Monday, June 15, 2015

Is Australia committing human rights abuses?

State sponsored people smugglers.

June 16, 2015
Jewel Topsfield, David Wroe and Sarah Whyte
 
Indonesia's vice-president Jusuf Kalla (click here) has said that paying off people smugglers – the claim made against Australian officials – amounts to bribery, in an escalation of diplomatic tensions.

"It is wrong for a person to bribe, let alone a state. Such an act is definitely incorrect in the context of bilateral relations," Mr Kalla​ said, while adding Indonesia was still checking whether the allegations were true.
 
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi called on Australia to answer her question to Australian ambassador Paul Grigson about the people smuggling payment allegations.

"Actually it is not difficult for Australia to answer my question last Saturday about the distribution if money and not divert the issue instead," Ms Retno said.

And Jakarta has also hit back at Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's attack on its failures on people smuggling, with government spokesman Agus Barnas saying that many more boats would come Australia's way if Indonesia did not enforce its borders....

There is significant controversy over the cancellation of citizenship and state sponsored people smuggling. The videos are worth watching. It would seem as though the exporting of people is occurring since Indonesia is in receipt of these boat passengers.




Leaked briefing paper shows (click here) divisions in Tony Abbott cabinet over cancelling citizenship 

June 16, 2015 
By Mark Kenny and James Massola

...It coincided with a heated argument in Parliament culminating in an attempted censure motion by the opposition over claims the Abbott government paid people smugglers to take 65 asylum seekers back to Indonesia.

The government refused to be drawn on that matter, with ministers from the Prime Minister down citing operational secrecy and adherence to the practice of not commenting on intelligence matters.

But some Liberals went further, with Tony Abbott's hand-picked "special envoy for citizenship and community engagement", Philip Ruddock, dismissing the furore over the payment claims as "nothing"....