Australian Prime Minister John Howard yesterday moved to allay fears about his crackdown on child sex abuse in Aboriginal communities, saying indigenous children will not be taken from their homes in outback camps.
Howard's radical decision to send police backed by military logistics to restore law and order in Northern Territory communities has provoked a storm of criticism, including that it harks back to earlier paternalistic strategies.
Critics have alleged the plan, which includes bans on alcohol and pornography, has brought back memories for many Aboriginal people of their forced removals from their families - a practice carried out until the 1970s.
As reconnaissance teams began entering communities in the country's desert heartland, reports emerged that some families may have fled their homes amid fears their children would be taken away.
The government has said the reports were exaggerated and moved to reassure indigenous communities that there was no need to escape to the bush.
"If people are fleeing, then they've been wrongly informed," Howard told commercial TV," he said.
"There's no reason to flee, it's quite the reverse," Howard said.
"People are going there to help, going there to save and protect, they're not going there to scare people and steal children," he said.
The reconnaissance teams began arriving in about five settlements yesterday ahead of the deployment of extra police to the communities.
The additional police will include a group of Australian Federal Police who have all worked in overseas missions such as those in Sudan, the Solomon Islands and East Timor.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said the first survey teams and troops to land in remote Aboriginal communities had been welcomed.
"Contrary to the reports that some people tried to portray prior to the arrival of survey teams, early indications are that the teams have been well received in the communities they have visited," he said. "The people in those teams are getting on with the job."
The government has said once law and order was restored to the communities, which suffer from alcohol-fuelled abuse towards women and children, medical teams would be sent.
But local officials said there was much still confusion over the strategy, which was announced last week without consulting Northern Territory leader Clare Martin.
"Anger is starting to build because people don't know the details," the territory's Environment Minister Marion Scrymgour told public radio.
Also see stories:
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of