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Peter Tatchell Addresses
Australian Rights Meeting - By Phone

Compiled by GayToday

Peter Tatchell: Defying Australian government

London, England--Defying attempts by the Australian government to silence and exclude him, banned human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was the keynote speaker at a meeting in Brisbane on Friday.

He was to address the meeting in person, until the Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock refused to grant him a visa. Unable to travel to Australia, Mr. Tatchell spoke to the meeting by phone link from his home in London.

In his talk on human rights themes, he said:

"My bid to get the Australian authorities to arrest President Mugabe on charges of torture under Australia's Crimes (Torture) Act 1988 will continue, despite my exclusion from the country. The campaign will not stop until Mugabe is behind bars, which is where he belongs".

Mr. Tatchell will also accuse the Australian government of doing a deal with Mugabe:

"Did President Mugabe seek and receive assurances from the Australian government that he would not be arrested at the Commonwealth summit? The bloody dictator of Zimbabwe would not dare set foot in Australia without first getting a guarantee of immunity from prosecution. If this is the case, John Howard's government is guilty of collusion with a notorious human rights abuser".

"President Mugabe was aware that I was seeking to have him arrested under Australia's Crimes (Torture) Act, and that I have affidavits from Ray Choto and Mark Chavunduka attesting to their torture, allegedly on his orders. These affidavits provide the legal basis for Mugabe's arrest and trial under the Australian anti-torture law".

"Did Mugabe demand that I be excluded from Australia as a condition of his attendance at CHOGM? Did the Australian government give him an undertaking that he would not be arrested under the Crimes (Torture) Act?"

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"President Mugabe must be overjoyed that Philip Ruddock has got rid of me. The Australian government seems more interested in appeasing a tyrant like Mugabe than in standing up for the human rights of the people of Zimbabwe", Tatchell told Friday's Brisbane meeting.