A group of Aboriginal elders has vowed to disrupt next year's
Commonwealth Games unless Prime Minister John Howard and others are
charged with genocide.
Federal Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock and Australian Federal Police
Commissioner Mick Keelty are also named as defendants in the writ.
The activists want the defendants to show cause why an investigation
into claims of acts of genocide against Indigenous communities should
not be carried out.
The group lodged a writ with the High Court in Melbourne.
Aboriginal elder Isabelle Coe says if the High Court fails to act on the
genocide claims, they will be taken to the International Crimes
Commission (ICC) at the Hague.
She says the group will also call on other countries to boycott the Games.
"This is the shame game," she said.
"We want to get our message out to the rest of the world and that the
genocide is continuing here in our country and we want to stop it.
"As a mother and grandmother, we're sick and tired of seeing our people,
old people, young people, dying in the thousands, thousands in this
country ... due to inter-generational effects of trauma and grief." |
