Introduction to Desert Storm

Letters From the Inside (1)

Economic Migrants

Desert Indymedia Snippets

In the Middle of Somewhere

Faces

Lucky Country

By Way of an Introduction

Global Solidarity - Actions Around the World

Border Crossing / Border Camping

Letters from the Inside (2)

Shape Shifting

Untitled

No, Really. South Australian Police Aren't Racist

The Intimate Space of Power

Actors For Refugee Readings

Borderhack

An Engagement With the Real - A Dialogue

Woomera 2001-2002

Melbourne Indymedia Woomera Archive Photos

Links, Contacts, Credits, Thanks

 

Desert.Indymedia Snippets

Mar 26 2002
Thousands on the Move to Close the Camps
The Woomera2002 autonomadic caravan is on the move, heading for the festival of freedoms at Woomera (March 28 - April 1), located in the South Australian desert. Woomera is best known as the site of Australia's largest onshore internment camp, the result of successive Australian governments' policy of imprisoning those who move without papers. Woomera2002 is the culmination of a series of actions, when those outside the wire joined in the long history of protests of those behind to insist on freedom of movement, freedom from arbitrary and extra-judicial imprisonment, and for dignity.

Woomera is also the site of a proposed radioactive waste dump. There is a long history of struggles by the Kokatha and Arabunna peoples against missile testing (including nuclear weapons) and uranium mining on their lands.

Many and diverse groups and individuals are travelling thousands of kilometres from Brisbane, Newcastle, Melbourne, Darwin, Sydney, Japan, London. Concurrent actions are also being held in cities and regional centres around Australia, in London, Berlin, the Netherlands in response to the global callout.

Mar 28 2002
Despite threats of violence, resistance both inside and out remains strong
The Woomera2002 campsite began setting up today, across the road from the Federal Police and Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) roadblock which leads to the Detention Centre. The Area Administrator for Woomera attempted to get protesters to move to a location several kilometres further away. Protesters decided to hold their ground, bolstered by a group of children yelling 'Freedom', who were driven into the Detention Centre. The APS then moved in and dismantled the Indymedia and the First Aid tents, after which they retreated. As of 8pm Thursday evening, protesters decided to stand their ground and stay the night.

LATE BREAKING NEWS: Just after 11pm, the APS moved in again. They tried to make a number of arrests, but were unable to do so.

Mar 29 2002
As numbers swell, resistance grows
Resistance both inside and outside Woomera Detention Centre is continuing today, following last night's failed attempts to arrest protesters.

This morning, protesters awoke to a 'wagon-circle' style camp with cars banked around to protect people sleeping inside the circle from further police raids. Five busloads of people arrived just before midday, in time to support the detainees' noise and flag action on the rooftop of the detention centre.

ACM and the Federal Government have closed off all access to the Woomera Detention Centre, and have threatened detainees with beatings if they protest.

Mar 29 2002
Fences come down - will borders be next?
In the early evening detainees began protesting inside the Woomera Detention Centre. They were quickly joined by around 1,000 people who bypassed the police roadblock, walked almost a kilometre toward the back of the Detention Centre, and dismantled the outer perimeter fence to join with them.

Protesters ran to meet those behind the inner fence with cheers, messages of support and chants for freedom. At the fence, detainees spoke with people on the other side. A hole was cut into the inner razor-wire fence that separated protesters and 50 detainees escaped. Many were quickly recaptured by the police but many others made it to the protest camp.

Police have established a roadblock on the road leading out of the Woomera2002 campsite, are doing identity checks on all people leaving the campsite.

LATE BREAKING NEWS: Detainees inside Woomera refused to let ACM conduct a headcount in order to ascertain just how many and which detainees had made it out of the Detention Centre. ACM has responded with tear gas and beatings.

Mar 31 2002
Seeing the unseeable
A number of detainees are still free today as demonstrations continued at Woomera. Protests also took place in Port Hedland and Maribyrnong Detention Centres.

Five hundred protesters managed to once again breach the exclusion zone around the Woomera Detention Centre and come face to face with their brothers and sisters inside. Through the steel fences a note was passed by the detainees pleading for help and describing the use of chemical restraints.

Eight people were arrested for trespassing during the three hour walk around the inner perimeter fence of the detention centre. The eight were snatched by police during the march and later released on bail.

Earlier in the day, $2000 dollars worth of toys was delivered to the front gates of the centre for the children inside. A group of protesters on bicycles formed a Critical Mass to Roxby Downs uranium mine to draw connections between the struggles of the indigenous people, uranium mining and asylum seekers fighting for their freedom.

The 37 asylum seekers recaptured are facing court charges for escaping detention, a charge that carries a 7-year jail sentence. They are expected to appear in an Adelaide court on Tuesday morning.

Apr 4 2002
Round-up of Woomera2002
Woomera2002 was a massive success by any standard. It started off with a struggle to keep the campsite on Thursday which culminated in a tense situation involving the protesters and the APS. After a sleepless night within the wagon-circle, Friday saw the detainees reach through the fences - children cried from bus windows, we joined them at the fences for a solidarity action at midday, and that evening... the fences came down.

We originally went to the fence to see and be seen, but it quickly became an exercise in architectural relocation. The fence came down, and the bars were bent. Around 50 detainees escaped - an action initiated by them - through a hole in the final 'metal-bar' fence. A tense night was spent in the protest camp, which was encircled by police. Some detainees are yet to be recaptured (and hopefully never will be), but many were caught. 16 protesters were also caught and charged in relation to aiding the escape and harbouring detainees .

All night they told us stories of brutality and suffering, of drugs being put in their food, indefinite detention and what it had done to them. Many said they would kill themselves if they had to go back. Inside the detention centre that night, detainees were refusing a head count, fighting off guards and being tear gassed.

By the next morning, most had either been recaptured or had left the camp. Rebecca Bear Wingfield of the Kokatha people also arrived at the camp.

On Sunday, along with a Critical Mass bike ride to the Roxby Downs uranium mine, there was a walk around the centre by around 1000 protesters. They were greeted by detainees yelling 'thank you' and 'we love you'.

By midday Monday, most of the camp had packed up and left. A large contingent traveled to Port Augusta to protest the almost completed 'Baxter' detention centre.

Tuesday we heard news of a Federal police and Immigration raid on Barricade Books (a Melbourne anarchist bookstore) and saw a protest outside the Adelaide courts, where the recaptured detainees were having their bail hearings.

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