A New Devil's Island?

In case your memory is not as good as it should be, Devil's Island was a French penal colony off the Coast of Guyana, known as French Guiana, back in the day. It was used from 1854 to 1952. France sent prisoners that it did not want to deal with to the colony. Kinda like "outta sight, outta mind".

It was condemned by the world as cruel and unusual punishment. The international outcries assisted in the closing of the facility.

Now guess what? There is a new Devil's Island in the making. What are you talking about, Professor?

Ever hear of a small South Pacific Island nation known as Nauru? Probably not! anyway, it is a small nation in the Pacific whose main export and source of income was phosphates. Recently the 13,000 inhabitants had run out of phosphates and the future was not looking very bright for the country. Then Australia's conservative government of John Howard came to the rescue. Now that was very thoughtful of them, right Professor?

Not hardly! It seems that the little country in exchange for Australian aid has agreed to run a holding camp for refugees hoping to immigrate to Australia. There are 89 refugees being held on the Island, most from Sri Lanka, the camp is cruel and indefinite exile. They have no legal representation, for Nauru denies visas for lawyers and even an Australian human rights organization has not been allowed on the Island.

So the people on Nauru are being treated just as badly as those on the original Devil's Island and no one can get there to help, thanks to the government of Australia, who is paying the Nauru to act as their "Gitmo".

Am I mistaken or isn't Australia a democracy? Another poster child for democracy. Shame that we will not get all the info from the media. Stories like this need to be reported before it is too late to save these people from starvation and cruelty.


CHUQ