Armchair’ activist retreats after supporting Manus Island asylum riots REFUGEE advocate and lawyer Greg Barns has retreated from tweets in which he supported rioting on Manus Island as Immigration Minister Peter Dutton ramped up the pressure on armchair activists, urging them to stop encouraging disruptive behaviour. Mr Barns, who quit the Liberal Party over its asylum-seeker policies, yesterday conceded he should have been more circumspect after he tweeted at 6:22pm on Sunday night: “I support riots on Manus. There is no other way to end the cruelty”. Mr Barns, who is a former chair of the Australian Republican Movement, tweeted again eight minutes later: “When there is a refusal to lift cruel regime violence is the only answer. Prison riots in Australia worked.” The activist’s backdown came as Mr Dutton continued his criticism of irresponsible media coverage of the protests, singling out the ABC, and hit out at refugee advocates who were encouraging asylum seekers to protest. “People sitting in comfortable surrounds who advocate violence, illegal behaviour or self-harm are counterproductive at best — they can represent a danger to those whom they claim to help,” Mr Dutton told The Australian. Former immigration minister Philip Ruddock said people who encouraged asylum-seekers to protest often had a “fairly narrow view of humanity” and warned their comments could have dire consequences. “There seems to be ways and means for people in detention to be appraised of the views that are expressed more broadly and it’s hard to believe that opinions like this so, openly expressed, would not come to the attention of detainees,” he said. Reports continued of hunger strikes involving up to 700 detainees despite authorities restoring order to the facility on Monday by breaking up an organised protest amounting to what the government described as a “blockade”. Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said a further seven people were arrested yesterday morning and some were still being held in isolation. Mr Dutton said he would soon visit Cambodia after reports emerged its government received an in-principle agreement from the International Organisation for Migration to oversee the transfer of refugees from Nauru under its resettlement deal with Australia. Mr Barns, who was disendorsed as a candidate for the Tasmanian seat of Denison in 2002, said his comments were hampered by Twitter’s character limitations. “What I was trying to get across is that people are desperate in undertaking these sorts of activities,” he said. “But I should have been more circumspect … In hindsight, I am more than happy to accept the criticism. I don’t disagree that we ought to try and get a constructive dialogue going.” Refugee lawyer David Manne said it was inevitable advocates would report on events especially given the “secrecy” surrounding government policy. “It’s been a long standing tactic of governments in these situations to try and divert attention from the real causes of unrest and despair by blaming others and attributing blame,” he said.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 17:48:10 +0000