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Vol. 73/No. 18      May 11, 2009

 
Hundreds demand justice for
Aborigine killed in custody
 
BY BOB AIKEN  
SYDNEY, Australia—Some 300 people rallied in Perth, Australia, April 3 in conjunction with an inquest into the death of an Aboriginal man in January 2008 while in custody. Ward, a 46-year-old Aboriginal elder of the Ngaanyatjarra people, died while being transported some 360 kilometers (200 miles) through desert heat in the back of a prison van. (His family does not want his first name published for cultural reasons.) An inquest into Ward's death began more than a year later on March 10 in Warburton, his home district, some 960 miles northeast of Perth, and continued in Kalgoorlie March 18-20.

“We hold the state of Western Australia responsible,” rally organizer Marc Newhouse told the Militant in a phone interview.

Ward was arrested for drunk driving in Laverton Jan. 26, 2008. After locking him up overnight in the police station the cops organized to have him transported, without consideration of his right to bail, to the prison in Kalgoorlie. The temperature that day was 42ºC (108ºF). The inquest was told that during a reenactment of Ward's trip on a slightly cooler day the temperature in the back of the van reached 122ºF. Temperatures on the van's metal surfaces inside the lockup reached 133ºF.

Two security guards from Global Solutions, which has a contract to transport prisoners in Western Australia, admitted at the inquest that despite the run-down state of the prison van they had not checked whether the air-conditioning in the secure section was working. Nor had they stopped during the four-hour drive to Kalgoorlie to check on Ward's condition or give him a toilet break and food and water. Ward was dead by the time the van reached the prison. The two security guards continue to transport prisoners. Demands raised at the protest action in Perth, called by the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, included dismissal of the two guards, prosecution of those responsible for Ward's death, and compensation to Ward's family. Newhouse said that further protests were planned outside the Global Solutions offices in south Perth May 11-14 when the coroner's inquiry was due to resume. A busload of Ward's supporters would also travel from Perth to Kalgoorlie to witness the hearings over that period. The Watch Committee is also planning another major protest after the coroner's report is released. “The coroner's court” in Western Australia “has never had charges laid against a Corrective Services [prison] officer or a police officer” over an Aboriginal death in custody, Newhouse said.  
 
 
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