NSW:Detainees remain on Villawood roof

AAP General News (Australia)
04-25-2011
NSW:Detainees remain on Villawood roof

SYDNEY, April 25 AAP - Three detainees are still on the roof of Sydney's Villawood
Detention Centre as activists plan a protest to support them.

Social Justice Network spokesman Jamal Daoud says the immigration department has stopped
negotiating with the protesters.

"It's only the security guards from Serco (the private company operating the centre)
that are negotiating with them," Mr Daoud told AAP.

"They've been on hunger strike since Wednesday but they're taking water.

"They are very weak and distressed."

The protest is now in its sixth day with Iranian Majid Parhizkar, 24, and two stateless
Kurds, Mehdi and Amir, showing no sign of coming down from the rooftop.

A Department of Immigration spokeswoman told AAP the situation was still the same,
with the department providing water for the detainees but they would have to come down
to get food.

"The centre is calm," she said.

A riot by up to 100 detainees on Wednesday night left nine buildings at the detention
centre gutted by fire.

Twenty-two of the protesters were transferred to Silverwater Correctional Centre and
have been questioned by police, while the others are back inside the centre.

The Refugee Action Coalition is staging a rally at noon on Monday.

"The recent unrest in Villawood makes it extremely urgent to show community support
for refugees," Nick Riemer of the Refugee Action Coalition said in a statement.

"It's an extraordinary irony that both Labor and Coalition politicians talk of refugees
having committed crimes.

"The damage to property on Wednesday night is nothing compared to the brutalisation
of innocent lives caused by mandatory detention itself."

Police say they have no concerns about the march if it remains peaceful.

NSW Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch told reporters at the weekend that all members
of the community have the right to engage in peaceful and lawful protests.

"If that is the intent of this gathering on Monday, there will be no problem from us.

The only time it will become an issue is if people don't obey the direction of police
or act unlawfully," he said.

AAP lxs/wjf/jsh/jlw

KEYWORD: DETAINEES

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