503

BY SARAH STEPHEN On July 24, the Australian government voted against the adoption of an optional protocol to strengthen the United Nations convention against torture. The government claimed its decision had nothing to do with preventing
BY PETER ROBSON NEWCASTLE — Students at campuses across the country are organising referendums calling for their universities to be declared “refugee safe havens”. “We want students to think about this question”, said campus refugee
BY SARAH STEPHEN British Home Secretary David Blunkett and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy agreed on July 12 to a timetable for the closure of the Sangatte Red Cross Centre. Sangatte has become a gathering point for asylum seekers attempting
BY TONY ILTIS MELBOURNE — The Refugee Action Collective promoted its "no detention" model for processing refugees at a public meeting attended by more than 150 people at Brunswick Town Hall on July 30. The racism and inhumanity of Australia's
BY KATELYN MOUNTFORD SYDNEY — Plans for a week of on-campus activity around Tampa Day (August 26) on Sydney University are well underway after a hugely successful inaugural Refugee Collective meeting August 1. The 60-strong meeting was
BY EWAN SAUNDERS BRISBANE — Around 250 students at the University of Queensland successfully blockaded the university's senate meeting on August 1, preventing a vote that would have seen course places sold to wealthy students with lower entry
REVIEW BY MARGARET ALLUM All About My FatherDirected by Even BenestadScreened at the 49th Sydney Film Festival in June Even Benestad made documentary film about his father, but both had very different ideas about what the film would achieve.
BY JOHN PILGER LONDON — It is 10 months since September 11, and still the great charade plays on. Having appropriated our shocked response to that momentous day, the rulers of the world have since ground our language into a paean of cliches and
BY SARAH STEPHEN "Offensive to human dignity — With these four words the UN human rights envoy, Justice Bhagwati, has encapsulated the moral vacuum at the heart of Australia's mandatory detention of refugees", wrote Howard Dick, an associate
Museworthy: The Birds' Necks The birds' necks are as fatas a baby's thighsI know, I wring themWhen the birds are deadthey look very eternallying with their headsat the spirit's angleI place my lips to their feathersand feel their speechTheir
BY GARRY M. LEECH NEW YORK — During the 1980s, the Reagan administration became mired in the Iran-contra scandal following revelations that it illegally sold weapons to Iran and used the proceeds to covertly arm and fund Nicaraguan "contra"
BY PIP HINMAN Some of the refugees rescued by the MV Tampa last August have been given refugee status and are being resettled in Australia. After 10 months in prison camps on Nauru and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, 480 Iraqis, 56 Afghans