10 September 2002

This week's Green Left Weekly includes an article by Sarah Stephen on the shutdown of the Senate Inquiry:

• Refugee drownings: Labor sabotages inquiry
  On February 20, a Senate committee began investigating what the government knew about false allegations that asylum seekers threw their children overboard.

  In March, retired diplomat Tony Kevin alleged that Australian navy vessels involved in Operation Relex must have known about the sinking of another asylum-seeker boat, SIEV-X (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel — Unknown), in which 353 people drowned. The committee then began to call witnesses who could clarify what the government and navy knew.

  The committee conducted 15 days of public hearings, filling more than 2000 pages with the transcripts of testimony from 50 people. The inquiry has been full of inconsistencies. Witnesses have contradicted each other; some have told lies.

  The final public hearing was conducted on July 30, but it has left many questions unanswered. Witnesses whose evidence was contradicted during later hearings were not asked to appear before the committee again. The premature end to the inquiry is a scandal...[Full Report here]

• Post a message of remembrance for the victims and survivors on our SIEVX Memorial page

• SIEVX Forum