Sydney
1 Dec 2002
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St Cecilia’s children go ‘bush’ for the day
Radical bid for men-only teaching job offers
Crackerjack way to see charity in action
Destruction of human life for profit - research fear
Fr John says ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’
Real meaning of Christmas
Perth statue: Archbishop orders inquiry
... deported, then disappeared or dead
Avoid war at all costs: Caritas
Christmas Bowl gets helping hand from a Leunig angel
Govt bows to Church pressure
A walk against war
Persecution: UN should be forced to act
Casting a NET to reach young adults, older kids
Tom Singer, lost in a ‘coward’s war’
Asylum seeker kids allowed to attend Catholic school
Editorial: When aid is misused
Letters: Breadwinners?
Conversation: Terry Underwood, Ambassador, Year of the Outback
Reflections: US bishops pose questions on Iraq
Kids go ‘bush’ at St Cecilia’s to help drought victims
It’s ‘family first’ for SOS (son of Sergio)
Dad had to face racism on field
Retreat helps with the healing
Love of books pays off for coastal school
‘Greedy people’ let the needy go without
Third degree burns
... deported, then disappeared or dead
Rabbi Raymond Apple, Maha Krayem Abdo, of the United Moslem Women’s Association, and the Rev Alistair Christie
The deaths and disappearances of a number of asylum seekers deported from Australia are detailed in a document prepared by a coalition of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders.
The document was launched on the steps of St Mary’s Cathedral at a rally in which the coalition issued a declaration calling on the Federal Government to halt the removal of asylum seekers to countries of origin or third countries unwilling or unable to offer effective protection to repatriated refugees.
The details on the deaths and disappearances were collated and verified by the Edmund Rice Centre, a Cath-olic research and development facility for social justice.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock described the evidence as “flimsy” and “a bit vague”’.
“They’re talking about people they can’t find,” the spokesman said. “That the Australian [government] is somehow responsible for this is a bit perplexing.”
Mr Ruddock has told ABC’s Lateline that the coalition is misguided. His spokesman warned that unsubstantiated evidence in the document could ultimately embarrass the Church leaders.
The religious leaders, however, decided to risk the embarrassment.
Among the several hundred who gathered on the cathedral steps to sign the declaration were the Rabbi Raymond Apple of the Great Synagogue; the honorary Mufti, Taj Aldin al-Hilali; the Dean of St Mary’s, Mons Tony Doherty; and the Uniting Church’s NSW moderator, Alistair Christie.
Bishop David Cremin signed in lieu of the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr George Pell, who was chairing a Vox Clara Committee meeting in Rome.
MARILYN RODRIGUES WRITES:
Apart from calling for an end to their removal, The Declaration on the Deportation of Asylum Seekers, which was 10 weeks in the making, also calls for an end to the practices of separating parents from their children, removing asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected but who are in need of protection for other humanitarian reasons, and use of chemical restraints to subdue or sedate asylum seekers during forced deportation.
Sr Susan Connelly, of the Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies, said the “case studies of deportation from Australia which this declaration seeks to address make chilling reading indeed.
“Some deportees are found to be genuine refugees in other Western countries.
“Some have been tortured, or murdered upon return. Some have disappeared completely. Or have gone to prison.
“Some haven’t even had the opportunity to put their case, as is their right, because they have been turned around at our airports and sent back to who knows what.
“We have a particular duty to the ones who come knocking on our door, by what ever means.”
Mons Doherty said he found it difficult to live in a country where women and children are locked up.
“I would be more proud,” he said, “if we were taking a leadership role in care of refugees instead of taking one of the tougher stances.”
Mons Doherty said: “I’m not sure that a meeting like this has ever happened in this place before, whether our indigenous leaders, our Jewish community, the Islamic community, a range of Christian Churches and, I’m sure, others who share these concerns, have ever met on this spot.
“I think that’s the measure of our concern on this issue.
“And it also contains in it our signs of hope.”