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| Down Under |
| Aboriginal elders lodge genocide case in High Court |
| 2005-04-12 |
| A group of Aboriginal elders has vowed to disrupt next year's Commonwealth Games unless Prime Minister John Howard and others are charged with genocide. Federal Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock and Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty are also named as defendants in the writ. The activists want the defendants to show cause why an investigation into claims of acts of genocide against Indigenous communities should not be carried out. The group lodged a writ with the High Court in Melbourne. Aboriginal elder Isabelle Coe says if the High Court fails to act on the genocide claims, they will be taken to the International Crimes Commission (ICC) at the Hague. She says the group will also call on other countries to boycott the Games. "This is the shame game," she said. "We want to get our message out to the rest of the world and that the genocide is continuing here in our country and we want to stop it. "As a mother and grandmother, we're sick and tired of seeing our people, old people, young people, dying in the thousands, thousands in this country ... due to inter-generational effects of trauma and grief." |
| Posted by:God Save The World |