Mulrunji - we want justice!
BushTelegraph
web at http://bushtelegraph.wordpress.com/mulrunji-letter/
Community Meetings held at Jagera Hall, South Brisbane, chaired by Sam
Watson have conducted a campaign to obtain justice for Mulrunji, his
family, and members of the Palm Island Community.
Please ask people to sign this letter online by placing your name in
the 'Mulrunji' section provided online. Please also circulate this
letter either electronically or in printed form (and return to the
address provided on the letter).
There is a Rally and March to be held on the 2nd anniversary of
Mulrunji's death at Queens Park this Saturday, 18 November 2006
starting at 11am.
The letter is attached for those that cannot access the letter online.
Please send signed copies of the letter to the postal address shown at
the top of the letter.
This is a collective letter to voice petitioners concerns about the
failure of the Queensland Government to act on the Mulrunji petition
handed to the Premier at the gates of parliament on 10 October 2006.
Any queries please contact Sam Watson on mob 0401 227 443
BushTelegraph
West End 4101
Your Ref: MCU
Open Letter to Peter Beattie MP
Premier and Minister for Trade
Queensland Government
Dear sir,
We refer to your proforma letter dated 31 October 2006 in reply to the
petition of 1160 people delivered to you by Alec Doomadgee in the
company of 150 other petitioners at the gates of parliament on 10
October 2006.
The thrust of the petition was that you instruct the Police
Commissioner to terminate the employment of Senior Sergeant Hurley on
the basis that he killed Mulrunji Doomadgee in the police watch house
on Palm Island on 19 November 2004 as indicated by the acting coroner
in her judgment dated 3 October 2006.
We note that you have taken no such action
We were in attendance when you stated the following at the gates of
parliament:
"Many people said at the beginning (when Mulrunji died) that there
would not be due process...I said at the time that the coroner would go
through due process and the matter would be followed appropriately and
that's what has happened."
Please indicate to us why the following actions (of due process) have
not yet been taken?
1. Why Snr. Sgt. Hurley was not charged from the outset by the internal
police prosecutions unit?
2. Alternatively, why the DPP has not charged him long before this?
3. Why the police commissioner has failed to stand Snr Sgt Hurley down
from day one in the same way as any Qld public servant would have been
stood down (given the serious allegations made when Mulrunji was killed
by Snr Sgt Hurley)?
4. Why have those people who rioted on Palm Island following the death
have been charged and punished in jail while no one has been charged
with Mulrunji's killing?
5. Why no action has been taken against the police who witnessed
Mulrunji crying out for help from the cell after being fatally injured,
with no help being given?
6. Why no effort has been made to discover what motivated the police in
attendance for their conduct as they saw images from the cell video of
Mulrunji, writhing in pain as he lay dying on the cell floor (p26 of
her "Finding of Inquest")?
7. Why Snr Sgt Hurley has not been charged with perjury for the lies he
used to accommodate the medical evidence in the second autopsy (p22 of
her "Finding of Inquest")?
8. Why both your government and previous Labour governments have not
implemented the detailed recommendations of the Royal Commission into
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991 (p28 of her "Findings of
inquest)?
This list of 'due process' as you called it (or more correctly the
failure of due process) on 10 October 2006 at the gates of parliament
is not exhaustive in these matters.
We note that in reply to our petition you state:
"A high level response team is currently undertaking an urgent
assessment of the recommendations of the Acting State Coroner's
report in this tragic death."
9. Why does this statement in your letter still fail to acknowledge
that Mulrunji was killed and that the finding of inquest was that
Senior Sergeant Hurley's changed recollection and reconstruction of
where he (Mulrunji) had fallen, occurred after he knew exactly what
injury had caused Mulrunji's death (i.e. the three punches delivered
by Snr Sgt Hurley)[p26 Finding of Inquest].
10. Why have Snr Sgt Hurley's colleagues from the Townsville CIB not
been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in their
collusion with said Snr Sgt to cover up his crimes? (pp 9, 10, 12, 16,
and finding 28 at p31 of Finding of Inquest).
11. Why you have not issued an apology to members of the Palm Island
community for your precipitate and unreasonable actions in sending the
riot squad into that community to harass them when it has proven that
their concerns about the attempted cover up of the killing of Mulrunji
proved justified.
Please indicate when the assessment of the high level response team
will be complete and when we may see a reply to the questions listed
1-11 above?
Yours faithfully,
NAME:
ADDRESS:
SIGNATURE:
Dated:
willybach
Please add my name to your list of supporters of this letter to Peter Beattie.
The Beattie government have indeed a case to answer on these points.
Willy Bach
2/370 Montague Road
West End
Qld 4101
willybach
Please tell Sam Watson and friends that I have signed the petition, I support the letter to Peter Beattie with no reservations. I would be there if I was not away in London right now.
I think every single MP in Qld should get a copy and be asked whether they support or oppose - then publish the result on your web site.
I would be very interested to know if the ABC, the Courier Mail and other outlets were going to publish this. I suggest send it to Tony Jones at Lateline (ABC TV) and Phillip Adams at Late Night Live (ABC RN).
Good luck
Regards
Willy Bach
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From: "BushTelegraph" <ian...@optusnet.com.au>
To: "Brisbane Anti-War Co-ordinating Committee" <BA...@googlegroups.com>