14/09/2005 — The Australian
government is preparing to deport a dangerous
threat to national security: an American peace
activist.
Texan teacher Scott Parkin was to deliver
a workshop on non-violent protest when he
was contacted by the Australian national intelligence
agency - ASIO - and detained by Australian
Federal Police on September 10th. His visa
was revoked, he was put in solitary confinement,
and he was asked to sign a waiver of his right
to appeal his deportation.
At Scott's request, Greenpeace Australia-Pacific
lawyers are working with Julian Burnside,
QC, and Scott's lawyers to mount an administrative
law challenge to the planned deportation.
The government has since retracted its request
for the rights waiver and scaled back its
threat of "deportation" to the less
serious "removal." But the government
has yet to declare what law Mr. Parkin has
broken, and is refusing media access to the
activist. A recent opinion poll conducted
by The Age online is currently running 82
percent in favour of Scott's right to speak
for peace in Australia.
"If all Mr Parkin has done to be assessed
a security risk is to peacefully express his
opinions, then we are in serious trouble,"
says Julian Burnside, QC.
"At a time when Australians are already
deeply concerned about the [Australian Prime
Minister] Howard government's attacks on free
speech and the right to protest in the name
of fighting terrorism, the silencing of a
peace activist for the 'crime' of satirising
US policy will only confirm many people's
worst fears," says Greenpeace campaigns
director Danny Kennedy.
"Scott's mission is to end war and violence,
whether perpetrated by terrorists or by governments.
His weapons are humour and satire and his
tools exposure and embarrassment."
"Peace is not terrorism. Peace is not
a threat to national security. No democratic
government should expel a foreign citizen
because they oppose his political opinions,"
concludes Kennedy.
Scott made a statement via a Greenpeace support
team which visited him today.
He said, "To my family and friends,
everyone who is supporting me, both in Australia
and in the US, I'd like to thank you for the
overwhelming support that I have received."
"I am strongly opposed to any violence
and do not believe that violence delivers
any political gain, and in fact detracts from
positive political engagement."
"I find this entire experience incomprehensible
and am still baffled as to why my visa has
been cancelled and I have been detained under
these circumstances."
"To this date the only information that
I have received is that I have been assessed
as "a direct or indirect risk to Australian
national security."
Parkin also said, "I am a student of
mass social movements in the tradition of
Ghandi and King, and I think that these movements
have shown us the way to achieve social change."
"We live in a world where we have seen
a globalisation of war and war profiteering,
but also the restriction and criminalisation
of peoples and dissent in ideas."
"I hope that when Australians visit
the US that they are allowed to voice their
critcism of government and corporate policy
without fear of reprisal, and that they are
freely allowed to participate in peaceful
protest."
Update 15 September: Scott Parkin was taken
by government authorities to Melbourne airport
at 6am this morning and left on a Qantas flight
for Los Angeles at 10.46am. His plane is expected
to land at LA airport at around 7:00am LA
time where he is expected to transfer to a
domestic flight to Houston, Texas.
