Message from Tony Kevin read out at  Refugee Protest Rally at Kirribilli House , Sydney, on Easter Sunday morning,  16 April 2006

“I wish this protest rally well and I am sorry I cannot come from Canberra to Sydney to attend it.

The Australian Government decisions announced on Thursday to require offshore processing of all and any boatpeople who make it to Australia, and to say in advance they no such boat people will ever be allowed to live in Australia,  are cowardly, cruel and shameful in every way .

So afraid is John Howard of the Indonesian government's clear threats in recent weeks to revive Middle Eastern people smuggling from Indonesia (we know now that Indonesian government agencies encouraged this trade in 1999-2001,  as a way of getting back at Australia for our support for East Timor's independence in 1999),  that he has now abandoned Australia's lawful UN Refugee Convention obligations.

To send any West Papuan refugees who reach Australia by boat to Manus,  Nauru or Christmas Islands  for refugee claim processing, and to announce in advance that they will never be allowed to come to Australia if accepted as refugees , is deliberately punitive and will entail great cruelty to men, women and children. And it is clearly contrary to the UN Refugee Convention.

Howard has now utterly abandoned any pretence of international legality.  

It is clear that Howard was so terrified of Indonesian authorities covertly organising new waves of Middle Eastern boat people to Australia that he caved in cravenly to their demands that Australia deter refugee outflows from West Papua.

Where will future West Papuan refugee families go, if Australia refuses to take them? Who will accept them if Australia does not? It is more than likely - and Howard knows this - that they will have to rot for years in detention centres on Nauru or Manus or Christmas. More unspeakable cruelty to fellow human beings,  and announced just before Easter.  The policy is, deliberately,  punitive.

Now we know why that huge detention centre was built on Christmas Island. But of course, families will be sent to Nauru.  The women and kids will rot there so that Howard's promise "No kids in detention in Australia" can be, on the face of it, met.  This is all so utterly shameful.

What Howard is saying is - the human rights and aspirations for self-determination of the people of West Papua don't matter a damn to Australia.

Now we know that he is prepared to be as cruel to West Papuan, mostly Christian,  families as he was to Middle Eastern Muslim families in 1999-2001.

Let us show him that the human rights of West Papuan refugees  matter to us.”  

(sgd)   Tony Kevin, author of "A Certain Maritime Incident: the Sinking of SIEV X",  Canberra.