read on..

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/afghan020130_australia.html

Ironic Salvation

With the world's attention focused on the United States, captives from the war in Afghanistan may be enjoying a higher standard of life than families who fled Afghanistan.

There have been loud and frequent global demands that the detainees in Cuba be treated according to the Geneva Conventions, which guarantee, among other things, monthly health inspections and prohibitions against close confinement.

And while the detainees in Australia left their homelands by circuitous routes, smuggled from boat to plane to truck, and risked rape, robbery and abandonment in the process — those who left Afghanistan for Cuba were shepherded on military flights, guarded by the American armed forces.

Double-Edged Departure
Afghan Asylum Seekers Meet
Harsher Fate Than U.S. Captives

By Andrew Chang

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/afghan020130_australia.html

Jan. 30 - It's literally a tale of two prisons. Thousands of miles separate the two, but the common denominator is the detainees: many are Afghans.

In one jail, detainees are given medical treatment, eat three meals a day and have had their conditions scrutinized by the international media. In the other, children formed suicide pacts, others sewed their lips together and media access is denied.
The first jail is "Camp X-Ray" in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay. The other is in Woomera, in a remote corner of the Australian outback.

Despite a common nationality among many, the similarity ends there. The detainees in Cuba were taken prisoner in Afghanistan and are deemed threats to the security of the United States. In Australia, many of the detainees are Afghan asylum seekers, fleeing the harsh rule of the now-toppled Taliban.

But as the U.S. government goes out of its way to prove its treatment of the detainees in Cuba is humane, the asylum seekers in Australia wrestle with a far different prospect.

Perhaps ironically, some of the Afghan "boat people" arriving on the shores of Australia are the very people the new Afghanistan will need to rebuild. Doctors, lawyers and teachers oppressed by the Taliban have been making the dangerous sea voyage to Australia's northwest coast for several years.

First of all we have to distingish between what the main media
try to tell us, then what we read on other forums or in better background reports.

I will sumup:

1) The public get fooled. Guantanamo Bay is not a jail, but a temporary station for unknown afghans.
They will be set free after all interviews with them are finished.
Therefore the discussion about human rights is hipocritic on both sides for me: The military and supporter of Amnesty International.

2) If some people are for human rights, then they have to discuss the military tribunal again.

3) Why is noone giving us a list of all Al-Quaeda prisoners only?
These are the people President Bush was searching for, noone else

4) If we have this list, it has to be discussed, if there is evidence for an in involvement in the attack on america and i doubt that there is enough evidence for that

5) The Taliban has to be treated like a cruel regime has to be treated. In Jail. That means, they have to be in jail, wherever that might be. If they will be set free, the whole war was finally a f***in lie and we can be sure it was about oil only.

6) President Bush can stop to use his pathetic phrase "war against terrorism". It doesn't count. This was a war against Afghanistan or the Taliban Regime who ran it and every prisoner of this war is a POW. Period!

7) Too many questions are still open of this war.

Why did the CIA and Washington allow to let Taliban or Al-Quaeda members escape with a plane in end of December?

For what reason did they use thermobarics in ToraBora?

Did they use small nukes in Afghanistan or not, actually this was a threat against the ABM Treaty because they used it before December 14th, 2001?

Why they never confirmed that US Troops fighted also in Pakistan?
This would be another war and every Pakistani prisoner would be a POW too!

8) If the war aganist Taliban was first of all to find Bin Laden,
why is he not mentioned anymore and why they didn't find him?

If Al-quaeda was responsible for the attack on america, why they will send their members home?

Too many lies, hipocricy and more did turn this war into a farce.
The discussion about human rights in X-Ray is lousy and overshadowing the real problems.

Where was the human convention, when 7000 afghans have been killed in this war? Sorry, i don't support this discussion.

The human rights might be hurt, but the real discussion is about to stop the war, cancel the military tribunal and bring the Taliban on an international court for what they did in Afghanistan- and not in America!!

Al-Quaeda?
Well, this is another story.

Pressure on Australian government to close Woomera
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=887272&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
29.01.2002
By SOPHIE HARES
Australia has been urged to close the Woomera desert camp for asylum seekers as a hunger strike by over 200 detainees entered its 14th day and a deadline set by 11 teenagers in a suicide pact loomed.

Afghan and Middle Eastern detainees at the Woomera detention centre have tried to hang themselves, drunk disinfectant and sewn up their lips to protest at the months, and sometimes years, it takes to process refugee claims.

I found another older report about Woomera:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1719000/1719808.stm
19 December, 2001

"..Afghans are by far the largest group in Australia's immigration detention centres, making up more than a quarter of the inhabitants.

Other major groups include Iraqis - around 13% of the centre's population - and Iranians at around 7%.

While most inmates have their cases processed in a matter of months, some can be incarcerated for several years.

Over the past 18 months there has been an increasing wave of discontent in these centres.

Woomera has suffered more incidents than most; Canberra says there have been eight fire-related incidents there in the past month..."

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~woomera/beadell.htm

It needed a large, remote area in which to test new weapons systems. Various sites were considered, including one in Canada. In the end, Australia's vast and virtually unpopulated inland won the day, and the Long Range Weapons Establishment (Woomera rocket range) came into existence on 1 April 1947 as a Joint Project between Britain and Australia. The range was surveyed by the legendary Len Beadell and his team. Woomera's history is one of weapons testing, satellite launches, and tracking of early lunar and planetary spacecraft, as well as the Mercury manned spacecraft. Highlights are listed below and other pages on this web site will give the history of various projects conducted at Woomera.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/afghan020130_australia.html

.."Australia's conservative coalition government, led by Prime Minister John Howard, even rode to a third term after taking the unprecedented step of turning away a ship carrying asylum seekers.

But as the boat people continue to arrive on Australia's shores, the government's continued efforts to sequester them has resulted in considerable problems for both the detainees and the government. Asylum seekers in Australia are held in multiple locations, but the desert jail of Woomera has drawn the most attention."...

maybe if Bush swing his AGENDA right... any other mega-cop reading to slip a huge-bribe way-out-to Australia?

LOL

Comparing Prisons

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/afghan020130_australia.html

Afghan expatriates have settled across the globe - but in two areas of the world, they have been put in detention camps. In one of them, the detainees hope to join the society that has jailed them. In the other, they hope to destroy it. The following table compares the conditions.

Australian Camps Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (U.S.-administered)

Number At least 3,000 held in detention facilities across the country 158

Type of Detainee Asylum Seekers Alleged Terrorists

Composition Men, women and at least 500 children Men

Transportation Smuggled by boat, having risked robbery, rape, and abandonment. Delivered by military aircraft; accompanied by 2 guards each.

Sequestration Journalists are kept at least a half-mile away from the perimeter. Journalists have daily access to the base, but are kept approximately 600 feet from the detention center.

Media Access Journalists only allowed to speak to detainees by phone, arranged by lawyers. But lawyers' access is limited. Managers and guards do not speak to journalists. Journalists cannot speak to detainees, but get regular briefings from staff.

Legal Access Limited access to lawyers. No access to lawyers.

Visitor Access Restricted. Denied.

Safety Precautions Razor wire, guards armed with batons, tear gas and water cannons. Razor wire, patrols with guard dogs, guard posts with sharpshooters.

Behavior Over a dozen suicide attempts or threats, including one by 11 unaccompanied minors. At least 60 instances of self-mutilation. One unruly passenger sedated en route. Prisoners observed gathering stones as weapons.

Hunger Strikes Hundreds have joined hunger strikes. None

Duration of Captivity Hundreds held for at least a year without hearing, dozens held as many as 3 years. Three weeks

Average Temperature At Woomera, largest of the camps:High 93F in January (Summer)Low 43F in June (Winter) High 93F in August (Summer)Low 66F in January (Winter)

Accommodations Frequent overcrowding alleged. In some areas, detainees first held in tents, with poor toilet facilities; many now live in air-conditioned demountable buildings, with 16 people to a unit. Each detainees housed in 6' by 8' chain link cell with concrete floors, wooden roofs and containing a mat and a plastic bucket.

Medical Access Limited. One report said a dentist only visited once every five or six weeks, to pull out teeth in makeshift facilities. Specialized. A number of detainees were moved here from Afghanistan specifically due to their wounds.

Treatment Widespread allegations of staff intimidation. Fearing violence, guards have required prisoners to don goggles and earmuffs while being transported.

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s416953.htm
Transcript
14/11/01
Aust woman strives to help Afghan orphans

KERRY O'BRIEN: It's estimated more than 3.5 million refugees have left Afghanistan over the past 20 years - more than a third of the population. Most of those refugees have ended up in camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border. They've fled two decades of war and a devastating drought and now, in the sixth week of America's bombing campaign, thousands more are crossing the borders illegally.

Close the detention centres!

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/479/479p3.htm

As international outrage and Australian protests grow, the federal Coalition government is increasingly defensive about the horrific impact of it's refugee policy. The more people who join protests now, the greater the possibility of a government retreat that can win freedom for the refugees.

On January 31, the government was forced to promise to resume processing Afghan detainees applications for asylum. The December decision to stop processing applications forced hundreds of Afghan asylum seekers at Woomera detention centre to start a hunger strike on January 17.

By January 26, Iraqi and Iranian asylum seekers in detention centres across Australia had joined the protests, bringing the total number of hunger strikers to 370. Numerous asylum seekers also attempted to kill themselves between January 17 and January 30 and several teenagers threatened suicide.

Tens of thousands of people were outraged by the government's use of repression against the protesters. On January 26, Australian Protective Services (APS) personnel were flown to Woomera. Their heavy-handed actions almost sparked a riot within hours of their arrival.

A group of detainees chanted "freedom" and held up signs saying "Freedom or death" and "Release us or send us back". An Afghan man hurled himself from a roof onto razor wire.

Just hours later, APS staff forced journalists behind a perimeter fence 200 metres from the compound, out of sight of the detainees. They were threatened with a summons if they did not leave the area. According to the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, this is the first time in decades that trespass laws have been used as a means to restrict freedom of the media.

More

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/479/479p3.htm

Situation Growing Desperate for Displaced Afghans

Written by Stephanie Kriner, Staff Writer,
RedCross.org

http://www.redcross.org/news/ds/0109wtc/011012afghanrefugees3.html

October 12, 2001 ? After five days of airstrikes, aid agencies are wondering how to reach thousands of displaced Afghans, seeking refuge in Afghanistan's remote mountains to escape military strikes. Humanitarian organizations had expected refugees to head for the Pakistan border, even though it is closed. Now they worry that millions of Afghans face a certain death if more aid is not provided.

Humanitarian groups estimate more than 6 million Afghans could be stranded inside the country without access to adequate food or shelter. At least 275,000 tons of food will be needed for the next five months, according to the British aid group Oxfam.