Submitted by crinadmin on
[CANBERRA, 26 June 2007] - Australia's plan to crack down on Aboriginal child sex abuse has sparked fears among some Aborigines of a return to the "Stolen Generation", when their children were taken from them under old assimilation policies. Declaring abuse of Aboriginal children a national emergency, Prime Minister John Howard has said extra police and troops will be sent to black communities in the Northern Territory, alcohol will be banned and Aboriginal children will have health checks. But the policy has caused concern around the central Australian town of Alice Springs and nearby Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, where Aborigines have reportedly fled into the bush over fears of forced medical examinations. "I fear there will be another case of Stolen Generation children because they will be taken away from their mothers and fathers and aunties and uncles," Aborigine Barbara Swan from the Tangangera Council in Alice Springs told Australian television. The Stolen Generation refers to the forced removal of Aboriginal children from remote communities so they could be brought up in white homes. The failed assimilation policy ran for decades until the late 1960s. New report The national government's intervention came after a new report found Aboriginal child sexual abuse was widespread in the outback Northern Territory, with a "river of grog" or alcohol blamed for destroying Aboriginal society. Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up about 2 percent of the country's population. They are consistently the nation's most disadvantaged group, with far higher rates of unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse and domestic violence. Howard's intervention applies only in the Northern Territory, which is home to about 50,000 Aborigines, well below the 120,000 Aborigines in the New South Wales state and about 112,000 in Queensland. Land rights concerns The government plans to send extra police to more than 60 Aboriginal communities. The first will be deployed to the Mutitjulu lands near Uluru where Aborigines have struggled against petrol sniffing, alcohol abuse and juvenile prostitution. The Mutitjulu community said the government plans had sparked fear about the police and health checks. Several families had fled to live in nearby sandhills because they feared their children would be taken away. "They're scaring the living daylights out of the kids and women," said Mutitjulu resident Mario Giuseppe. "They think that the army's coming to grab their kids and the police are coming to help them take them away." But Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said there was no need for Aboriginal people to be concerned, and that police and doctors would offer help and support. Aboriginal leaders and 60 community and welfare groups have released an open letter to Howard welcoming action on child abuse, but urging more consultation with Aborigines, saying his intervention plan was unlikely to work. Pat Turner, who represents 13 central Australian community groups, said Aborigines were also worried by the government move to take control of Aboriginal townships, saying the move was a land grab which would undermine Aboriginal land rights. "We believe that this government is using child sexual abuse as the Trojan horse to resume total control of our lands," Turner told reporters in Canberra. State political leaders also questioned Howard's refusal to meet state leaders to find a national approach to combat child sex abuse, saying his plan was hastily drawn up ahead of an election, due within six months. "This problem has come about because of 200 years of failed policy. It will not be fixed in 6 months," Queensland state premier Peter Beattie told Australian television. But Howard said his plan to protect vulnerable indigenous children took priority over the concerns, and said his policy was not designed to score political points. Further information
pdf: http://www.alertnet.org/search/index.htm?view=Search+results&collection=...