<nettime> Release the Videos

[Dave/Ross <fold@idl.net.au>]

Release the Videos
by an anonymous supporter

The single most important area of concern with regard to Australia's
refugee policy needs to be the private video collection presently being
held by Australian Corrective Management (ACM).

Here is the ultimate opportunity for Howard and Ruddock to prove their
case that the people being held in detention centres around Australia are
unruly, violent, aggressive, rude law-breakers.  Obviously ACM also
supports this belief, and they would not be taking footage of anything but
the most damning evidence against the asylum seekers.  This evidence must
be made available, to counteract all of the malicious gossip about our
friendly reception centres being anything but humane.

We have been told that the ungrateful residents at these friendly
reception centres have trashed equipment, injured guards, staged riots,
stock-piled weapons, and just generally done everything they could to show
a lack of appreciation for the kindness and care that ACM personnel have
tried to show to them.  Certainly the videotapes will show that.  They
will also show the efforts that ACM personnel have made to accommodate and
placate these terrible people.  The sooner the tapes are made available
the better... for the security of the country, not to mention the security
of the present Government.

Here is Howard's chance to make up for the unfortunate mix-ups that
occurred with regard to his children overboard allegations.  This time
there will certainly be no need to doctor the evidence.  Obviously the
tapes were not made to show detainees in a flattering light, so Howard has
nothing to lose by showing them.  And if guards may have resorted to using
tear gas, capsicum spray, or some other harsh treatments from time to
time, the tapes will most certainly show proof of the life-threatening
need for those actions to have been taken, and the sensitivity and regard
for women and children with which they were taken.

There must be good reasons for not allowing the secular media inside the
centres.  After all, one never knows whether a TV cameraman might slip a
weapon to one of those dangerous people, or, worse still, organise a mass
breakout.  But the public doesn't need TV cameramen, with all of their
biases against the Government, when ACM has their own videos of what
conditions are really like inside.  Now, for the first time, the public
can see for themselves what holiday camps our Government has provided for
these people of questionable racial and religious backgrounds.

Panoramas of the neatly arranged portable buildings and of children
playing happily in the dirt will show that families have nothing to
complain about.  There certainly will be no pictures of children in
handcuffs as some have alleged.

Detainees standing around idly in compound open areas until their
medications are handed to them through holes in the fence will put paid to
any suggestions that they are treated like animals in a cage.  People will
be able to see for themselves the beds on which guests are allowed to
sleep, even during daylight hours, as an alternative to standing around in
the open compound.

We will hear guards referring to their clients by their real names, as
outlined in our Minister for Immigration's policy with regard to the
operation of these three-star hotels.  It will put paid to claims that
guests at these hotels are addressed and referred to only as numbers.

But most damning to those who come asking for protection from our country,
will be the many scenes of violence... against guards, against one
another, and against themselves.  We will see pictures of parents forcibly
sewing the lips of their children together, people attacking guards with
all those knifes that we have been told were taken from prisoners...
sorry, from clients.  There will be footage of the contraband discovered
during orderly inspections of the camp... things like mobile phones and
photograph frames.

We will see refugees actually holding medical personnel back (as stated by
our Prime Minister), doing all they could to stop doctors and nurses from
assisting fellow refugees at Curtin who were unconscious and feared dead.  
These monsters will be shown for the callous, lying people that they are.

There may even be pictures of the hundreds of Easter demonstrators who
were never arrested for the violence that they poured out on all of ACM's
guards on Good Friday.  From that evidence, arrests can finally be made.  
There will, no doubt, be pictures of the people caught wielding Swiss Army
knives and car repair tools during the demonstration.  That should shut up
the protesters themselves, who all claim that there were no weapons, and
that it was only half a dozen people out of a thousand who threw punches
at any of the guards.

What a great opportunity for Howard and Ruddock to silence their critics
forever, and to let the whole world know what is really happening behind
the razor wire!  How fortunate to know that ACM has been filming it all...
or at least the bits that will best promote their cause.  Yes, bring it
out in the open and shut the mouths of all the Government's critics.

On the other hand, if Howard and Ruddock refuse to release the videotapes,
then their critics will all have the excuse they need to form their own
opinions or, worse still, they will feel entitled to support such biased
and unjust groups as Amnesty and the U.N. in the conspiracy that these
sorts are waging against our two noble statemen.

Release the tapes and save the nation!

Phone:  0407-238805



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