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n ik <[email protected]>
personal account from the Woomera 2002 protests in Australia
another account of woomera2002 from melbourne.indymedia
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Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 13:41:49 +1000
From: n ik <[email protected]>
Subject: personal account from the Woomera 2002 protests in Australia
[for more details of the actions, photos, audio reports and
interviews with escaped detainees, see
http://melbourne.indymedia.org. Also check out the protest website,
http://www.womera2002.com]
I'm not sure where to start - if this had just been a matter of
filing reports each night, it might have been easier. But for some
reason my box was inaccessible from Woomera (amongst other things I
was part of the desert.indymedia crew), and so I'm writing this two
days after the end of a protest that will mark Australia for a long
time to come. I'll compile some of the best indymedia story links to
send out, and write up something on desert.indymedia later. For now
I just want to tell the story of the first two days of the protest.
Well before we set up the blockade of the Asia-pacific meeting of
the World Economic Forum (see http://www.s11.org) back in 2000, there
had been talk of doing a massive protest action at the Woomera
Detention Centre in 2002 (the detention centre is a centre for
holding people who are waiting for determination on their refugee
status, or are deemed 'illegal immigrants'. Its also in the middle of
a desert 8 hours drive from the closest city). In march last year we
began to organise for the protests=8A.we didn't really know what to
expect. I thought that there would be perhaps 300 people who would
make the journey out to Woomera - in the end it was more like 1500
people who travel from all around Australia to make the connections=8A
I'm not sure how much people know of what has happened - I got email
from a friend in Germany who had been watching it on CNN, and saw us
help some 50 detainees break-out of the detention centre=8A.but I will
try to recount the Thursday and Friday of the protest (it went from
Thursday till Monday afternoon).
About 30 of us met up at 9am on Thursday 28 March at the Pimba
roadhouse, about 6km down the road from Woomera. We were going to go
and set up the basics of the camp for everyone else, many of whom
where due to arrive on Friday. We had been negotiating with the
Woomera Area Manager for a day or two=8AWoomera is in a 'prohibited
area' - you used to have to have a permit to go there, and it is in
the area of Australia's atomic testing grounds, uranium mines, rocket
ranges, etc=8Aand the area manager had a proposal for us. He wanted us
to camp in a disused (and decrepit) old sports ground , about 2km
from where we wanted to camp.
We decided to play for time, because there were so few of us. We were
determined to camp where we had decided too though. By lunch time, we
had started to set up the camp site just across the road from the new
fence that surrounded the detention centre (about 1-1.5km from the
centre itself). We had also had two meetings with the area manager by
now, and had managed to negotiate some portable toilets out of him
for our site (under the pretense that it would be nothing more than
facilities for protests during the day ;-) ). We heard from the
APS at 2pm though, who had been staying out of our way all morning.
The APS are the Australian Protective Services - the federal police
who have jurisdiction in that area. The APS told us that we had to
move the camp, and the deadline was 2pm. We told them that we had a
meeting with the area manager at 2.30, and that they would have to
wait until this had happened=8Aand they agreed. The meeting didn't
amount to much more than him saying that we had to move, and us
saying no, but it did buy us another hour.
At about 3.30pm, 15 APS officers came into the camp and told us that
we had to leave, as we were breaking the law and camping illegally.
We lined up in front of our (meager) campsite, waiting to see what
would happen. In the end it was completely farcical - they moved in
and pulled down several tents. They even stacked them neatly for us.
Then they went back to the centre. Oh yeh, a real display of power=8A
We had been expecting at the very least the confiscation of our gear,
and arrest at the worst. We had been making plans for resisting
pre-emptive arrests and massive disruption, but we didn't plan on the
incompetence of the APS and the division between the APS and State
police - two things that would help determine the course of the
weekend in no small way.
After the tents had come down, we quickly meet up and decided that we
would stay at the campsite we had chosen, and if the situation got
too bad, move back to the road house meeting spot and wait for
reinforcements. We decided that if we started to cede to their
demands early on in the protest, it would put us in a weaker position
through out the protest. We also decided that we couldn't make such a
huge decision on behalf of everyone else who hadn't turned up yet.
Nothing more happened during the day and well into the night. At
around 12am, when most people had gone to bed for the night, people
on watch started yelling that the APS were coming. We all got up
quickly and got ready for the feared attack on the camp (our numbers
had grown to about 50 by then). 15 APS officers came into the camp
and started moving from group to group and tent to tent to deliver
the 'warning of arrest' to people before they arrested them. Here our
organising structure helped us - we had no set representatives or
leaders, only temporary ones (like the people we delegated to go and
talk to the area manager). And after a long day trying to find such
people, the APS had realised this. So if they wanted to move us, they
would have to warn each and everyone of us, rather than just a leader
of representative. A crowd quickly gathered around the APS officers,
and soon enough they decided to try and arrest some people. They
grabbed some one to arrest, and people jumped in to free him - the
APS were overwhelmed and the person set free=8A.this happened two more
times, with our confidence growing each time. The APS officers became
scattered throughout the camp, and started to argue with us. In the
end, the APS retreated to chants of 'you've lost control, you've lost
control'=8A
We quickly met up again and decided to stay put - again we decided
that we needed to hold our ground. We drew the cars around in a
'wagon-circle', set up sentries, and settled down for the night.
Come morning we couldn't believe that we hadn't been raided during
the night. Buses started to arrive at the camp and we all started to
set up the site (again). More and more people arrived during the day,
and by around 5pm our numbers had swelled to around 1000. Most of the
day was spend having meetings and setting up=8Aone of the only things I
can clearly remember from the day from receiving news of a letter
that had been smuggled out of the centre from 183 of the detainees
saying how much they appreciated the protests, and thanking us. The
only other thing was the cries of 'freedom' that came from the
windows of the bus carrying children from Woomera back to the centre=8A
We received another message from the detainees early on in the day
asking us to come to the fence surrounding the centre at 6pm to
protest with them - they had already done one action during the day,
waving flags, etc. The word was spread around the camp, and we
marched off into the desert to towards the fence=8A
There are three fences surrounding the centre - a temporary fence
(the one we camped next too), a cyclone fence 3m high topped with
razor wire, and a fence of steel bars topped with razor wire. We
marched around the first fence, which didn't completely surround the
centre, and into the desert. We then came up to the second fence=8A
There was no plan to take down the second fence - the idea was to
come to the fence (as close as was possible to the centre) and try to
communicate with the detainees=8Awe climbed on the fence to make
ourselves visible, and so we could seem them. But soon people on the
fence started to shake it, to rock back and forth. Then everyone was
on the fence, trying to bend the bars, to tear it down. It only took
a few minutes, and then it was down. We quickly grabbed sandbags that
were lying around on the other side and threw them on the razor
wire=8Aand two-thirds of us ran through what must be old basketball
courts to the last fence. There were only about 10 APS guards there
in riot gear=8Athe South Australian cops were coming in the distance,
but they weren't many on the ground in front of us. We easily pushed
through to the final fence were we came face to face with those
trapped on the other side of the wire.
(all weekend, the APS and SA police didn't really work together very
well - they don't like each other, and the SA Premier had decided to
us the protest to further political aims, i.e., squeezing more money
out of the Federal government. All this suited us fine..)
We pushed our arms through, they reached back. They cried and called
to us, we cried and called back. I have never seen such desperation
or such pain. I can't imagine what it must be like, to travel so far
across oceans, mountains and deserts just so sanctuary can be
snatched away at the last moment and to find yourself in the middle
of a desert behind fences and razor wire. Later, they told us of the
centre guards putting sleeping pills in their food, and of the
threats and beatings for people who protested. But at the fence,
there wasn't much conversation, just an exchange of grief, anger and
love.
Three images from the fence that I will never be able to forget is an
old man cutting his arms on the razor wire trying to reach through
the fence, a child of 6 crying and pointing at a APS officer in riot
gear, and a man writing 'freedom' in his own blood on a security
camera=8A
We had been there for 20min's and I had moved back to check out the
situation when I saw a man inside the centre brig out a metal fence
post. He jammed it into the bars of the fence and started to push.
Quickly protesters grabbed hold and started to try to break the
cage=8AThe first attempt didn't succeed, but the second did. People
started to leap out of the centre and run for freedom. I saw a mother
and her child running, a man who yelled 'free after 2 years', and an
eight year old boy, all climb through the fence. By this time, about
40-50 South Australian police officers had gathered to the west of us
along the fence. They marched down to our position and the officer in
charge told us that we had to move out behind the second fence. We
packed in tighter and locked arms, ready to hold them off for as long
as we could so more people could escape. The police came in from one
side, and the APS from the other. We pushed back at them,
de-arresting our friends, making as much room as possible for
detainees to make their escape. The police eventually got between the
fence and us, but the struggle didn't stop. We grabbed some of the
detainees the police had arrested, and continued to push at them.
Eventually the police brought their horses in and galloped them at us
in a sweeping motion. Out in the open there was little we could do to
stop the horses=8Awe didn't come prepared for taking down fences that
day, let alone repel a horse charge.
After we had lost at the fence, we started to run back to camp. As I
left, I turned to look back at the centre. The last thing I saw was
two APS officers in riot gear beating a man down to the ground inside
the centre.
Down the road from the camp, the police had managed to recapture
several detainees and put them inside a police van. People where
trying to get close to them, but the police where holding them
back=8Asoon the horses where there too..
I didn't realise this until someone told me back at camp, but people
had been running back with the detainees, swapping clothing with them
on the run, and bringing them back to camp. When I got there, there
was around 40 or so detainees who had not been recaptured yet. The
detainees weren't in one spot - people had hidden them throughout the
camp in their tents and shelters. There was an attempt to hold a
spokes council to figure out our next step, but most of the action
was in smaller networks of affinity groups=8A
The police set up roadblocks almost immediately. They also set up a
ring of officers and lights around the camp. We were pretty much
surrounded by them. They sent a few initial sweeps through the camp,
but only found one detainee. We stuck to a strategy of keeping calm,
and acting as normal as possible under the circumstances. Quietly we
started to gather supplies, find drivers, and formulate plans for
escape.
Most of the night was spend in some kind of strange waiting room -
waiting for breaks in the police lines, for resources, for plans to
come together. My friends and I did all we could, but we didn't have
cars to use, and so in the end it almost felt like we could do only
small errands - getting money, getting food and clothing, finding
numbers for people=8AWe heard the next day that detainees inside the
camp had protested all night so the guards couldn't do a head count,
giving the people who had broken out a better chance.
One thing we could do was get their stories out - to help them speak
when the government had taken their voices away=8Athere are many
interviews with escaped detainees out there now, some on film, and
quite a few on Melbourne indymedia.org
Interview one -
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/01-z1ld.mp3
Interview two -
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/02.mp3
Interview three -
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/03.mp3
Interview five -
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/04-fourguys.m=
p3
A few attempts were made early on in the evening to break the
roadblock - some people tried to drive through, some detainees
decided they would rather take their chances in the desert that go
back. Many weren't successful (16 protesters have been arrested for
harboring detainees and helping them to escape, and 34 detainees were
recaptured), but there are still 8-10 detainees that haven't been
caught yet=8Aand most of them will not be recaptured I think.
I don't want to say too much more about the escapes during the night
- both because it could endanger people who are still free, and
endanger protesters. I do want to say though that I have never seen
such selfless acts of courage before - the people who tried to break
through the roadblock will have my love and admiration for ever.
The night was difficult - some detainees had expected us to have more
elaborate escape plans=8Ahow could we tell them that we didn't expect
the fence to come down, let alone for them to escape? The action was
truly spontaneous - one of the most amazing spontaneous direct
actions I have ever seen - but this meant that we were in some ways
unprepared for the result. Most detainees where grateful though,
thanking us for our help, for our resistance. I heard so many stories
of suffering within the camp - of beatings, of being drugged. I heard
people say that they would kill themselves if they had to go back.
Everyone I met from within the centre told me they ha been there for
more than 2 years - 24 months, 26 months=8Asome said that because the
Australian government had no treaty for deportation (like Iraq) they
were stuck in the camp indefinitely - they couldn't leave, they
couldn't go back. I met a child of eight who had been there for over
2 years with only a guardian - I don't think he knew where his
parents were=8A
By dawn, most of the detainees had made an attempt to break through
the police lines - some seem to have succeeded, most didn't.
The protests went on for another three days, but I will leave the
stories of those days to indymedia - read the day by day features at
melbourne.indymedia.org for more details=8A
I do want to say a few things about the action on Friday though=8A.
I have been asked so many time, and we asked ourselves so many time,
if what we were doing was the right thing, if we had failed the
detainees by not being prepared enough, if the detainees suffering
because of the escapes was our fault.
So often activists from countries like Australia (from the North)
think and act with the assumption that it is only us that can think
and act - that detainees, indigenous peoples, etc, are people we must
help, that we must do something for. Part of the journey out to
Woomera involved losing that assumption. The detainees had initiated
several actions while we were there, and had done many more before.
An they will continue to do so. These are people who had already
suffered incredibly, and yet still managed to cross the world to a
country where they though they would be safe. Of course they will
resist their detention, their isolation, and the beatings and
violence of the guards. And when they can see a chance to end their
suffering, they will take it. The action at during which they escaped
was initiated by them. The bars where first bent by them. The courage
to escape was theirs. But I'm not trying to avoid responsibility here
- we made the journey out there, we brought down the second fence, we
held off the police, and ran roadblocks=8AI am not trying to deny what
we did - on the contrary I am incredibly proud of what we have done,
and would do it again. But it is important to remember that we are
not the only people who can resist=8Aresistance to the camps lives on
both sides of the fence.
Did we fail the detainees? That a hard question=8Awhen I think back, I
don't feel any guilt for what we did. But I do feel guilty for
underestimating both us and them - if I am guilt of anything it is of
not having enough hope. If I had believed that we could have taken
down the fences, I would have been more prepared for it. We all would
have. But under the circumstances, we did all we could, and so I
don't think we failed them. If nothing else, we brought hope to
people where they had none.
I won't be making the mistake of not having enough hope again
though. Nor will anyone else. We can with dignity, joy and hope, and
achieved far more than any of us could have imagined=8Ait was the most
militant defense of dignity I have every witnessed. And it won't be
the last. All of us will carry the image of the fence coming down in
our imaginations, and it won't be too long before the fence comes
down again=8A
nik
--
we do not lack communication, on the contrary we have too much of it.
we lack creation. we lack resistance to the present.
--
we do not lack communication, on the contrary we have too much of it.
we lack creation. we lack resistance to the present.
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Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 13:45:53 +1000
From: n ik <[email protected]>
Subject: another account of woomera2002 from melbourne.indymedia
from melbourne.indymedia:
Woomera 2002 - a first hand account
by obadiah 9:12am Thu Apr 4 '02 (Modified on 10:34am Thu Apr 4 '02)
A first hand account of the protest/solidarity actions at Woomera --
a counter spectacle to some of the prevailing media and police
hallucinations about what allegedly went down.
The long road - the advance party
We made the journey overnight from Melboune on Thursday, planning to
join up with a group of people who had travelled up on Wednesday
night to set up the initial camp. As the night went on we got
occasional reports from the group who were already there. It seems
that the administrator of the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) had set
aside a football oval about 2km away from the detention centre (DC)
as the officially approved location for the protest camp. Portaloos
and showers had been provided. But this location would make any
attempts to communicate with the detainees (face-to-face, by flying
kites, chanting or drumming) impossible, and so the advance party set
up camp next to a stretch of road between Woomera town and the DC,
next to a mobile communications mast and a service station. Another
issue with the football oval location, it seems, was that the single
entrance was extremely narrow - this was significant both as a health
and safety issue, given the 1000-1500 protesters who were expected to
turn up, and as forming a chokepoint which would have allowed police
to confine the protest within the oval extremely easily. (I must say
at this point that I never went down to the football oval myself).
The breakout of detainees was "planned"
Since some media reports have claimed that the breakout of detainees
was planned beforehand, I'd better explain at this point that the
protest _was_ an impressively planned logistical operation: I was
involved in some of the preparatory work (at a very late stage) and
was impressed by the amount of thought that had gone into making this
a success: among the things discussed when I was there were the
layout of the camp (to avoid having the soundstage disturb meetings
and sleeping people), water supplies, provision of first aid,
communications, legal assistance, independent media, and the making
of kites in case it wasn't possible to approach close enough to the
detainees to speak to them. But I never heard any mention of breaking
detainees out of the DC at these meetings: what was being planned was
a peaceful protest action aimed at letting the detainees know of our
support, delivering gifts to them and publicising the reality of
their condition. It may be that some small groups of people did hope
a breakout would occur, or possibly even planned for this amongst
themselves - I can't speak for all the estimated 1000 people who were
there.
Who organised this protest?
This touches on another misconception that may be produced (or is
being deliberately being propagated) by media reports: that what
happened this weekend (whatever did happen) was the work of a
monolithic, unified organisation. The truth is completely the
opposite: part of what was so impressive about the planning of this
action was that it involved co-ordinating many different
organisations and groups of people - political parties, student
organisations, groups of individuals who know each other socially,
and the large, adhoc but well-established single-issue groups: No One
Is Illiegal and the Refugee Action Collective. The only thing all
these groups have in common is opposition to what the government is
doing at Woomera and towards asylum-seekers in general. This was what
made the weekend the most inspiring three days I've ever experienced:
the way that this issue brought everyone together: leftist political
groups, Greens, 70-year-olds, students, manual workers, professional
workers, environmental collectives, musicians and artists. But it
also made some of the overall meetings heated, chaotic or
interminable; which is a small price to pay.
Obviously it's to the government's advantage to present the protest
as the action of an organisation based on the model of a political
party: how threatening it is to see those images of fences being
broken down and imagine the sinister underground Front who made this
happen, with cells everywhere: check under the bed before you go to
sleep tonight! The reality is that some people went along to protest
peacefully; it's possible that some people went along looking for a
more violent confrontation; some people were there to promote some of
the other agendas (Aboriginal land rights, radioactive pollution at
Roxby Downs) - everyone went along to help the refugees (in whatever
way), and most people went along hoping to get together with
like-minded people and have a good time if possible. Does that sound
shocking, given the plight of the detainees in the DC? Maybe this
kind of fluid, adhoc association of people, with a good sprinkling of
music and partying, is the best weapon against the po-faced
"responsible adults" who commit inhumanities for our supposed benefit.
Anyway, enough of that: we're still stuck at Thursday night...
The advance party hold their ground - the journey
We heard of some confrontations between the advance party and police.
Apparently the party was asked to leave but refused, and managed to
stay put in spite of a small police presence. From what I heard,
there were some heated verbal confrontations, and maybe a bit of
pushing and shoving. When it got dark the party arranged their
vehicles in a circle around the camp, to allow the approaches to be
illuminated by headlights. At 11:30pm the police made another attempt
to remove the party from the site, but failed - again, from what I
heard this involved verbal confrontations, possibly with some minor
pushing and shoving.
News of this made us even more eager to arrive at the camp as soon as
possible. We did almost all of our travelling in darkness, swapping
drivers over as needed, while other people sat next to the driver and
made sure they were alert and had whatever food and drink they
needed. This rushed, cramped, interminable journey, a night of
minimal sleep, aching limbs, conversations to your scarcely-visible
neighbour that petered out into monologues before you realised that
they'd dropped off into a doze, snatched coffee-breaks at
service-stations (where many people bought Easter eggs, intending to
throw them over the fence to the detainees) was as essential to
Woomera 2002 as the action itself: Make the Journey, sez the website,
and we did: through western Victoria under a clear sky and the full
moon: overtaking coaches, minibuses and camper vans that made the
highway unexpectedly crowded for this ridiculous time of night (is
this just Easter weekend traffic? or has the meeting begun already,
at 110kmh?) - to a service station in SA, where the attendant was
driven half crazy by the sheer number of people who came pouring out
of a motley collection of vehicles, setting off the door alarm almost
continuously - into a doze, and out of it again after some unclear
amount of time had elapsed, to be faced with a grey dawn and the
fringes of the Flinders Range.
Arrival
Finally to the roadhouse at Pimba, at the turnoff to Woomera from the
Stuart Highway, for a quick stop, up a short rise, past Woomera town,
and onto a straight stretch of road borderd with what was already
looking like a tent city, to cheering and clapping. No time for more
than a quick drink - because of the police attention overnight, the
preliminary work in laying out the camp was well behind schedule. We
set to putting up our tents, in the baking sun, with a harsh wind
blowing the red dust into everything as we tried to make tent-pegs
stick in the rocky soil.
Why bother to come all this way? We only came from Melbourne - a mere
15 hours' drive! Conversation on the journey constantly came round to
the rumours (which proved true) - there are such and sucn many people
coming from Sydney - there's a mob from Newcastle - Brisbane's sent a
coachload - some people have come from Perth...
Why come all this way just to seek attention, in our feral
protest-clothes, to get covered in red dust, to wear silly hats and
bang drums? to be bothered. No image of confrontations on the TV can
capture the 1300km vista that rolled past the windows before we got
there - maybe no representation of what happened there can be
accurate, unless each protester on screen carries an overlaid
caption, detailing how far they came, how much effort they put into
planning, how much of their own money they spent, how many other
people - donors, fundraisers, people who wished they could come but
couldn't - stand behind each of them.
Bother
According to John Howard, most of the Australian population are
against us. If this majority feel that strongly about it, let them
make the journey and see for themselves - can they be bothered? It's
not easy, not if you're a worker, or a student with no money, or a
parent, or a homeowner, or a pensioner, or out of work, pressed for
time - exactly what we are! Do Howard or Ruddock really care enough
about Australia and the supposed threat from the refugees to sew
their lips together, throw children into the sea (sorry, I mean throw
someone else's children into the sea - no, get someone else to throw
their children into the sea - **** it, find a photo of some children
in some water and let's go down the pub) or dig graves and lie in
them? Maybe if they bothered to do that they'd get our attention.
Some people suggested to me that any demonstration attracts people
just out for a fight. If this one did, it attracted them a hell of a
long way, when fights can be had for nothing more than a walk to the
pub, some beers and a big mouth.
The fiendish organisational efficiency of our revolutionary
underground organisation
Once the tents were set up, a "spokescouncil" meeting was called. The
idea of a spokescouncil is that each group participating in it sit
together, in a wedge or piece-of-pie formation behind their
designated spokesperson - only the spokespeople speak, but there is
constant feedback between speakers and those they represent. The aim
is to produce consensus. In my opinion, this was a great idea, but it
didn't work well at all in the situation we were faced with this
weekend. The chairpeople had a difficult time trying to keep control
of the enormous number of people looking to speak, there were
difficulties in setting the agenda, and the focus kept on getting
lost. One reason for this was that the structure of the meeting was
set up to deal with clearly-defined groups (Judaean Peoples' Front
over here, Peoples' Front of Judaea over there, Popular Judaean
Peoples' Front - that's him over there (Splitter!!!)) - the reality
of Woomera 2002 was that many people didn't come with a group at all
- either they got together with some mates, a van and a tent, or they
came in one of the group-sponsored buses but then did their own thing
once arrived.
Again, just in my opinion, the spokescouncil idea is appropriate to a
conference, or discussion - not to a group of 1000 people out in the
middle of the desert, surrounded by riot police, trying to work out
what the hell to do about an unexpected and difficult situation that
seemed to have blown up from nowhere. Hardly any of the meetings I
attended resulted in a definitely agreed plan of action, in which
everyone would take part - the most effective meeting happened on
Sunday, when a woman from the Greens stood up and said we have
thousands of dollars' worth of toys, we're going to deliver them to
the gate, that's what we're doing, join us if you want to. If I was
planning something as complex as breaking detainees out of a
detention centre and dealing with the consequences, out in the middle
of the desert, a spokescouncil would be on my necessaries list - next
line down from the chocolate fireguard.
Friday night - action
Word went out that the detainees were planning an action of their own
at 6pm, inside the DC, and that they wanted us to march up to the
fence and show support. The most obvious route to the DC was straight
along the road. But a chain-link barrier studded with warning notices
had been set up across this road, just after the right turnoff to
Roxby Downs. Behind this fence the APS (Australian Protective
Service) stood around in their sunnies and blue boilersuits looking
well 'ard.
Almost everyone in the camp participated in this action in some way.
Instead of going towards this barrier, we crossed the road and walked
towards the outer fence of the detention centre (which is - sorry,
was at right-angles to the road) diagonally,. Police presence around
the camp at this time was minimal. It took some time for everyone to
work out what was going on, and so my memory of this first approach
is of a long straggling line of small groups of 3-15 people, trying
out their footwear on the scrub, carrying kites, megaphones, banners,
drums, and all sorts of other objects that can make a noise if banged
together.
I was well behind the foremost people. To get to the DC we had to
walk around an enclosure, roughly 200m square, connected with the
service station. As I turned this corner I saw a lot of people
setting up video, TV and film cameras on a small mound. Looking
towards the fence I saw a thick crowd of people spread along it to a
length of about 150m: chanting and making a lot of noise. There were
no police, APS or ACM personnel in sight. All that was visible behind
the first fence was a series of further fences enclosing large
concreted areas. At the time I didn't realise that the real fence of
the DC was much further in.
Protestor-proof fence
As I got closer to the fence, I saw that people had climbed up on it.
A few moments later they were swinging on it. Only a few more
moments, and the fence came crashing down over its entire length - it
turned out that this fence was not founded at all, but kept upright
by sandbags placed over horizontal structures at the base. As soon as
the fence came down most of the crowd rushed inwards into the large
concreted area (which I heard referred to later as a footie or soccer
field). I went up to where the fence had come down, but didn't go any
further, for my own reasons. If you don't like that, get in your car,
reset the trip, drive until it reads 1300km, spend three days in a
tent being hassled by police, with minimal sleep and food, and then
call me a piker.
Looking across the dead fence
This section is based only on what I could see from my position and
what I heard from other people (though with the latter, I've tried to
only include what I heard from multiple sources).
The crowd marched across the footie ground, and turned left through
an open gate into another footie-ground-type area. Then they turned
right (I think through another gate) to what seemed to be the real
boundary of the DC. I could see police in blue uniforms (rather than
APS personnel) lined up over to my left in this area, and there was
constant movement of minibuses and police vans across the area.
Someone lent me some binoculars, but looking through two fences
didn't make the picture much clearer. I could see a lot of movement
from our crowd - sometimes individuals or a group would seem to
retreat back towards us, but generally these would turn back and join
the furthest assembly. For a long time there seemed to be no movement
at all from the police.
This went on for about 15-20 minutes (?????). As time went on I could
see more movement by the police. At the outer fence, there was a
party atmosphere. Two people started playing capoeira just inside the
upset fence. A ute drew up carrying a sound system and started
playing music. A group of people started playing drums. None of us
there knew exactly what was going on inside. Some people were
reluctant to go into the DC because it had been so easy to get
through the fence that they suspected a trap.
Inside the detention centre
What I heard later from many people was this:
The protestors had gone up to the main fence of the DC, well inside
from where I was. This fence is the stout steel one made of vertical
girders that you can see on some of the TV footage. The detainees
were clearly visible inside. Some of them were up on roofs. There was
a lot of communication between the protestors and the detainees,
through chanting and face-to-face conversation. It seems that the
detainees were kept away from the inside of the fence by a barrier of
razor wire, but that some managed to approach the fence. Some of them
threw bedding onto the razor wire. Others just threw themselves onto
it, and appeared at the fence covered in blood. There were women,
children and men screaming. One young woman (protestor) I talked to
was in tears when she came back from inside. She said she'd been
crying her eyes out continuously, that other protestors, all the
detainees and even some police were also crying. She was horrified by
the look on the detainees faces, the way a woman's voice kept
screaming, breaking every few seconds. It seems that some detainees
managed to scale the fence and threw themselves off the top of it.
Others managed to bend the vertical girders far enough to slip
through.
Outside
Suddenly there seemed to be a concerted movement by police. The crowd
of protestors came running back towards us. Thinking back, I don't
think the police bothered to follow them into the "footie-field" area
immediately in front of me. The crowd reached the outer fence: the
will to flee spread from them to us who were standing outside, and we
ran back towards the camp. At some point I saw two people arm-in-arm
with two people who looked Middle Eastern. They started stripping off
the Middle Easterners' clothes and handing them other clothes. I
couldn't believe what I was seeing. A voice shouted out "stay
together, they're arresting people they catch on their own". Ahead of
us the view was of rolling scrub desert - miles of it. This was what
the detainees had escaped into. I remember thinking - I hope to hell
there IS a plan.
Arrests of detainees - confrontations with police
There were no police in the immediate area as we walked or ran back
to our camp. As we got closer, we saw a lot of police near the road
(which was now between us and the camp). The police were running into
the crowd and along the road in groups of (???) 10, picking out
people who looked Middle Eastern. I thought "that's it, it's over,
they're just going to arrest all the detainees and that's it". As I
reached the road there was chaos - people were running in all
directions. Every attempted arrest of a detainee attracted a crowd of
protestors, who surrounded the police on all sides and confronted
them. I'd like to emphasise that, while I was running around joining
group after group, i saw not one incident of physical violence from
the protestors. We were chanting SHAME and THE WHOLE WORLD IS
WATCHING YOU. Police were surrounded by large groups, who confronted
them with pointed fingers and words. (these police were in blue
uniforms, but were not APS as far as I remember). Many protestors,
especially women, went right up to officers and shouted in their
faces, asking them if they liked what they were doing, asking them
what their families would think of what they were doing. I saw
several women taking advantage of the immobilised position of the
police to talk to them at length, vehemently but not shouting.
Members of the legal team were demanding information about the
charges, and trying to find out as many details as possible.
There may have been arrests occurring inside the camp, rather than on
the road and in the scrub on the other side of the road (the DC
side), but I didn't see any from where I was.
The van surrounded
One detainee was dragged by police towards a police van, parked at
the southern end of the camp (the end towards Pimba, away from the
APS-guarded barrier). The detainee was put in the van, the door was
shut, and police formed a tight group on the back step and around it.
A shout of "join arms" went up. We surrounded the van at a distance
of about 10 feet and locked arms. Most of the police present stayed
by the back step, but others went walking around the van, looking
outwards towards us. Meanwhile a woman protestor had climbed up on
the step, and was remonstrating with one of the police.
More and more people arrived to join the blockade of the van. Police
were unable to move it. We were chanting "we know you're in there"
and "we won't forget you". The detainee was banging on the wall of
the van from the inside.
After about 20 minutes there was a shout of "HORSES". A group of
about 10-15 mounted police came in from the north (the DC direction)
at a gallop, shouting at us at the top of their lungs. The human
chain parted near where I was standing, and we got out of the way.
The horses surrounded the van, and then formed up at the front, and
attempted to force a path through the crowd that was now
concentrating on that side. I heard later that several protestors
were pushed aside by horses, and hit by the police with riding crops
- but I didn't see this. Eventually the crowd at the front of the van
was broken through - the van started up and drove away. The mounted
and foot police formed up in a line to prevent us from following the
van.
Another incident I heard about but didn't see was that a protestor
became trapped between a police horse and a car. The protestor's
partner picked up a rock and was about to throw it at the policeman,
but several other protestors nearby restrained him and calmed him
down.
The camp surrounded
The next few hours are very hard to remember clearly. One sight I
remember most clearly is of a line of police in full riot gear -
about 50 of them, lined up along the opposite side of the road from
the camp, while the sun set on the scrub behind them. They were
standing there, silently. As we looked in other directions we could
see that the camp was surrounded.
It was at some time around dusk that I first became aware that there
were detainees still uncaptured, in our camp. Rumours were flying.
Everybody seemed to know of someone else who knew where a detainee
was.
Another spokescouncil meeting was called. This was late on Friday
night. The atmosphere in the camp was indescribable - sinister isn't
the right word, and surreal doesn't do it either. The spokescouncil
was proceeding, as speakers said that it appeared that there were
detainees still in the camp. Meanwhile, a woman detainee and her
child were sitting inside a marquee tent, surrounded by a double row
of locked-arms protestors. All over the camp, there were police
wandering about, singly, or in groups of two - there was no
confrontation going on.
This spokescouncil was completely ineffectual. No-one was able to
come up with a decision as to what to do about the situation.
One woman I spoke to briefly spent two hours talking to a detainee,
who had excellent English. She was upset and worried about his safety.
As the night went on, we made sure we never went out of sight of
other people. No-one was moving from the camp. Every so often
headlights would flash on in the distance, pointing towards us. At
some point, I looked out from the camp and saw that the riot police
had disappeared as silently as they'd appeared.
Saturday - the roadblock comes down
We formed up on the road, ready to march to the roadblock (this was
at the northern end of the camp - where the APS people were on
guard). We set off, to a great noise of drums, trumpets and chanting.
We reached the roadblock. I was towards the middle of the crowd.
Suddenly there was a commotion at the front. The APS personnel stood
aside as the roadblock was trampled down and we went through.
We were carrying crates of toys for the children in the DC, and a
banner of support that had been signed by people at the Melbourne
Palm Sunday rally. As we went through the remains of the roadblock,
the group split in two. Half stayed outside, the other half went in.
The APS (very few of them - perhaps 10 or 15?) formed a loose line
across the line of the roadblock, and the group left outside didn't
challenge this line.
Our group inside marched slowly along the road to where a side-track
leads to the side, or delivery gate of the DC. We stopped just before
this side-track. The atmosphere was festive and relaxed - we were
trying to make as much noise as possible so that the detainees could
hear us. I could see the "real" fence. At its corner closest to us
was a line of about 50 police. Through the fence I could see lines of
prefabricated buildings - but there were no detainees in sight.
A large sign proclaimed
Welcome to Woomera (acronym)
An ISO 9000 certified detention centre
maybe the ISO needs to revise its standards on fence construction.
The No-one Is Illegal cheerleaders got going - two men and two women
in cheerleader outfits doing their routine, as the drums, trumpet,
chanting and instruments went on. I joined a delegation that split
off from the main group, to go forward to the police and bring the
toys and banner. There were about 6 drummers making great sounds - a
woman cartwheeling all the way, and a group carrying the banner
spread out. One of our delegation went forward to negotiate with the
police while we drummed, cartwheeled and limbo-danced. The result of
the negotiation was that we could leave the toys, and they would be
taken in to the detainees - but we couldn't leave the banner - or
rather, we could, but there was no guarantee that it would be taken
inside - only if our group left the prohibited area and went back
beyond the roadblock. We decided that we couldn't make the decision
on our own, so we left the toys, picked up the banner and marched
back to the larger group. There it was decided that we should take
the banner back with us and try to get it to the detainees in a
different way - perhaps through the Woomera lawyers.
Dancing on the upturned road-block
We marched back to the roadblock, still singing, dancing and
drumming. At the roadblock, APS abandoned the line they'd formed. As
the two groups joined up, a party broke out - all the drummers
starting playing at once, some of them sitting on the upturned
remains of the roadblock - two MCs started rapping into megaphones,
everyone was banging whatever they had on them in time with the drums
and dancing. This went on for about 40 minutes.
All the signs on the roadblock (which stated - this is a prohibited
area, enter and be arrested and so on) had been parodied with
graffiti. Some people started using the signs as percussion
instruments. When we'd run out of energy, the party dissolved towards
the camp. People were carrying the signs with them as souvenirs.
Suddenly one or two APS vehilces drove up - APS personnel got out and
quickly grabbed the signs, chucked them in the back and drove away.
No-one resisted this.
Saturday night
As it got dark again, it appeared that there were still detainees
somewhere in the camp. There was talk that police might storm the
camp.
Sunday - toy delivery
At a spokescouncil meeting, a woman from the Greens suggested that we
deliver more toys to the roadblock (which had been repaired in the
meantime). I was suffering from exhaustion and sunstroke, so I didn't
join in this action or the next one.
Sunday - walk round the DC
Most of the people in the camp set off to walk right round the
detention centre. They were gone for several hours. The people who
got back were severely exhausted and dehydrated, so those of us left
behind were busy giving them food and water. What I heard about this
action was:
The party didn't manage to walk all the way round the centre. At some
point they entered the outside perimeter, avoiding a narrow alley
where it was rumoured there was a water-cannon, and approached the
"real fence". The detainees were not confined within buildings, but
were visible through the fence. There was a much stronger police
presence. Detainees were standing on roofs, shouting and screaming at
the protestors.
This was very emotional, very much like Friday. Many protestors were
arrested during this action - I heard that a large group of arrests
was of women who didn't leave the fence with the main party but
stayed behind leaning on the fence and crying.
Sunday night - sleeping by torchlight
We let off fireworks so that the detainees could see we were still
here. The police were convinced that there were still detainees in
the camp. It was hard to sleep (I was sleeping outdoors), as police
were wandering through the camp in small groups, shining torches
everywhere.
Monday - surrealism
Most of the protestors were packing up to leave on Monday morning.
The police were making a final run through the camp (again, in small
groups) to try to find detainees. There were some great episodes
here. One group of police was being shadowed by a large group of
mainstream and indy media, and by an even larger group of protestors.
The protestors who looked vaguely Middle Eastern were having a great
time - jumping up suddenly from tents, shouting things in pig-Arabic
and running away. One of them put his hands on his head and shouted
in artificially broken English "I am escaped - arrest me" - he then
followed the police around, hands still on his head, demanding they
arrest him, When they ignored him he went up to a police car, spread
his hands on the bonnet, then tried to get in it.
Someone hooked up a radio to a PA and played and interview that was
going on, involving Ruddock, a spokeman from the South Australian
Police, and Andrea Maksimovic from No-one Is Illegal. A cheer went up
as the SA Police spokesman demanded that Ruddock stop trying to blame
him for the mess. Another went up as the interviewer asked Ruddock
"So who won here?" - which was answered "...well, it's not really
about winning or losing...".
We drove off, and encountered a police roadblock on the way to Port
Augusta. This was weird. The police took a quick glance inside our
vehicle and waved us through. We could have had at least two
detainees hidden under our luggage.
I HAVE to go to bed now - I don't know where I got the energy to
write this. I'll complete some rebuttals of some of the distortions
you'll be getting through the media:
1) The protesters were armed
(TV news report)
This report was based on a police photo of items recovered or
confiscated from protesters. Someone is hoping that viewers will hear
the headline and not bother to look closely at this photo while
considering that the protest was based at a makeshift camp set up in
the middle of the desert, 170km from anywhere even the size of Port
Augusta, and involved people who'd travelled from as far away as
Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane and Perth.
My point is that while all the items shown (Swiss Army knives,
spanners, knives, sticks, long poles) _could_ be used as weapons,
every single one of them has a different, primary use - especially to
people setting up to live in the desert for three days.
We were all carrying a lot of things every time we marched: drums,
whistles, flutes, a trumpet, banners, flowers, gifts. We made a lot
of noise. It would be possible to look at us and consider that these
things _could_ be used as weapons. The point is, not one of these
things is primarily a weapon, and as far as I know, not one of these
things was ever used as a weapon against police, ACM or APS personnel.
2) The protest was "violent" and there were injuries to police / APS
/ ACM personnel
(radio interview with Mike Rann /
I wasn't present at every action. There may have been injuiries to
police. (there was an apparent assault on a policeman shown on TV
news). That there were any injuries was denied by Andrea during the
radio interview - she made the point that the police were videoing
everything that happened - so let's see if any evidence turns up (you
at the back there - children in the sea won't work this time...)
As for the characterisation of the protest as "violent" - I think
that, as applied to the protest as a whole, this is either
contentious or meaningless. Some people I spoke to who were present
at the protest were uncomfortable with the level of confrontation and
tension they saw on Friday. My own reaction to what I saw and was
involved in (i.e. not the actions inside the DC) was amazement, at
the high level of tension and the complete absence of violence, in a
situation that could have turned very violent if either side had
wanted it.
There has been footage shown of what appears to be an assault on a
policeman by protestors. Does this make the protest as a whole
"violent"? Wouldn't a better description of this be as a violent
incident in an otherwise peaceful protest? (Personally, I don't count
knocking down fences that don't even have foundations "violence").
I wasn't there, but consider this: what would your potential for
violence be if you saw men, women and children tearing themselves
through razor wire, while the protectors of the public peace are more
interested in fending off a protest from outside than in assisting
these people? The first blood spilt was that of the detainees. Do ACM
have penalty clauses in their contract for the Federal government?
Don't they have a duty of care towards their detainees?
3) Police had missiles and containers of urine thrown at them
Everyone I spoke to denied this vehemently. I think this claim was
made during the radio interview that was broadcast through the camp
on Monday morning. Everybody laughed their head off when this was
said.
4) The breakout of detainees was executed as a planned and premeditated action.
As I said earlier, this is a ridiculous claim when applied to the
protest as a whole. Of course it's possible that some people did have
some plans - I don't know! Together with the other distortions in the
media, the claim that "some people at the protest may have planned to
break out detainees", which is possible but unconfirmed turns nicely
into "the organisation of the protest as a whole was directed to
breaking out detainees", which is patently false.
5) Escaped detainees were placed at "considerable risk" by being
encouraged to flee great distances across the desert
From what I could find out by talking to people at the protest: it
was the detainees who were adamant that they preferred any risk to
giving themselves up and going back into the camp. Several people I
spoke to said that they knew of other people who'd made great efforts
to explain the choices available to the detainees and their
consequences, and had even tried to persuade them not to attempt to
flee. If this seems unbelievable, or seems to be yet more proof that,
as the Government would like us to believe, the detainees are alien,
deranged creatures, then please read these quotes I heard along the
grapevine:
"I know the Taliban - the Taliban, they'd shoot me. Once. I'd rather
be shot than go back in there"
"Australian people. Help us. Please. Help us"
Earlier today, we stopped at a rest area on the way to Port Augusta.
There was an information sign about the attractions of the area.
Including the railway to Alice, which, I'd forgotten, was built by
... Afghan migrant workers. Who knows how to deal with this kind of
country better than an Afghan? How many times before have these
people been on the run, how many borders have they crossed already?
Can we look beyond Howard's systematic misrepresentation of these
people as insolent mendicants knocking pathetically and unjustifiably
on the Australian door, and realise what they may really be like?
Consider that someone who even gets as far as the Woomera Detention
Centre from Afghanistan is probably an unusual sort of person -
unusually resourceful, unusually determined, unusually strong? What
the hell is a few hundred kilometres of desert to these people, who
have come so far already? Are these the sort of people we want in
Australia?
THEY ARE NOT DETAINEES
THEY ARE NOT VICTIMS
THEY ARE NOT CRIMINALS
THEY ARE PEOPLE
all the best
Obadiah
--
we do not lack communication, on the contrary we have too much of it.
we lack creation. we lack resistance to the present.
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