>
>Six hangings at Baxter detention centre
>
>Media Release
>Tuesday December 12 2006 - 7:45am WST
>For immediate Release
>No Embargoes
>
>
>"Contacts inside the Baxter detention centre also report that the
>Commonwealth Ombudsman John McMillan visited the Baxter detention
centre
>yesterday," spokesman Jack H Smit said.
>
>"These incidents are no surprise," Mr Smit said. "Regardless of the
gloss
>and varnish in the dominating comments in the Australian media by the
>Immigration Department's media spokespersons to paint incidents as
being
>"under control", and in media statements issued by DIMA that attempt
to
>"normalise" circumstances and incidents, the fact remains that
Australia
>locks up people in detention centre jails such as Baxter which
represent
>maximum security jails, whereever they are built around Australia."
>
>"As long as we lock up people in direct contravention of international
>conventions, and brazenly against the United Nations Commissioner for
>Refugees' directives where "States should only detain people as a last
>resort, and only when a State security is at risk", we will plunge
people's
>lives in despair and depression and they will sink into the lowest
depths
>of dark gloom, and they will have plenty of reasons to kill
themselves."
>
>Fact is, that most people that we lock up in the places only good for
the
>damned such as Baxter, do not need to be locked up - and certainly not
for
>the ungodly long periods where the Australian State steals their
freedom,
>the continuity of their lives, and their mental health as a result,"
Mr
>Smit said.
>
>"Mandatory detention is a bankrupt policy and these incidents form yet
>another layer in the hundreds of stories that affirm this."
>
>For more information: Jack H Smit, Project SafeCom Inc.
>Office (08) 9336-6048 | mobile 0417 090 130