NEWS.com.au | Payback warning targets police (November 30, 2004)

NEWS.com.au Payback warning targets police (November 30, 2004)



If these people were NOT Aboriginal they would have been shot just like any other gang of criminal thugs prepared to riot and attempt to murder Police.
Bogs Doddy.

Payback warning targets police
By Roberta Mancuso
November 30, 2004

AN indigenous leader has issued a chilling warning of "payback" against police and an eruption of violence across Australia if charges against those arrested for rioting on Palm Island are not dropped.


Warning ... activist Murrandoo Yanner / File picture


Eighteen men yesterday faced a north Queensland court charged with offences ranging from arson to serious assault on police following last Friday's violent riots, sparked by the death in custody of a local man.

The island community erupted in anger after an initial autopsy revealed Cameron Doomadgee sustained four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen and liver during a scuffle with a police officer during his arrest on November 19.

"If we're not going to get it through white law, we will take it through our own means, through Aboriginal law which has payback," Aboriginal activist Murrandoo Yanner warned today.

"When someone's killed, someone must be killed in return.

"If this policeman isn't punished, jailed or charged with murder, under the law, if you can't get one policeman you get another."

All but one of the 18 charged over the riots – during which the island's police station, court house and barracks were torched – were denied bail.

Most will re-appear in Townsville Magistrates Court on Monday.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie responded to the remarks this afternoon and called for calm in the area.

"I just urge everyone to calm it down and let the CMC do its work," he said.

But Mr Yanner warned of deadly repercussions if the Queensland Government did not drop the charges as "a gesture of goodwill and reconciliation".

"There will be great trouble right across Aboriginal Australia," he said.

"I'm hoping to avoid that, that's why I'm calling on the Government to immediately release them and withdraw charges, otherwise we're going to fight and resist it.

"I can certainly guarantee in my neck of the woods, the lower Gulf of Carpentaria, we will up the ante on the police, we will have a lot more civil disobedience, we will do the Ghandi/Martin Luther thing, we'll just totally be non-cooperative with police to an amazing degree they have never encountered before.

"We'll have people turn a blind eye ... the police will have no assistance whatsoever in our communities, and if in fact they'll be lucky not to be assaulted and other things."

Mr Beattie has ruled out community-based punishment for the 18 accused Aboriginal rioters despite a traditional court on the island. He said they should face Queensland's court system.

Mr Yanner will attend Mr Doomadgee's funeral, which was expected to be held next week following a second autopsy.

He said Aboriginal Australia was looking at Palm Island with great pride and satisfaction.

"We look around at Palm Island, Redfern, and go bloody good on ya, one for us. I can't wait until I have my go," Mr Yanner said.

"Aboriginal Australia loves those moments.

"They're moments to be extremely proud of."

AAP