.
Cath News - August 19, 2010
East Timor's Church and military have slammed the Gillard Government's plan for a regional refugee processing centre in the country.
In separate statements, both organisations expressed strong opposition to Canberra's request, reports The Australian.
The warnings from the church and the army followed a unanimous resolution against the plan by Timor's parliament.
On Tuesday, Father Martinho Gusmao. the Catholic Church's spokesman on peace and justice, called on the Timorese government to respect the wishes of its parliament and oppose the Australian request. "The church speaks the voice of the people - there is no other voice," he said.
Brigadier General Lere Anan Timor, the chief of staff of the East Timor Defence Force, said while the tiny country's doors were open to genuine refugees, the Gusmao government needed to carefully weigh up the consequences of an asylum-seeker processing centre being built there.
"It is just like rubbish," Brigadier General Lere said. "Where we put rubbish - how will it impact on East Timor's development in the future?"
In a separate report, the Mary MacKillop East Timor Mission has deplored the attempt to make asylum seekers an election issue and looks on it as an "abuse of human rights".
"The effort to shelve the problem on to Timorese soil highlights the neglect by successive Australian Governments to educate our population in the obligations we have as signatories to the Convention on Refugees," said Sr Susan Connelly rsj, assistant director of the mission.
"There has never been a Government-sponsored attempt to explain to people the difference between asylum seekers and refugees, and instead, politicians of all persuasions simply echo sections of the media which use emotive and misleading language like ‘illegal immigrants' and ‘boat people'."
Sr Connelly said one of the "greatest lies" still being told is that we have been ‘generous' with East Timor.
"In actual fact, Australia has received in oil tax revenue more than five times whatever we have spent on military and civilian assistance, money that has come from a disputed area of the Timor Sea, called Laminaria-Coralina," she said. "That money should be put into trust until the ownership of the area is decided."
FULL STORY
.
Cath News - August 19, 2010
East Timor's Church and military have slammed the Gillard Government's plan for a regional refugee processing centre in the country.
In separate statements, both organisations expressed strong opposition to Canberra's request, reports The Australian.
The warnings from the church and the army followed a unanimous resolution against the plan by Timor's parliament.
On Tuesday, Father Martinho Gusmao. the Catholic Church's spokesman on peace and justice, called on the Timorese government to respect the wishes of its parliament and oppose the Australian request. "The church speaks the voice of the people - there is no other voice," he said.
Brigadier General Lere Anan Timor, the chief of staff of the East Timor Defence Force, said while the tiny country's doors were open to genuine refugees, the Gusmao government needed to carefully weigh up the consequences of an asylum-seeker processing centre being built there.
"It is just like rubbish," Brigadier General Lere said. "Where we put rubbish - how will it impact on East Timor's development in the future?"
In a separate report, the Mary MacKillop East Timor Mission has deplored the attempt to make asylum seekers an election issue and looks on it as an "abuse of human rights".
"The effort to shelve the problem on to Timorese soil highlights the neglect by successive Australian Governments to educate our population in the obligations we have as signatories to the Convention on Refugees," said Sr Susan Connelly rsj, assistant director of the mission.
"There has never been a Government-sponsored attempt to explain to people the difference between asylum seekers and refugees, and instead, politicians of all persuasions simply echo sections of the media which use emotive and misleading language like ‘illegal immigrants' and ‘boat people'."
Sr Connelly said one of the "greatest lies" still being told is that we have been ‘generous' with East Timor.
"In actual fact, Australia has received in oil tax revenue more than five times whatever we have spent on military and civilian assistance, money that has come from a disputed area of the Timor Sea, called Laminaria-Coralina," she said. "That money should be put into trust until the ownership of the area is decided."
FULL STORY
.
0 comentários:
Enviar um comentário