Dave/Ross on Wed, 5 Jun 2002 09:21:46 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> Children Placed in Punishment Compound |
Children Placed in Punishment Compound The much vaunted program to put refugee women and children into community housing in the township of Woomera is suffering from a philosophy of punitive action byACM staff, according to a report from the Refugee Embassy at Woomera. Women and children who misbehave while living in the township are not only being returned to imprisonment behind razor wire, but in some cases, they are even being placed in the dreaded Oscar Compound, which is used as a punishment area for the most troublesome prisoners. A member of the public secured a visit with a mother and two children this week, and was told that the family, which had earlier been released into community housing, had been returned to the detention camp, and locked in Oscar compound. This action followed an argument between the mother and an ACM guard assigned to her care. Amongst other deprivations, prisoners in Oscar compound are not allowed to watch television, they have no refrigerator or telephone, and the children are not allowed to have any toys. Another mother and her son were returned to the detention centre when they both attempted self-harm while living in the township. "Such people do not need more punishment," said a spokesperson for the Refugee Embassy, which is based in Pimba, seven kilometres from Woomera. "In most cases, their mistreatment at the hands of a repressive regime is what caused the problems in the first place. It seems that the only way ACM knows how to deal with emotional problems is by inflicting even more pain. Australians should not allow this to continue." The Embassy, run by Ross Parry and Dave McKay, is pushing for action from politicians, the media, and the general public to have people suffering from emotional stress given proper psychiatric treatment and care rather than reverting to the warden/prisoner mentality when there is a disagreement. Guards from the detention camp have been seen in the town reprimanding children as though they were their own, even while in the presence of the children's mother. "The role of the parents is being replaced by one of threats and bullying from their captors," the Embassy spokesperson stated. "Properly trained social workers are needed to look after these people." Dave McKay and Ross Parry, Refugee Embassy, Woomera 5720 Phone: 0407-238805 -- for the moment, mail to fold@idl.net.au will be automatically forwarded to ross777au@bigpond.com, so you may reply to either address and it will reach me. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net