Easter Convergence critical, with no end to Baxter brutality in sight.

Hundreds of Victorians are set to join the national refugee convergence at Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia over the coming Easter weekend. They will demand the centre's immediate closure, an end to mandatory detention, and full citizenship rights for refugees.

The Baxter convergence comes at a critical time for the Howard government. The Liberal Cabinet is in damage control mode in the wake of the Cornelia Rau affair, and is under strong pressure from backbenchers to end indefinite mandatory detention. But refugee advocates say proposals being considered by Cabinet at the moment leave the worst aspects of the Government's detention regime in place.

'Even if some of Australia's longest-term detainees are finally released, there are many other detainees, such as the 54 people on Nauru who have been in detention for more than three years, who continue to be brutalised by our mandatory detention regime', said RAC Victoria spokesperson Tim Petterson.

'And the Government is not offering people like Peter Qasim, who has been incarcerated for six and a half years, any form of security, or a chance to rebuild their lives. They intend to monitor them in the community, and to deport them at the soonest opportunity. Their proposal to release such people is a cynical response to community outrage and backbench pressure, but its fundamental attitudes have not changed at all.

'The importance of this Easter's convergence at Baxter cannot be overstated.

'John Howard remains committed to the extra-judicial, mandatory detention of asylum seekers. He describes places like Baxter as 'administrative detention facilities'. The reality is that they are prisons surrounded by razor wire and electric fences.

'We are going to Baxter to remind ordinary Australians what is being done in their name. The cruelty and abuse of human rights will continue until Baxter and places like it - whether on the Australian mainland or on islands in the Pacific - are closed for good,' he said.

Large numbers of people from all around Australia are expected at this Easter's protest (see below for local interview subjects). Many are coming by private car, many more in convoys of buses. Their first stop will be in North Adelaide on Good Friday morning for a protest outside immigration minister Amanda Vanstone's house, before moving on to Baxter Detention Centre later in the day to commence a weekend of continuous protest against the Government's polices.

Mr Petterson stressed protest organisers were united in their desire for the Baxter convergence to be a peaceful, creative celebration of humanity and human solidarity.

RAC Victoria has played an important role in organising this protest and many others over the years, including an earlier Easter protest at Baxter and the two at Woomera before that. Last year refugee supporters converged on Kirribilli House where they charged John Howard with crimes against humanity.

For more information or nterviews contact:
Lauren Ireland 0401635072
Tim Petterson 0438399973

Also available for interview::
Meet some of the Victorians going to Baxter 05

Emma Larking (age 33) A qualified solicitor, Emma is now writing a doctoral thesis in the philosophy department at the University of Melbourne on the foundations of human rights. Emma first became concerned about the treatment of refugees when she read in the late 90s about the sinking of a boat carrying asylum seekers to Australia. The report claimed a number of people had drowned because they had been lashed together in the hold of the boat. She was shocked by the lack of interest this tragedy seemed to generate in Australia. She says she is going to the Baxter protest because she "wants to help expose the ugly reality of mandatory detention."

Russell Smith (age 41) is a Pitjantjatjara man from Port Augusta and lead singer and guitarist from the band, The Brolga Boys. Russell says "Baxter is on our backdoor. [For me] it's a human right issue. I look at the way we've been mistreated in Australia and I see parallels with the way refugees are treated. Local Aboriginal people are angry that Baxter is on their land and they haven't been consulted."

Julie Smith (age 30) works at a Telstra call centre. It was during the Tampa Affair that she first became interested in refugee issues. She says the Federal Government's actions struck her as being "very un-Australian, going against our tradition of mateship and the fair-go." She is going to the Baxter protest because it is an "important way of letting people in Australia know people are still suffering in Australia's detention centres." She also thinks it is "an important way of letting the detainees know there's public support for them."
(Prefers to be interviewed outside of work hours - working: Monday 12.20pm-8.40pm; Tues 8am-5pm; Wed 1.20pm-10pm; Thurs 8am-5pm- however may be able to be interviewed during her lunch break)

Marcel Zimmet (age 28) is a doctor at the Royal Children's Hospital. He became interested in refugee issues partly because of his family background. He is the grandson of Jewish refugees who came to Australia after fleeing anti-Semitism in Europe. He is going to the Baxter protest because he thinks "it's important to act upon my feeling on this issue. I want to visit one of the main sites where people are affected by this government's policies and to add my voice to the peaceful protest against these policies. As a doctor training in children's medicine I am particularly concerned about the terrible effects of keeping children in a prison environment."

To arrange an interview with any of the above, contact:
Lauren Ireland 0401635072
Tim Petterson 0438399973