Dear Kerry O'Brien and 7.30 researchers,

I have just returned from the Northern Territory. I want John Howard
to explain why house to house raids without warrants are being
conducted by the AFP in all the Alice Springs town camps.
I also want to know why at least two of the senior women who toured
major cities speaking out against a uranium waste dump on their
traditional lands have been raided by the AFP on warrants issued by a
Federal Magistrate in Canberra, their furniture slashed with knives,
belongings damages, laptops and mobile phones seized, and phones
tapped. I was told by one of the women that the warrant gave 12 hours
access to her home, and that she was told that the measures were
justified because of the security crackdown for APEC ministers. One
of those women is an elderly grandmother.

I have also been told by town camp residents that the AFP has set up
surveillance on all households in the town camps, and have
photographed without consent, every Aboriginal child in those town
camps. In the 1990s the AFP were successfully taken to court for
exactly the same violations in Redfern.

Please report on this disgraceful conduct, and pursue a full
explanation from the Howard Government.

regards,
Jennifer Martiniello
Member, Advisory Board
Australian Centre for Indigenous History,
Australian National University