To the Australian People from Manus Island
In the heart of the dark nights, I yell out through the mass of metallic and hard fences. Surrounded by agony and torture, I yell out right next to the tropical birds, thousands kilometre further away from the people’s world, in the heart of a remote island located in the corner of the vastest ocean in the world.
In the name of humanity and freedom, I yell out, in the name of all the values, values which connect human’s dignity with peace. I yell out, a yell from the hell where people are tortured and humiliated in a systematic form.
A yell having the quality of those flower-like ambitions when their petals are being plucked cruelly and a yell having the quality of a heart which has been crushed under the steel boots of politicians. Here is the hellhole Manus island.
Protecting the boarders and saving lives from the dangerous sea journey are the excuses for this brutal policy (The excuses for this brutal policy are to protect the boarders and to save lives from the dangerous boat journey).
After 27 months of implementing this policy, now it is time to impartially evaluate how this policy has been applied. During this long period, the Australian government has been accused of human rights violations by most of the credible international organisations which are active in human rights realm.
So far two people have lost their lives in the Manus prison ( detention centre). On Naura, dozen cases of rape and violence against women and children have been recorded, and with the continuance of this policy, everyday new cases are being added to the list of rape and violence.
Unfortunately, the government still insists on pursuing this policy. after 27 months, no one has been settled on Manus island yet. It shows that there is no planing for refugee resettlement on the island. Thus we could say that an obvious and official hostage-taking is occoring because since then no one has been resettled and no one has been released from the prison.
It is an apparent reality that saving people’s lives at sea is being used as a cover to implement the inhuman and immoral policy. Unfortunately, this policy has not had any achivement, it has just caused the intense suffering and the extreme agony for detainee asylum seekers as well as damages to the reputation and the credibility of Australia in the worldwide public opinion. It seems that it is time for Australian people to yell loudly at the government to urge it to confess that the policy of Naura and Manus resettlement has reached a dead end, and also to urge the government to bring an end to this harsh policy as soon as possible.
Behrouz Boochani Journalist and human rights defender Manus prison 5 October 2015
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