Accountability and justice must be delivered for yet another Aboriginal death in custody
Amnesty International is deeply disappointed by the Northern Territory Police Association President Vince Kelly’s comments alleging Aboriginal poor health and alcoholism as key factors contributing towards deaths in police custody.
“The tragic death of Terrance Briscoe last week highlights government inaction in implementing the recommendations made more than 20 years ago in Australia’s most significant inquiry into Aboriginal deaths in custody,” said Claire Mallinson, National Director of Amnesty International Australia.
“Mr Kelly’s comments simply ignore the underlying social, cultural and legal issues concerning Aboriginal deaths in custody that remain unaddressed in this county,” said Mallinson.
Amnesty International welcomes the coronial and police investigations into Mr Briscoe’s death but also calls for an impartial investigation of the highest standard, independent of the police responsible for Mr Briscoe’s custody.
“What we saw in the flawed police investigations into the deaths of Palm Islander Mulrunji Doomadgee and West Australian Aboriginal leader Mr Ward were systemic failures of authorities to deliver justice for these deaths and must not be repeated,” said Mallinson.
Amnesty International last year wrote to then Attorney-General Robert McLellend expressing concern about the outcome of investigations into the deaths of Mr Doomadgee and Mr Ward and urging him to take all possible steps to increase the protection of individuals held in police custody.
The organisation calls for all levels of government to implement the 339 recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in 1991.
“We are particularly concerned at the failure to implement the recommendations directed at ensuring all deaths in custody are as rigorously investigated as homicides in a transparent and impartial manner.
“People in custody must be treated in accordance with the international standards that Australia has sworn to uphold. It’s high time Federal, State and Territory Governments made sure that proper standards of care are implemented and adhered to,” said Mallinson.
Comments
Michael Wild | Posted on 12 January 2012, 04:50PM | Report comment
Well Lachlan, I’ve read most of the Coroner’s report and while I knew most of the stuff it sure makes bad reading. I didn’t know about the glaring police error of letting the two drivers to be together before the interviews. That’s incompetence in a key part of their job. I do hope this got noted on their personal files. Nevertheless, we don’t have the trouble of covering colleagues as in the Doomadgee case as the two individuals weren’t police but employees of a cowboy outfit. The coroner says some hard things about the two but states he did not believe “they deliberately caused harm to the deceased” (page 83). On p 117 he says the care and treatment or Mr Ward while in police custody was “quite good” and from when he entered the transport vehicle “disgracefully bad.”
All in all I see the two cases as very different and while there’s PLENTY of blame to go around I’m inclined to believe the Public Prosecutor probably knew what s/he was doing in not to going to a criminal court. While awful it’s not in the same league as what’s happening in Syria right now and you can surely bet they’ll be no coronial enquiry in any of the (UN estimated) 5 000 deaths since the start of the protests.
Michael Wild | Posted on 12 January 2012, 01:34AM | Report comment
Thanks Lachlan, you excellent (and no doubt under paid) research assistant. I’ll look at it tomorrow. As for Daniel, there IS a difference between dying because you had your liver ruptured in the course of a violent struggle when you are unarmed and outnumbered and dying from heat stroke because the driver thought the air conditioning was working when it had broken down. It’s a little unfortunate that you talk about being pedantic and then go right over the top with “roasted like a pig on a stick”. This might be good rhetoric but most people would take this to mean Mr Ward died from conscious, deliberate cruelty. In fact there are many countries where deliberate vicious maiming and sometimes lethal torture takes place. I’m sure you didn’t mean to but such talk cheapens and trivializes their suffering . For the record, of my own initiative I wrote to my local state MP and asked that at the very least these cowboys should have their contract cancelled. I got no reply.
Daniel Taylor | Posted on 11 January 2012, 07:55PM | Report comment
But there is a systemic failure to deliver accountability or justice in the case of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. This has always been the case. The truth is always muddied and hidden.
Lets not get caught up in pedantics here. Mr Ward was roasted like a pig on a spit and, his custodial guardians into whose care he had been placed, were given a fine.
Lachlan, Amnesty International Australia. | Posted on 11 January 2012, 05:04PM | Report comment
Hey Michael,
You can find our original statement about the flawed investigations on Aboriginal deaths in custody here: http://www.amnesty.org.au/news/comments/23331/
You might also be interested in the inquests findings concerning Mr. Ward’s death: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20090615/ward/ward_finding.pdf - specific comments about the deficiencies in the evidence collected by police can be found at pages 70-73 and again at 125-127.
There is also the accompanying ABC Four Corners episode which you can watch here: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20090615/ward/
Regards,
- Lachlan, Amnesty International Australia Web Team.
Michael Wild | Posted on 11 January 2012, 02:15PM | Report comment
I am aware of the clear failures of the justice system in the case of Mulrunji Doomadgee. But I’m not aware of any short comings in Mr Ward’s case in terms of the investigation or that the validity of its findings. As I live in WA I followed this case reasonably closely. Is there something I don’t know about?
While Claire Mallingston usually don’t over reach in her choice of words I think we did with the terms “deeply disappointed” in response to Mr Kelley’s statements. His statements about the poor physical health of indigenous Australians and the high right of alcoholism appear quite reasonable and it’s certainly reasonable that the head of the union is going to go into bat for his colleagues. It would be nice but rather unrealistic to expect him to discuss “social, cultural and legal” factors that we think so important. Terms like “deeply disappointed” should be reserved for things like the shameful Doomadgee case or the Sri Lankan report into the last few months of the war.