Witness details burns claims
FULL STORY HERE http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/witness-details-burns-claims-20140206-324pw.html
IS THIS THE “CHILDREN OVERBOARD ” STORY THAT WONT GO AWAY- make up your own mind.
I have attached the sworn affidavit referred to in the AGE story. Again judge for yourself and then HOWL in protest.
Asylum seekers detail burn claims
Asylum seekers tell Fairfax Media’s Indonesia correspondent Michael Bachelard that Australian Navy personnel did make some of them put their hands on hot pipes, causing them to suffer burns.
- Response from the government
- Another boat turned back
- Michael Gordon: No transparency or effort to establish facts
For a man whose words have whipped up a political and media storm in Australia, Yousif Ibrahim Fasher has been remarkably untroubled by visits from journalists. Or, for that matter, authorities.
It was Fasher who alleged a month ago that three asylum seekers had their hands deliberately burned by the Australian navy during its second operation to tow back an asylum vessel to Indonesia in January.
Translator Yousif Ibrahim Fasher, right, claims three asylum seekers had their hands deliberately burned by the Australian navy during its second operation to tow back an asylum vessel to Indonesia in January. Photo: Michael Bachelard
But since then, as the storm raged on, he was left largely alone. This week, in the Tanjung Pinang immigration detention centre on a little island off the coast of Sumatra, that changed. Fairfax Media conducted the first extended face-to-face interview with Fasher, who says he was an eyewitness to the incident, and he told his story in unprecedented detail.
Advertisement
His account has been consistent from the first. He says he has no doubt that what he saw at close quarters on about January 3 was three people’s hands being deliberately held to a hot exhaust pipe by Australian naval personnel to punish them for protesting, and to deter others from doing one simple thing: going to the toilet too often.
They are allegations which, when given credence and air time by the ABC, encouraged the Abbott government and Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited to open a culture war with the national broadcaster, to review its funding and question its reach into Asia.
An asylum seeker says the burns on his hands were caused by Australian Navy personnel holding his hands to hot parts of a boat engine. Photo: Supplied
The Australian navy and government robustly denied Fasher’s allegations and have repeatedly done so since.
”Who do you believe?” asked Prime Minister Tony Abbott last month. ”Do you believe Australian naval personnel or do you believe people who were attempting to break Australian law? I trust Australia’s naval personnel.”
Navy Admiral Ray Griggs tweeted on January 22: ”Based on everything I know, there is no basis to these allegations – none.”