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彼らを「過去」へ追い返す
米国生まれの筆者が帰化したオーストラリアでは
難民受け入れが社会問題になっている。
ウーメラの難民収容所は、非人道的な扱いに対して
難民が起こした抗議運動で国際的な非難を受けた。
Sending THEM back
It was exactly 30 years ago this week that I first set foot on Australian soil. Less than four years later I became an Australian citizen.
Now, when you become a naturalized citizen of another country - something which most people do with a sense of joyous acceptance - you take on its long train of history: you are obliged to pull with you, into your future, its past burdens. I was only too aware of the racist elements in Australia's history, now my own by adoption. They were encapsulated in the then recently abandoned White Australia Policy, three words that speak volumes for a country's bigoted ethos.
But Australia in 1972 was on the verge of a brave, new experiment: the experiment
of multiculturalism. The proceeding decades of racial and ethnic liberalism left the earlier bigotry far behind. Or so I thought.
The past year has seen a reversal in that brave experiment. This reversal is evident in the present government's policy toward refugees.
Despite the fact that the government of John Howard committed Australian troops to the war in Afghanistan and has bent over backward to support Mr. Bush's threatened attacks on Iraq, it has refused entry to refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq on the grounds of illegal entry. These refugees have been either shunted off to neighboring countries or put in detention centers.
The most notorious detention center for refugees is located
in a small town called Woomera, some 500 km from Adelaide on the edge of one of the world's largest deserts. It is here that many of these refugees - some of whom have been kept for up to three years waiting to be "processed" - have been denied proper medical care and humane treatment. It is the children in particular who have suffered.
Amnesty International has deplored the treatment of children at Woomera, where guards have been known to "restrain" them by forcing them to take drugs. The center has been plagued by hunger strikes in which children have sewn their lips together in protest. Australia is the only democracy in the world to detain and torment children under such conditions.
And yet the Howard government has ignored all pleas on behalf of the detained refugees in this detention center, which, incidentally, is run not by the Australian government but by an offshoot of the American Wackenhut Corrections Corporation.
It is one year since refugees were saved from drowning by the Norwegian ship Tampa. New Zealand has taken in a large number of them, and they are assimilating well, with government support, into New Zealand society. In the meantime, the Australia that shows its face to the world in 2002 is an Australia run by mean-spirited, bigoted, cynically opportunistic politicians.
I would be ashamed of being an Australian if I did not think that the burden of carrying these politicians could not be lifted easily ... by detaching us from them and sending THEM back to the past in which they belong.
Shukan ST: Sept. 13, 2002
(C) All rights reserved
- naturalized citizen
- 帰化した市民
- with a sense of joyous acceptance
- 喜んで受け入れる気持ちをもって
- take on
- 受け継いで引っ張る
- are obliged to pull with you, into your future, its past burdens
- 国の過去の重荷を引っ張りながら自分の将来に進んで行かざるをえない
- racist elements
- 人種差別的側面
- now my own by adoption
- 今や自ら受け入れて自分の歴史となった
- were encapsulated in 〜
- 〜に包まれていた
- then recently abandoned White Australia Policy
- 当時放棄されたばかりだった(有色人種の移民を許さぬ)白豪主義政策
- speak volumes
- 多くを語る
- bigoted ethos
- 偏狭な精神
- was on the verge of 〜
- まさに〜をしようとしていた
- proceeding decades
- 続く数十年
- bigotry
- 偏狭さ
- reversal
- 逆行
- refugees
- 難民
- committed(to 〜)
- (〜に)送った
- has bent over backward to
- 〜するために何でもしてきた
- has refused entry to 〜
- 〜の入国を拒否した
- have been either shunted off to neighboring countries or put in detention centers
- 近隣諸国に追いやられるか、収容所に入れられるかした
- notorious
- 悪名高い
- be "processed"
- 「処理」される
- proper medical care
- ちゃんとした医療
- humane treatment
- 人道的な取り扱い
- has deplored
- 嘆いた
- "restrain"
- 「抑制する」
- has been plagued by 〜
- 〜に悩まされている
- have sewn their lips together
- 自分たちの唇を針と糸で縫い合わせた
- democracy
- 民主主義国
- detain
- 拘束する
- torment
- 苦しめる
- pleas
- 嘆願
- offshoot
- 傘下の組織
- American Wackenhut Corrections Corporation
- 矯正施設を運営しているアメリカの会社
- are assimilating
- 同化している
- detaching
- 切り離す