Nauru Govt reveals proof that some media and refugee advocates have extreme political agenda
The Government of Nauru has accused
sections of the Australian media, refugee advocates and lawyers of
double standards, noting that they are more concerned about bashing
Nauru than protecting children.
Justice Minister David Adeang revealed that a recent allegation by
a refugee that his six year old daughter had been sexually
assaulted received no interest from the media or from refugee
groups when they discovered the accused was another refugee.
"It didn't suit their story, because they wanted to once again
point the finger at a Nauruan and spread the lies that Nauru is a
dangerous place," he said.
Mr Adeang said that one media outlet ran the headline of a child
being assaulted in Nauru but "dropped the story completely" when it
was revealed that a local was not the alleged perpetrator.
He said other news outlets, who would "usually be running headline
stories and be onto us every day" ignored the story completely, and
every refugee advocate and lawyer stopped commenting once they
found out there was no political mileage to be gained.
"In every single other allegation of this sort, the media and
advocates build these things - which are almost always lies - up so
they can trash our country to further their political fight against
the Australian Government.
"This proves that they don't care about the children, but only
about how they can exploit the children for their cause. If they
really cared about the children why would the nationality of the
accused matter?"
Mr Adeang said police in this case did what they always did and
investigated the allegation properly. While this matter is still
with the Director of Public Prosecutions, he noted that almost all
allegations of assault by refuges are unsubstantiated allegations
with no physical evidence, witnesses or details.
"It is very unfortunate that advocates and lawyers in Australia
are telling refugees here that fabricating allegations of assault
will help them get to Australia, because it won't."
He also pointed to recent issues of "blatant bias" including a
recent media report that showed pictures of a broken-down building
in the Nauru hospital the day before a new $27 million hospital
facility was opened.
"The journalist had the new pictures but failed to even mention
the new hospital, because it clearly didn't suit the agenda."
Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young also tweeted two-year
old pictures of the old hospital the day before the opening, a move
the Government said was "clearly designed to misrepresent the
facts".