The Silent Victory For Aboriginal Sovereignty by Patrick 1:36pm Fri Aug 13 '04 (Modified on 7:50pm Thu Aug 19 '04) article#44747
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy managed to secure strong alliances with the City of Sydney and the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.
On Friday 6th August, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy at Victoria Park staged a historical breakthrough by winning the support of the Sydney City Council. Aunt Isobel Coe and Mayor Clover Moore agreed to workout a plan to push the agenda of Aboriginal Sovereignty ahead on State and Federal levels.
Clover Moore's decision to support the Embassy's call to form the Aboriginal Sovereign Families and Nations followed after continued pressure by racists in state parliament and commercial media to shut it down. Straight after the agreement was signed residents at the Embassy packed-up and left. A relief after ten weeks of camping out in the cold and coping with racist attacks from the Daily Telegraph, Channel 10, John Law's 2UE and other 'redneck' mediums.
Together with the Metropolitan Land Council, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the City of Sydney formed a working committee to assist in developing the foundation of the Aboriginal Sovereign Families and Nations. For more information please contact the Lord Mayor's office on 9265 9229 or check out this document: http://govirtual.com.au/Monday.jpg
Third fire bomb attack at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy by aboriginal tent embassy 3:14am Tue Aug 17 '04 (Modified on 11:17am Fri Aug 20 '04) article#44840 aboriginaltentembassy@planet-save.com
In a major policy shift last year that brings Australia more in line with the strategy of the United States; Australia has abandoned its hands-off policy of the past 30 years, sending troops to end lawlessness in the Solomon Islands and has agreed to send police to crime-infested Papua New Guinea
As Australia decides to end decades of non-intervention in its South Pacific, at home they continue to deny the Aboriginal people sovereignty. The Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are the Indigenous Peoples of Australia.
The 'Dream People' deserve much more than just a mention.
-Am
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy has been subject to the third firebomb in the last 12 months. Despite this desperate attack on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy residents are digging in to stay on and fight for Aboriginal Sovereignty.
Media Release 17th August 2004 Third firebomb attack at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy Canberra
Monday night, at 9pm the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, on the lawns opposite Old Parliament House was a boom and a blast with the third firebomb attack in just over 12 months. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy has been the driving force of the Aboriginal Sovereignty movement since 1972 and remains the grassroots platform for the voices of Aboriginal Peoples.
"This is a deliberate attempt to drive us from the tent embassy site, it's quite a few times that we've been attacked now and it's just another example of the lengths they'll go to to get rid of us. This is the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and , we won't go away we will stay and fight, we have a right to life and a right to existence and a right to being who we are, Aboriginal people," declared Aboriginal Tent Embassy Elder, Uncle Neville Chappie Williams in front the blazing camp.
"The fact that people are forced to firebomb us shows they have no legitimate way to move us and only makes us more determined to stay. This kind of attack justifies why the embassy needs to be here. Aboriginal people are under constant attack, there is still a genocidal war going on," stated Arinya Freeman who has been subjected to all three attacks on the embassy. "They have no legitimate way to get rid of the embassy so they have been reduced to violent attacks" affirmed Gandra Penola resident of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. "This is the third time in the last year the embassy has been fire bombed, when is there going to be a full investigation".
"This is the third fire bomb here at the embassy, does someone need to die before these attacks get properly investigated" asked Enid Freeman of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
After the first fire bomb attack July 2003, the embassy applied under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain copies of the Old Parliament House security video tapes to assist with investigations. The embassy was denied access to these tapes as it would "disclose the footprint of the surveillance cameras. Despite repeated requests to AFP investigating officer Charmane Quade, The AFP have refused to release their findings from the previous attacks."
"There are cameras everywhere and they won't gives us the tapes but we are not a security risk, we are peaceful people" Uncle Neville Chappie Williams, "We are in the face of the government here and people motivated by power and greed and the colour of money want to see the embassy gone."
"This is an attack within the Parliamentary precinct, if any other embassy was firebombed there would be serious repercussions. If the American Embassy was firebombed there would be a state of emergency, but the Aboriginal Embassy barely gets a mention" stated Terrah Freire resident of the embassy.
There will be a press conference at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy at 11:00 am Tuesday 17th August 2004 at the Sacred Fire, Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Lawns Opposite Old Parliament House, Canberra. For more information contact Neville Chappie Williams: 0416 316 774 Make a quick comment on this a
Australia risks Asian ire with long-range missiles
Australia has decided to end decades of non-intervention in its South Pacific. In a major policy shift last year that brings Australia more in line with the strategy of the United States; Australia has abandoned its hands-off policy of the past 30 years, sending troops to end lawlessness in the Solomon Islands and has agreed to send police to crime-infested Papua New Guinea. #msg-3752193
On the campaign against terrorism, Australia and the US agreed that Southeast Asia was a key front, affirming the importance of working with regional governments against a common threat. #msg-3542419
-Am
Australia risks Asian ire with long-range missiles
26.08.2004 4.00pm CANBERRA - Australia plans to create what it believes will be the most lethal force of fighter jets in Southeast Asia by equipping its aircraft with long-range missiles in a move critics said could antagonise neighbours.
Defence Minister Robert Hill said up to A$450 million ($494.66 million) would be spent fitting out the country's F/A-18 Hornet fighters and AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft with air-to-surface missiles capable of hitting targets up to 400 km away.
The Hornets, which have a combat flight radius of 740 km and can be refuelled in flight, are also being equipped with Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missiles.
"Combined with the new air-to-air missiles and upgraded precision-guided bombs, Australia's fighter jets will have the region's most lethal capacity for air combat and strike operations," Hill said in a statement on Thursday.
Hill said Australia would choose from three long-range missiles produced by Lockheed Martin Corp., Taurus Systems GmbH -- partly owned by Saab -- and Boeing Co. and they would be introduced between 2007 and 2009.
The three missiles are: the Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM), which has the longest range; a variant of the precision-attack cruise missile KEPD 350; and the Stand-off Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER), based on the Harpoon anti-ship missile.
"The new weapon will significantly enhance the ADF's air strike capability, providing a long-range, accurate and lethal attack against a range of targets including fixed and re-locatable targets on land and sea," Hill said.
Opposition Labour defence spokesman Kim Beazley said the government risked upsetting Australia's Southeast Asian neighbours - already wary about the country's close alliance with the United States - with its planned missile purchase.
"The problem with this government is it never bothers to go round the region and explain what it's doing," Beazley told Australian radio.
"The unfortunate thing is that it brings this in to play at a time when there is regional disagreement with our endorsing of national missile defence," Beazley said.
Australia last month pledged to work with the United States on a controversial "Son of Star Wars" programme, which will research a costly system to shoot down ballistic missiles, and to establish joint defence training centres in northern Australia.
The United States is Australia's most important military partner and the 53-year-old alliance has tightened since the September 11, 2001, attacks on US cities and the Bali bombings in October 2002 that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
This relationship has resulted in Canberra being viewed by some Asian nations as Washington's "deputy sheriff" in the region and they are wary about Australia's increasingly strident stance on regional security.
Defence analysts played down the chances that Australia's purchase of the long-range missiles would create tensions in Southeast Asia.
Analyst Aldo Borgu said the government was upgrading the F/A-18 Hornets so that the aircraft could fill a gap between the defence force retiring the country's ageing F-111 strike bombers from 2010 and bringing a replacement on line.
"The Hornets with this missile and aerial refuelling will still only be able to reach, at best, three quarters of the range of an F-111, so we're not talking about new capability overall," Borgu told Reuters. "From a regional perspective it should be fairly easy to explain."
The F-111s themselves have always been controversial weapons, with a long reach and large weapons load. Australia's purchase of an extra batch of them in the 1990s led Indonesia to question the country's commitment to security cooperation.
Australia is part of the US-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project to develop a new generation combat jet, which is likely to replace the F-111s, although the government will not make a decision on whether to purchase the new fighter until 2006.
The development phase of the F-35 is not due to be completed until 2013.
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