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Sovereign Union: Urgent letter to UN Ambassadors, New York

12 December 2012 (Letter sent to all UN Ambassadors in New York)

Your Excellency,

Re: 12 December 2012 Assault on Aboriginal Embassy in Brisbane by colonial authorities

Just after midnight on 12 December 2012 eighty police, firemen and council workers stormed the Brisbane Aboriginal Embassy for no justifiable reason. The Embassy has been established for the last nine months, as a focal point for Aboriginal expression and representation of issues. Our Aboriginal Embassies are no longer viewed as protests, but as an expression of our continuing sovereignty in our own land.

The government in Australia knows full well that individual Aboriginal Nations represent their own Nation's interests. Musgrave Park was chosen as the site for the Brisbane Embassy, because it is a well-known gathering place for our people, who come from different nations. It has been used as a meeting place by Aboriginal people from all over Queensland and other states for the last 80 years or more. Musgrave Park has offered sanctuary as a meeting place for all that time and is respected as a neutral zone by so many people from different nations.

The Brisbane Musgrave Park Embassy has been distributing information and holding discussions expressing the plight of their respective nations and communities. Recently the Brisbane Embassy hosted a conference on Sovereignty and the fraudulent Native Title system. It is not surprising that the invading colonial state of Queensland seeks to silence these expressions.

The midnight invasion by police, firemen and council workers dousing the Sacred Fire is a grave insult to First Nations Peoples across the continent. The Sacred Fire is recognised by all Aboriginal Nations because of its ceremonial, spiritual and religious significance. All Aboriginal Embassies in Australia have a Sacred Fire burning. This act alone by the invading colonial forces is a very serious breach of our spiritual and religious freedoms.

The actions, in the first instance, of the arresting police in the cover of darkness clearly demonstrates that Australia fails to have laws to protect people's rights to freely express their political and legal concerns with respect to social justice matters. While governments boast freedom of speech for the media, it is evident that oppressed and politically displaced people do not have the same rights.

Throughout the presence of the Aboriginal Embassy in Musgrave Park, Brisbane, the general public has engaged with it on a regular basis, particularly in their desires to learn more about the political and social justice fight of our People. The Embassy has never viewed itself as a protest, but rather as an autonomous Embassy that is a one-stop shop for all Aboriginal nations in the State of Queensland.

We are seeking from the United Nations a resolution to protect the Aboriginal Embassies that have been and will be established all over this continent. The Embassies themselves are a reflection of Aboriginal Nations and Peoples expressing their position in respect to our continuing sovereignty, which we argue has never been ceded, nor have we acquiesced to the colonial state of Australia, be it State, Federal or Commonwealth. This is an ongoing issue between Aboriginal Nations and Peoples, the British and Australia.

We are respectfully requesting that you intervene, on our behalf, by asking the Australian state to:

  1. Explain why they fail to engage with individual Aboriginal Nations across this continent to negotiate a treaty, or a comprehensive social justice package including land rights and royalties to the natural resources being exploited in and on their territories, so that we can advance our own self-determining ambitions in respect to economic development and maintenance of language and culture, thereby maintaining our inherent right to our identity;
  2. Ensure that the Aboriginal Embassies are afforded the right to exist and be given neutrality just as other embassies have all over the world in accordance with the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning friendly relations and co-operation among States UN General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV) 24 October 1970. [1]
  3. Fully implement the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide[2] thereby giving protection to Aboriginal Nations and Peoples across this continent from implementing policies that are genocidal.
  4. Implement the Theo van Boven principles[3] in order to remedy and reparate Aboriginal Nations and Peoples for the gross violations suffered after the blatant breaches of international law and thereby heeding UN GA resolution 637 A (VII) 16 December 1952[4];

    In conclusion, a fully effective domestic law against genocide should be a fundamental prerequisite for a UN member state being able to pass judgement on other countries, while occupying a seat on the Security Council.

We look forward to your reply.

Sincerely

Michael Anderson,
Chair, Interim National Unity Government
Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia - www.sovereignunion.mobi
and Leader of the Euahlayi Nation, Mogila Station, PO Box 55, Goodooga, NSW 2838
ghillar29@gmail.com Mobile: +61 (0) 427 292 492 Ph: +61 (0) 2 68296355

[1] UN General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV) 24 October1970: ... Every State has the duty to promote, through joint and separate action, realization of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter, and to render assistance to the United Nations in carrying the responsibilities and entrusted to it by the Charter regarding the implementation of the principle announced in order;

[2] No legal action can be brought against perpetrators of genocide unless it is approved by the Attorney-general and there is no right of appeal if she/he refuses. [INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS) ACT 2002 - Section 268.121 - 268.122.]

[3] ECOSOC Resolution 2005/30: Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law

[4] UN GA resolution 637 A (VII) 16 December 1952 ...the rights of peoples and nations of self-determination is a prerequisite to the full enjoyment of all fundamental human rights... take practical steps, pending the realization of the right of self-determination and in preparation thereof, to ensure the direct participation of the indigenous populations in the legislative and executive organs of government of those territories, and to prepare them for complete self-government or independence.