Intervention critics write to Obama

Critics of the federal government's intervention into Aboriginal communities have
written to US President Barack Obama ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd.
The letter includes statements from a number of Aboriginal leaders, activists and
organisations across Australia, voicing their strong opposition to the measures
intended to combat child sexual abuse.
Intervention activist Barbara Shaw, from the Mt Nancy town camp in Alice Springs,
said more than 20 statements were included in the letter, which was mailed to the US
president earlier this week.
"We want him to be aware of what's happening in Australia so the two leaders can sit
down and talk about what's going on with the indigenous people in their countries,"
she told AAP on Friday.
Ms Shaw said she hoped Mr Obama would raise the issue of the intervention when the
two leaders meet at the White House next week for their first face-to-face meeting
since they both took office.
"The intervention is not protecting our children," she told AAP.
"It is pushing Aboriginal people further below the poverty line and the new Rudd
government has not made any positive changes to the intervention."
In her letter to the president, Ms Shaw called the intervention "racially
discriminatory and oppressive".
"It seems clear that, under the camouflage of child abuse and alcohol abuse, the
agenda of the intervention is a land grab," said her letter on the behalf of
Intervention Rollback Action Group.
In his statement to Mr Obama, Dr Djiniyini Gondarra tells the US president that
successive Australian governments have suppressed his "culture, land, law and
people".
"I am writing to you as a fellow black citizen of the world, to express my
concerns," said the traditional owner from Elcho Island.
"My people are treated with neither the rights of sovereigns or citizens of this
country. We have been abandoned."
Yananymul Mununggurr, an elected councillor of the East Arnhem Shire Council,
included a letter she sent to Mr Rudd on behalf of Yolngu clans in February this
year.
It calls for the intervention into Aboriginal communities to be scrapped and for
Aboriginal people to be recognised in the constitution.
The government is also urged to make good on an election promise to sign and
implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples, and to reinstate
the Racial Discrimination Act.
The Act was suspended to roll out the more controversial elements of the
intervention such as compulsory income management.
"There is certainly nothing dignified about losing your human rights as a human
being, based on being an Aboriginal citizen," the letter said.
"We are asking you to stop the intervention, protect our human rights and dignity
and lead us to unity."
Last year, Mr Rudd talked down plans for a referendum aimed at constitutional
reform, saying the government was more focused on practical challenges.
His government also confirmed earlier this month that Labor had no intention of
rolling back the intervention program, and would continue funding its law and order
measures for the next three years.
Ms Mununggurr said she had also invited Mr Obama to visit her in Yirrkala to meet
with people directly affected by the intervention.
During his two-week visit to America, Mr Rudd will hold a series of high-level
meetings with key officials such as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal
Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.