The Age, January 30, 2006
Papuans tell of beatings and torture
By Andra Jackson and Tom Allard
PAPUAN asylum seekers being held on Christmas Island have relayed graphic and
disturbing accounts of beatings and torture by the Indonesian military, during
interviews with Immigration officers over the past week.
A senior Immigration source said the 43 asylum seekers, who arrived by boat in
Australia 12 days ago, had a "very strong case" to be granted refugee status,
possibly within weeks. "Some of what has come out of the interviews has been
absolutely heart-wrenching," the source said.
The testimony included accounts of vicious bashings while in prison and attacks on
villages and livestock in retaliation for the Papuans agitating for independence.
While rights groups and academics have recently released reports detailing tens of
thousands of deaths and even genocide, Indonesia says abuses no longer occur in
West Papua.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone yesterday said Indonesian demands for the
asylum seekers to be handed back would not stop or influence their processing.
Senator Vanstone told The Age their cases would be dealt with on an individual basis
and on their merits.
Speaking in Melbourne, she said the 43 would be treated no differently to other
asylum seekers. She had not been officially advised of any Indonesian request and
said any concern about Indonesian annoyance at Australian now holding a total of 50
asylum seekers from Indonesia — 43 from West Papua and seven from West Timor —
was a matter for the Foreign Affairs Department.
She also said there was no need for New Zealand to offer to take some of the
Papuans, as New Zealand Greens foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke urged last
week.
Criticising Australia for "imprisoning" the Papuans at a remote location, he said New
Zealand should help out the way it did with some of the refugees stranded on the
Tampa.
But Senator Vanstone said Australia had "a very long history of offering protection
herself to those people who need it and I see no need for that to change".
The Tampa incident involved a much larger number of people and it took longer to
process them because many did not have any documents identifying them, she said.
"This is not such a large number and I would hope we could have an initial decision
within two to four weeks from now, well within the 90 days."
Independent lawyers are going to Christmas Island this week to advise on the asylum
seekers' claims, she said.
Greens senator Kerry Nettle visited Christmas Island at the weekend and met some of
the Papuans. She called for them to be moved to the mainland, where there is an
established West Papuan community.
Senator Vanstone said it was not always possible in a larger community to keep
women and children out of detention straight way.
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