Tumultuous times

WILPF Australia Report by Joint Coordinators Mary Ziesak and Elena Marchetti

It is with shock and horror that we witnessed the terrorist attacks on The World Trade Centre and the Pentagon and the loss of life in those two events as well as the related plane crash in Pennsylvania, USA, on September 11th. We grieve with all those personally touched by the deaths of over 6000 people from many countries and wish them some comfort as they attempt come to grips with this disaster.

We are now witnessing the after shocks on the world economies and the planning of retaliation by all those countries' governments who agree with the United States. We are also seeing, in Australia, some of the worst acts of racial violence as a result of the presumption that Islamic people were involved in these New York atrocities. In Brisbane a bus full of Moslem school children has been stoned. One can only imagine how terrified those children were. A mosque has been fire bombed and burnt to the ground. Now every mosque is heavily guarded against attack and the Moslem citizens in our country are living in fear. Desperate Islamic people fleeing repressive governments and intolerable conditions have been denied entry to Australia - even denied access to legal representation.

I revert to the Australian Governments' open-ended commitment to the US policy of retaliation that has been promoted as becoming lengthy engagement to defeat terrorism. It could be a four or five-year war according to Australian Brigadier Adrian D'Hage (Ret) and our present 14, 15, and 16 year old school students are likely to be involved as part of an Australian army. We are already devoting 30 million dollars a year to train child soldiers (so-called school cadets) in Australia. It gets worse! The most recent radio report, as I write, gives the news that National Service may be re-introduced!

We have recently witnessed the United Nations' eleventh attempt to have all UN member states meet and come to grips with education and awareness raising in an all out effort to turn the tide on racist attitudes and practices. Long hours of hard work by NGOs and government delegations from many countries went into preparations and much anguish at the lack of progress surfaced at the UN World Conference against Racism (WCAR) during the Durban, South Africa meeting, - but progress WAS made. Repressed people from many countries were able to tell their stories. This has brought into the open many hidden prejudices and given an international platform to such people as the Dalit (untouchables) of India. Unfortunately the withdrawal of the United States, Canada and Israel showed a lack of will of these countries to debate their grievances as part of the agenda in a world form, if at all!

At a final session of the WCAR, I quote Mary Robinson, UN High commissioner for Human Rights:

"I do not claim that this Conference has solved the problems of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The issues have been addressed, not answered. But we have a framework. We have made a start and that is what counts. The true measure of our work will be whether it makes a real difference in the lives of the victims of racism and discrimination."

We are at present seeing our government and the opposition Labour Party joining forces in what have become known as "Fortress Australia Bills" yesterday and again today. The government will try to pass six Bills in the Senate that will remove the human rights of refugees in a variety of circumstances when they seek asylum n Australia. Collectively, the bills represent the most far-reaching changes to Australia's reception and treatment of refugees in forty years. One effect of the bills will be that the Australian navy will be able to intercept refugee boats and transfer them to quasi-prison centres on Nauru and other islands. There has been no proper debate on these issues let alone any community consultation.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is to take place in Brisbane in one week and there is hot debate about the likelihood of it being postponed. The reasons are that heads of other governments, particularly Britain, Canada and India would wish to remain at home in the event of the US bombing Afghanistan. The security in Australia, and that means the security of many thousands of people who will be taking part in or visiting the Commonwealth People's Festival running parallel to CHOGM in Brisbane, could be jeopardised. This is because the Australian Government is so closely allied with US retaliation policy.

WILPF Australia is booked to take part in CHOGM by sponsoring a Seminar titled "Talking up Treaty" - Modernising Relations between Indigenous People and Nation-States". A booth is booked where we can distribute WILPF literature and talk about our peace policies to the general public.

We plan to have a continuous video running on peace and human rights issues and some interactive attractions.

These are tumultuous times for all and a real challenge for WILPF in our work for world peace and human rights for all. We must reinforce our efforts!

Mary Ziesak
25/09/01

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