up every morning looking up to the freedom of the skies and crying at the degree of humiliation which we are subjected to by those who seek to achieve political prominence at the expense of our misery.
Violence has never been our aim. But what do you expect from us when we have escaped from persecution in our various countries to come to your lucky country only to be placed in confinement. We are tagged as criminals and terrorists. We are apparently people who submit claims that are not believable despite the world media's coverage of the events that led to the exodus from our homes.
Millions of Australian taxpayers dollars are being poured into the detention 'white elephant'. Spending $120 per head every day on detainees produces a clear picture of the ahmighty Mr Ruddock's capacity to rationalise important issues at a ministerial level. Make a simple sum of the cost per week needed to maintain these facilities. It is your hard-earned money that is being flushed down the drain. Detaining women and children under the premises that house rent is expensive outside defies explanation. If it costs $840.00 to maintain an individual in detention, and this is cheaper that maintaining someone in the community - why do Social Security recipients only receive $150.00 per week? Caging old men and women is a diabolical situation - what a sight! Perhaps the Australian Government could implement this strategy to deal with its own aging population...
How easily the Australian Government brushes aside the decades of debate, public forums, Government inquiries and NGO submissions concerning the conditions in detention centres. Is this simply a consultative mirage? You forget that we are real people who are disadvantaged everyday. We are not a theory. We are not an abstract notion.
The community needs to be clear on how other countries accept, release and sustain refugees and compare that with the policies in place in Australia. In Iran there are up to four million refugees. France and other European countries accept refugees and release them into their community. Many of these countries have less economic stability and less land than your lucky country. But they do their best to assist people in times of crisis.You also need to be aware as to how the Immigration Department conducts its outrageous policies on an individual basis everyday. The inconsistency, lies and cover-ups are endless. Human Rights organisations and the media are deprived of actually knowing what is going on in many of the Centres. Have these fundamental moral dilemmas been addressed by the various legislative bodies concerned and given the attention they deserve?
The current Government wrongfully propagates the myth that we are misleading into coming or that we are criminals sneaking through the back door into Australia. We are not stupid people. We are desperate people. The Immigration Department uses this myth to incite Australian people against us and to justify their cautionary approach to refugees. We are simply people as you are people - no more, no less.
Unfortunately, some of us who are affected by DIMA's treatment and propaganda do not make it to the stage where they can think rationally and make more use of their lives because they have chosen the path to suicide. This is viewed as a lone option in a lucky society which does not seem to have any sympathy for what are extremely traumatised people.
Mr Ruddock does nothing to ease this situation. His plethora of inflammatory remarks is not supported by material reality. He predicts an increase in attempted suicides and violence. The fact is these events have decreased in Port Hedland since the new Management has taken over. He also states that we would " becoming increasingly non - compliant in a bid to stay in Australia ". We ask you, Mr Ruddock - where is the evidence to support this claim? We are as complaint as appropriate for grown men and women. These are simple scaremongering tactics to justify a specious refugee policy.
Furthermore, Mr Ruddock asserts - "they end up in slums, and depend on begging and crime to survive". The crime rate in Australia at the present moment has nothing to do with us. It is highly likely that Australia is mature enough to cultivate its own criminals. We are not here to assist you in that regard.
Have you people ever asked yourselves " what if events turns us into refugees and we find our selves in this kind of detention in Australia"? Mr Ruddock even felt it appropriate to take a swipe at one of your elder statesman, Mr Malcolm Fraser. Mr Fraser argued that the detention centres are hellholes and that it should be stopped - that people are treated like animals on your very soil. Mr Ruddock cleverly covered it up by telling you people that Mr Fraser is ill - informed. What a shame. Somebody is...
Often we detainees sit down together and tell the stories of our homes and loved ones we had to leave behind. We talk of those who have died and the terrible events that we cannot forget. We also remember our friends who are locked up in other detention centres like Woomera and are not allowed to make a telephone call for almost a year or mail a letter. Then we ask ourselves - who will save us? Only the Australian community can.We assure you that we are not the criminals or terrorists that we are portrayed to be. If you go through our cases and see the decisions made by the Immigration department you would simply shed tears. The plight of peoples from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine, Bangladesh and many African countries is common knowledge - yet no visa is issued to those that have managed to arrive in this land and escape from the chaos and anarchy that envelops their beautiful homelands. The Department of Immigration appears to look at the colour of your skin - if satisfied that it is not black then, they toss a coin to decide whether or not to give you protection rights or not - what a fate. On many occasions people have received replies from DIMA giving them an identity totally divorced from the application that was lodged in the first interview. How can they process our applications fairly when they can't even get our names right?
The 'West' is happy to exploit our natural resources but in times of trouble you shut the door at our face. Whether by virtue of your colonial origins or your geographical isolation, white Australia's relationship with the rest of the world has always been ever so slightly problematic, mostly due to ill- conceived statements from the Policy makers of the day, particularly the Department of Immigration. Our current problem appears to reside not so much in our individual cases but in the temperaments of the people considering it - his or her own feelings (whether conscious or not) as regards the inferiority of foreign (particularly coloured) peoples. The concept of Orientalism is well known to Australian academics. And it appears to be alive and well in the Immigration Department.
Good people of Australia, we have no other alternative but to cry out to you for help. We are not allowed to speak out to you. If any violence erupts it is a direct result of the frustrating situation we find ourselves in. We have fled from violence. We despise violence and any other activities that will make you people feel insecure having us around but what can we do when our dignity is taken away from us and we are constantly insulted by a barrage of lies. The unnatural conditions of confinement stretch the patience of both ACM staff and inmates alike. We watch our health deteriorate at an alarming rate due to our poor psychological state.
We fled our countries to come here and seek protection, which under the circumstances should be accepted in the eyes of men and God as well. We are similar by definition to many Australian people. We are dislocated people. We have had to uproot ourselves from our pasts to come here and begin life again. Even third and fourth generation Australians know they once belonged somewhere else and came to Australia for the same reason we have. A better life. A life without pain and suffering.
Australians, we have chosen to come to Australia because of the reputation that Australian people have overseas for fairness and egalitarian principles. We believe that this fairness will sooner or later be applied to us. And further, regardless of the indignities that the Department of Immigration put us through - we will still call Australia home.
[Signed]We would like to draw your kind attention to the life of detainees in a detention centre. Detainees abscond their countries because of political instability, bloody and vindictive wars, fear from persecution, the worst Human Rights violations and torture and death. When people enter Australia and ask for asylum, they think they are safe but the treatment from the Immigration Department is inhuman and unacceptable for their uncertain future. We are branded as Boat people, queue jumpers and illegal Migrants so we feel guilty and ashamed but it�s a reality that we have to do this to save our lives (for example if any Australian fear persecution from Australian government, will Australian Immigration let him leave the legal way?). If we expose the truth, we are branded as media savvy. The Immigration Department detained refugees like criminals under the Migration Act and took years to finalise their cases. Being detained without any crime is a very terrible hardship, because if you did any crime and were sentenced to prison, you will know the release date and because you have done something wrong you won�t get depressed, but while you are in detention you don�t know when you are going to be released and what will happen to you. It is a tremendous frustration. We are dying every day. Ten detainees kept in one dorm and widespread sadness and depression! I have seen many detainees becoming psychiatric patients because of long term detention under constant surveillance. The condition of detention is not sanitary and hygienic and detrimental to our health. We are confined in quite awful conditions.
Once you arrive in detention it�s the beginning of fear and uncertainty. Detainees live under continual strain and fear and as a result detainees are not always nice to each other and to the staff in the detention centre. A few detention officers� behaviour distressed and exasperated us. We had many sleepless nights, the condition in this center amounted to mental torture, this is an insult to human dignity, life slows down in detention and the days seem endless. The weeks turn into months and the months into years. Our feelings are pretty desperate and hugely frustrated, inability to concentrate, making reading, writing and concentration difficult. Thinking and activity are slowed down because the mind is absorbed by inner anguish. We found it so agonising in detention that I do not have the words to express, we felt helpless and lacking dignity. We think the Immigration authorities were clearly attempting to humiliate us, and attempting to crush our spirits. We think Immigration deliberately put us in the condition of physical and psychological hardship for so long to teach us a lesson and deter others, and that would certainly breach the spirit of the United Nations Convention. Freedom is very important but how those bureaucrats that sit in their offices can feel? For them we are not human beings, just numbers. Sometimes we pretend that we are not. Sometimes we have a sense that no help will come, we feel like we are in a grave with four walls. Australia�s proud of its humanitarian reputation, so why not keep a human face, why does the Department of Immigration keep us in detention for years (it is a cruel crime against humanity) like criminals although we haven�t committed any crime? If asking for asylum to save our lives is a crime then every human being is a criminal because no one wants to die.
Detainees think they suffered a lot, now their lives are so awful that they want to get out completely. Self-harm and suicide attempts are common practices. Attempts to commit suicide are viewed as a way out of a hostile environment with the belief that life is worthless, particularly in this detention. Hon. Philip Ruddock MP says: "detainees were attempting suicide to draw attention" but obviously we felt "we have given up, we have lost hope." On another occasion he says: "Asylum seekers appeal to the Federal Court to stop their removal from Austalia." In a few cases we didn�t appeal to the court but Immigration was still unable to make a final decision that gives them liberty or sends them back to die. We understand that the Minister only finds excuses manipulating the Australian public against the refugees. The minister says that because of illegal immigrants we are reducing the quota for legal refugees. This is just a stunt playing illegal against legal refugees. This detention is very small and too much surveillance and no privacy (Human rights recommended that Immigration should not keep any detainee longer than three months, but a few detainees have been kept here for two to three years). Detainees always feel fear, sadness, anger, hopelessness, despair and memories hurt them because of the things that happened to them in the past.A few detainees have been taken to prison because Immigration think they are disturbing other detainees and breaching human rights, but Immigration didn�t think why they are motivated to do the unexpected things. Immigration creates the circumstances, making detainees lose their temper, which makes them upset, then Immigration blames them. Being detained is very stressful, embarrassing and self-destructive. Isn�t Immigration breaching the Human Rights? Does anybody ask Immigration why detainees are detained for so long? When you are detained so long, it�s very simple, you will lose your temper and get angry over trivial things, it�s human nature, even the animals also have very sensitive feelings when they are confined.
Some of the asylum seekers who have been detained for two to three years are reasonably skilled, hardworking and adequately conversant in the English language, they would assimilate easily into your society without any problems. They are also young and able-bodied which means that they would not be a burden on your social security system. Immigration Department did not think that way, instead of that the department is spending $191.00 per day on each detainee ( actually the private American firm, ACM Australasian Correctional Managemant, the company who runs the centers takes advantage of this money) which means for someone who stayed two years in detention it costs almost $149,430.00 to the Immigration budget, and all that money comes from tax payers. As far as the welfare of detainees [is]concerned they are given jobs in the centre every second week, only two points a day, one point is almost equal to one dollar, which is not sufficient to cope with their daily expenses, for example if any detainee wants to converse with his parents or friends, he is not able to buy enough phone cards. The other detention centers provide jobs at least five points a day, which is satisfactory. Even if you compare with prisoner they are given $44 a week as gratuity, which they can use to make phone calls and fulfill their daily expenses. In other words we are treated worse than criminals. A few detainees are wearing one set of clothes for more than a year because ACM provides only emergency clothing if you have nothing to wear. We are forced to buy some of our basic essentials and our own clothing or have friends to buy them for us. Nobody can enjoy confinement in cramped detention centres, walls topped with razor wire. I do not understand how the Minister said previously that Australians do not have the luxuries as the detainees have in detention. What a joke! Immigration Department has to think seriously about it.
A few detainees asked Immigration that if they don�t want to give us visas then remove us from Australia. We are better off to die in our countries, rather than stay here and die every day. We are human beings, we have feelings, flesh and blood running in our veins. It is clear that all detainees' cases should be dealt with as quickly as possible, and those who are not qualified for the Immigration assessment should be sent back to their countries without delay.
We want to oppose the mandatory detention for asylum seekers. Mandatory detention is a harsh law, which, in our views, is immoral, unjust and intolerable. Our conscience dictates that we must protest against it, that we must oppose it and that we must attempt to alter it! The authorities concerned enforced every regulation with threats and intimidation. As per Marion Le, President of Independent Council for Refugees Advocacy, asylum seekers should be given bridging visas like in many other countries until the process is finalised. In detention centers there are self-harm, damage to property, fights and assaults caused by chronic deficiencies in the management of detainees. Detainees are demonstrating and causing disruption because they want to draw attention to their predicament. Hon. Ruddock is getting tougher and tougher towards the boat people, he made many strict amendments in the legislation, for example, Temporary Protection Visas. The proposed legislation bill [is] merely a symptom of a panicky and mishandled approach towards the refugees, such wars were placing untold stress on refugees. He also gives them mental and physical hardship, by locking them in detention for a long time to deter others.Detention centers were built to keep Refugees and non-citizens for a short time just like care centers, but it�s been converted into prisons. Detention officers were employed to look after or be caretakers,it�s changed into prison guards. We have a muster twice a day, [in]which every detainee has to go to the exercise yard, whether he is sick or sixty years old. A few officers force detainees to go out in the yard, like [a ]shepherd driving away sheep. This is a form of torture and showing off who is in command and to remind us we are prisoners. It is very humiliating for us too. In the other centers there is [a]head count, even though centers hold five hundred or more detainees. In this center only for twenty eight they do muster unnecessarily.
We have one Albanian detainee here, his wife in Graylands and their children split from them. Could anybody explain why such young children are kept away from their parents, they are totally innocent? Many children asked their parents "Is Australia a prison" because they have been long time in detention. If their parents did make mistakes to come to Australia, what about innocent children, are they also criminals? They are getting the wrong impression. When you are oppressive towards innocent refugees, obviously they will become frustrated and act frantically. What else would the Immigration expect from them? The Department of Immigration pressurizes and scapegoats refugees, so they will give up and accept the persecution in their own countries. We are ready to throw ourselves into the ocean if they would just let us do it. We have one detainee from Iran, who was transferred here from Woomera detention center. While he was in Woomera he was beaten with batons by the ACM guards. As a result he suffered partial blindness in one eye and affected the nervous system due to the head injuries he sustained.
So please, please, please��help us!!!
Stephen Khan
Perth Immigration Detention Center
PO Box 286 Belmont WA 6984.
We will have a peaceful protest on 1 January 2001 in the detention centre because of what your staff did to our beloved brother Villiami Tanginoa on Friday 22/11/2000.
The staff tried to grab him without him signing any papers. The staff stopped detainees from giving him food and smokes. The staff took it lightly while they could save his life. One of your staff was shooting basketball on the pole where he stood.
We want freedom, out of this place.
Signed by all detainees in the detention centre.Finally, we send love to all our brothers and sisters protesting outside.
The following notes were taken after visits to the detention centre on the week following the death, from information provided by detainees, who were anxious that the truth be told. They felt their lives are worthless: you can read from the notes how the situation was treated by ACM staff. They want to know that people in Australia do value them as people, and that such a death cannot be swept away by ACM or any other authorities as though it was insignificant.
At 8am the events began, with people saying William was up the basketball pole, and threatening to jump. Other detainees went out to the basketball court to talk to him. The ACM guards came and cleared the area, and locked the doors to the basketball court (between 9am and 10am). William asked to speak to the DIMA officer, who refused to speak to him. Some time after 12 a detainee, threw him some chocolate, and was then hassled by ACM guards. At around 2:30pm, five single mattresses were laid out around William, but were removed after he told them to take them away or he would jump. At 3pm, the operation manager (�Dave�), was playing basketball around the hoop where William was, and throwing the ball up to the hoop, taunting William. Another officer, Helen, went out and in response to William asking for cigarettes, placed one on the ground and told him to jump to get it. The detainees were asking the ACM manager to get a counsellor, but he told them she was busy. At 4pm, after all day up there with rain and no food, no water, no cigarettes, William stood up then jumped. The detainees broke the doors to get to him, and he was still alive, with a pulse and breathing. At 4:35pm (35 minutes later) the ambulance arrived, and the ambulance officers attempted resuscitation, but William died. The detainees then in anger broke cameras, a computer, windows, the coke machine, and a clothes iron. A fire was started. The detainees refused to let William�s body be taken unless the media or family were there, fearful of a coverup. At 7:30pm, 100 police and 20 ACM riot squad officers cleared the area, and the body was taken away.
Subsequent to this, I have spoken to another detainee, who has told me that William had received a letter from DIMA earlier in the week saying he would be deported on that Friday. Rather than have breakfast, he went to the recreation room, fearful of being grabbed. The guards came with handcuffs for him, which is when he went outside and climbed the basketball pole. I heard from this person how William was refused food and drink and cigarettes throughout the day, and again about the lightness with which ACM staff treated the situation. William�s case officer in DIMA was contacted by a detainee, but she refused to come to the detention centre. A promise was made to William by the ACM manager that he would not be deported for at least a week, but when William requested this in writing it was refused. A final request for cigarettes was refused, at 4pm, subsequent to which William jumped, landing on his head. William had lived in Australia for 17 years. He had a partner and four brothers in Australia.
A testimony from a detainee, said he was present during the suicide of William. His identity would be concealed for security reasons. He is detained in the Maribynong detention center 1 month and 10 days.
At about 7.30 AM I heard that William Lakisagi had climbed up the basketball post in the yard. We were in the yard for morning walk. We have seen him all around the day. At about 2 PM one of the ACM Officer named Tony Keeper put a few single mattresses around the basketball post.
At the same time all detainees have been forced to get into the hallroom and the officers locked the door because they didn't want us to see and speak or communicate with William.
I have told one of the ACM Officers, please don't put pressure on him, he might jump down. The Officer told me in reply "I don't give a shit about him, it is not my responsibility. It is the responsibility of DIMA".
Sometime later two ACM Officers arrived in the yard close to the basketball post to get him. William climb up more higher, this was happing twice, finally they dropped that tactics.
We could see him from the windows and door's glasses very clearly. He asked for bread but the ACM Officer Tony Keeper and Peter Dave refuged. They refuged to open the door, give him bread and they were laughing at William as if it was a very funny matter.
He also asked for a cigarette, again the Officers stopped us. Heavy rain started with cold wind. William was getting wet in the rain, he asked for a towel to put it on top of his head. We were ready to give him a towel but we have been refused by two ACM Officers as of before.
He jumped down by his head towards the concrete floor of the yard. ACM Officers open the door at about 4 PM. I alongwith few other inmates from different nationalities reached to the place where William's body was laying down on his back, his eyes were open, bleeding from the moth and ears and nose. I guess he was still alive. ACM Officer Peter Dave told me to touch him and get his pulse reading, I did so. I felt that he was alive. Other ACM Officers were doing CPR and cleaning his moth because he was bleeding heavily. I was rubbing his arm like padding him to come down. Within the next 5 to 6 minuets I think was died.
I checked his pulse again, it was still and his eyes were open too. ACM Officers were talking on the radiophone for Ambulance, it took about an hour for them to arrive.
I heard from a two way conversation of a radiophone of one officer that they are not allowing the Ambulance to come inside. One of the officer said yes let it come in. They waited for 50 minutes. William's body was there for 4 hours. All the detainees came out to the yard and they were outraged and angry enough to attack the Officers. Some detainees and I tryed to speak to the angry detainees and asked them to calm down.
All detainees were very angry, they smashed a lot of things and put fire in the detention center. All the Children also see the dead body which was laying on the ground for 4 hours.
All ACM Officers were asking for "backup" on the radiophone. We have seen more than 100 police, 30 riot control squad and ACM Guards were coming inside the centre. They did it by excessive force, took the dead body away, digging the basketball post out and they took it away. During this time 3 other detainee said, we going to kill ourselves and one of them cut his stomach by shapr shaving blade. It was deep enough, he did it twice,
ACM Officers arrested those three and locked them in cell.
I am severely shocked. Like others in detention, I can't get sleep, I asked for medication, they gave me Panadol only. All dessidents here psychologycally affected due to this incident. Everybody is shocked and scared now.
I talked to another Iranian family detained there, they are all shocked and they asked me how can I help them to get out from there? The man was crying over the telephone and asked me what will be happened to them?
Thanks for your time, Cyrus Sarang Refugee Action Collective http://web.one.net.au/~refugeeBack to top of pageTo protest at the appalling and negligent treatment of Viliami Tanginoa by ACM staff that led to his death at Maribyrnong last Friday, there will be a memorial protest on Monday 1/1/01 at 2:30pm at the detention centre (Hampstead Rd, Maribyrnong). People are asked to bring flowers in memory of Viliami. The protest is to remember this man as a human being, and to protest the continued imprisonment of all detainees.
Please come - support has been received from the Australian Arabic Council, the Tongan community, the Fijian community, the Greens, Baptist Church in Brunswick, socialists, unionists, student unionists, and the detainees, who will be holding a peaceful protest inside the centre at the same time.
The true story was only revealed after activists spoke to detainees and passed on the truth to the media, who had previously simply reported the ACM lies. Articles in the Australian on Wednesday and Thursday, and in the Age on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, gave the detainees' view.
Further info please call Simon 0402 413 914 or Judy 0418 347 374
Testimony from a detainee who said he was present during the suicide of Viliami. His identity is concealed for security reasons.
At about 7.30 AM I heard that William Lakisagi had climbed up the basketball post in the yard. We were in the yard for morning walk. We have seen him all around the day. At about 2 PM one of the ACM Officer named Tony Keeper put a few single mattresses around the basketball post.Back to top of page
At the same time all detainees have been forced to get into the hallroom and the officers locked the door because they didn't want us to see and speak or communicate with William.
I have told one of the ACM Officers, please don't put pressure on him, he might jump down. The Officer told me in reply "I don't give a shit about him, it is not my responsibility. It is the responsibility of DIMA".
Sometime later two ACM Officers arrived in the yard close to the basketball post to get him. William climb up more higher, this was happing twice, finally they dropped that tactics.
We could see him from the windows and door's glasses very clearly. He asked for bread but the ACM Officer Tony Keeper and Peter Dave refuged. They refuged to open the door, give him bread and they were laughing at William as if it was a very funny matter.
He also asked for a cigarette, again the Officers stopped us. Heavy rain started with cold wind. William was getting wet in the rain, he asked for a towel to put it on top of his head. We were ready to give him a towel but we have been refused by two ACM Officers as of before.
He jumped down by his head towards the concrete floor of the yard. ACM Officers open the door at about 4 PM. I alongwith few other inmates from different nationalities reached to the place where William's body was laying down on his back, his eyes were open, bleeding from the moth and ears and nose. I guess he was still alive. ACM Officer Peter Dave told me to touch him and get his pulse reading, I did so. I felt that he was alive. Other ACM Officers were doing CPR and cleaning his moth because he was bleedin heavily. I was rubbing his arm like padding him to come down. Within the next 5 to 6 minuets I think was died.
I checked his pulse again, it was still and his eyes were open too. ACM Officers were talking on the radiophone for Ambulance, it took about an hour for them to arrive.
I heard from a two way conversation of a radiophone of one officer that they are not allowing the Ambulance to come inside. One of the officer said yes let it come in. They waited for 50 minutes. William's body was there for 4 hours. All the detainees came out to the yard and they were outraged and angry enough to attack the Officers. Some detainees and I tryed to speak to the angry detainees and asked them to calm down.
All detainees were very angry, they smashed a lot of things and put fire in the detention center. All the Children also see the dead body which was laying on the ground for 4 hours.
All ACM Officers were asking for "backup" on the radiophone. We have seen more than 100 police, 30 riot control squad and ACM Guards were coming inside the centre. They did it by excessive force, took the dead body away, digging the basketball post out and they took it away.
During this time 3 other detainee said, we going to kill ourselves and one of them cut his stomach by sharp shaving blade. It was deep enough, he did it twice,
ACM Officers arrested those three and locked them in cell.
I am severely shocked. Like others in detention, I can't get sleep, I asked for medication, they gave me Panadol only. All dessidents here psychologycally affected due to this incident. Everybody is shocked and scared now.