SIEVX Letters
Sydney Morning Herald
2 July 2003

Time to get to the bottom of SIEV X
Tony Kevin

A "sleazy" SIEV X campaign? Paul Sheehan ("Truth still the casualty of a just war", Herald, June 30) should get his facts right. What some are seeing as the premeditated murder of up to 353 people and the subsequent alleged cover-up of that crime by Australian national security agencies were not acts in any "just war".

Last December the Australian Senate voted for a full-powers independent judicial enquiry into the sinking of SIEV X - a motion the Government is ignoring. On February 5, the chairman of the Senate committee that investigated SIEV X, Peter Cook, cast grave doubts in the Senate on the integrity of official testimony on which his committee had relied.

The "sleaziness" of the SIEV X story lies in the continuing efforts by the Howard Government to cover up the extent of its own implication in this. But they will not succeed; the evidence is building.

Tony Kevin, Canberra (ACT), June 30.


Paul Sheehan has a very narrow view of the SIEV X tragedy.

Much more than the Defence Force was involved. The Senate has called for a judicial inquiry into Australia's involvement in the people smuggling disruption task force which was operating in Indonesia.

Tony Kevin has raised serious questions about this tragedy and a complete explanation as to the circumstances of their deaths has not been forthcoming. A judicial inquiry is the only way to get the full story.

Kay Kan, Cheltenham, July 1.

 

X-URL: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/01/1056825392784.html

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