Nine refugees held in the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin staged a protest on top of a building in the centre鈥檚 compound on March 15 after they witnessed Serco guards assault another detainee.
The refugees 鈥 who are Rohingya people, an ethnic minority in western Burma 鈥 told refugee advocate Carl O鈥機onnor on March 16 that the protest was sparked by a physical assault on another Rohingya detainee.
鈥淥ne man was refused rice in the mess room,鈥 the refugees said. 鈥淥ut of frustration he broke a glass. He was then chased down and tried to escape from two Serco guards.
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As the United States and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar.
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is 鈥渄elusional鈥 and 鈥渂lood-drenched鈥, while the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have kidnapped and tortured in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of 鈥渟tability鈥.
But something has changed. Reality is no longer what the powerful say it is.
Of all the spectacular revolts across the world, the most exciting is the insurrection of knowledge sparked by WikiLeaks.
Emboldened by the successes of Muammar Gaddafi鈥檚 forces in Libya, a number of Arab regimes have escalated crackdowns on pro-democracy protests while the world鈥檚 media was focused on the earthquake disaster in Japan.
With the exceptions of Libya and Iran, the governments brutally cracking down on their citizens have received minimal criticism from the West.
Calls for 鈥渞estraint on both sides鈥 obscure the fact that it is governments armed with weapons made in the West ruthlessly attacking mostly unarmed people.
This video is from a protest by homeless people on 14-4-11 in response to plans by the state government to sweep homeless people off the street during the October CHOGM summit.
Liberal leader Tony Abbott is a climate change denier. He told a recent meeting in Perth that he still doubted the science of climate change and said: 鈥淲hether carbon dioxide is quite the environmental villain that some people make it out to be is not yet proven.鈥
His party鈥檚 campaign against the carbon price deal struck between the Labor government, the Greens and independent MPs has one central aim: to undermine public support for strong government action to tackle climate change.
There's every likelihood that radioactive by-products of Australian uranium have spewed into the atmosphere from the nuclear reactor plant at Fukushima in Japan.
Crime and Misconduct Comission (CMC) chair Martin Moynihan said on March 15 that the anti-corruption watchdog would take no further action against police accused of covering-up the death in custody of Palm Island Aboriginal man Mulrunji Doomadgee in November 2004.
In response, Aboriginal community leader Sam Watson said: 鈥淭he Queensland police service have blood on their hands. This result means that the CMC [Crime and Misconduct Commission] has blood on its hands too.鈥
Western Sahara is the last country in Africa awaiting decolonisation.
Invaded by Spain in the late 19th century, mass mobilisations in the early 1970s heralded the birth of the modern independence movement.
In 1973, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front) was established to wage an armed independence struggle.
By 1975, Polisario had fought Spain to a standstill. Rather than grant independence, Spain made an agreement with neighbouring countries Morocco and Mauritania to occupy Western Sahara.
On March 17, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) 鈥渆ffectively authorized the use of force in Libya鈥, the UN News Center said that day.
鈥淎cting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which provides for the use of force if needed,鈥 the report said, 鈥渢he Council adopted a resolution by 10 votes to zero, with five abstentions, authorizing Member States 鈥榯o take all necessary measures 鈥 to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamhariya, including Benghazi, while excluding an occupation force.鈥欌
More than 100 people attended a March 15 public forum in Hobart Town Hall about Tasmania鈥檚 logging moratorium. The forum was organised by The Wilderness Society (TWS) and the Huon Valley Environment Centre.
TWS, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Tasmania signed the forests 鈥淪tatement of Principles鈥 agreement with the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union and Timber Communities Australia on October 14 last year.
The groups have proclaimed the agreement as the beginning of the end of forest conflict in Tasmania.
The government of Bahrain unleashed a brutal crackdown and invited in foreign troops on March 14 in an attempt to end pro-democracy protests that have lasted for more than a month.
Late on March 12, a group of drunken men yelling abuse and threats of physical violence entered the site of the Aboriginal occupation of the planned Brighton Bypass in Tasmania.
Trudy Maluga from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre described it as a 鈥淜u Klux Klan-type鈥 incident, the Hobart Mercury reported on March 17.
鈥淎 group of Aborigines has been harassed and racially abused by a large group of drunken men and youths at the Kutalayna camp at Brighton,鈥 Maluga said.
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