In a damning report released on September 27, QueenslandÂ’s acting state coroner, Christine Clements, has criticised the initial investigation into the 2004 Palm Island death in custody of Mulrunji, saying that it failed to meet appropriate guidelines. Clements also found that Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley caused MulrunjiÂ’s death and accused the police of failing to investigate his death fully.
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The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European Invasion of AustraliaBy Henry ReynoldsUNSW Press, 2006245 pages, $29.95 (pb)
On September 24, a Swiss referendum overwhelmingly validated two anti-immigration laws. The laws received 68% support.
Around 50 people — including the brother of Mulrunji, who died at the hands of police in the Palm Island watch-house in November 2004, many other Murris and representatives from Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, the Greens, the Democrats and the Socialist Alliance — gathered on October 5 at Jagera Hall to plan a march on state parliament on October 10 to demand justice for Mulrunji.
On September 12 Venezuela’s left-wing President Hugo Chavez announced the expansion of the Development Bank for Women — Banmujer — during a meeting in the Teresa Carreno Theatre to celebrate five years since the bank’s founding. Chavez offered another 100 billion bolivares (A$65 million) in resources to the bank.
Although still three years away, citing the need to prevent Indonesia’s 2009 general elections from becoming “overly fragmented” by a plethora of new political parties, legislators are seeking to limit the number of parties that can participate.
When Indigenous activist and socialist Sam Watson talks about "serious political business" he means just that.
Incumbent President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva came first in Brazil’s October 1 presidential elections, scoring 48.6% of the vote. His nearest rival, Geraldo Alkmin, the main right-wing candidate and a member of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), scored 41.64%. Early polls suggested Lula could win an outright majority, however since no candidate won over 50% there will be a run-off election between Lula and Alkmin on October 29. Polls suggest that Lula is likely to win in the run-off.
The Indonesian government recently issued a ministerial decree to implement a citizenship law passed in July. The law will clarify the status of hundreds of Indonesians studying abroad during the alleged 1965 coup attempt who had their citizenship stripped by the Suharto regime after the overthrow of President Sukarno for alleged links to “subversive movements”. People’s Democratic Party chairperson Dita Indah Sari argues that dealing with the exiles’ status should not be an administrative question, but one of justice for victims of Suharto’s New Order regime.
Last year the Chilean polling firm Latinobarometro published results from 20,000 face-to-face interviews in 18 Latin American countries. Venezuelans, more than any other nationality polled, described their government as “totally democratic” and expressed an optimism in their country’s future that outpaced any other. This response sits in stark contrast to what would have been found just a decade earlier if a similar poll had been conducted. To understand this phenomenon we must take a look at Venezuelan politics before President Hugo Chavez came on the scene.
As part of CanberraÂ’s campaign against the government of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, on September 29 the Australian Federal Police had Solomons attorney-general Julian Moti arrested by Papua New Guinean police at the Port Moresby airport while he was flying back to the Solomons from Singapore. A PNG magistrate released Moti on bail that evening.
The September 20 United Nations speech by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in which he slammed US imperialism and referred to US President George Bush as the devil, has led to a fresh outburst of attacks on Venezuela from the US government and media.
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