Behrouz Boochani resists, climbs a tree in the Foxtrot compound on Manus Island

Mr Boochani has climbed a tree (video available on request) in the Foxtrot compound in order to stand against what he terms as a ‘new form of slavery’ which he has recently critically examined in his article A Critical Silence published on RAPBS website. A spokesperson for Boochani who is also detained in our black site says Mr Boochani ‘wants to show that he will not comply with Australia’s cruel offshore policy and current relocations. He does not want to kill himself or harm himself but instead to fight for humanity. VIVA Freedom’.

Mr Boochani, has chosen to resist the farcical conferring of a positive refugee status by PNG immigration upon him even as he has refused to give his claim for asylum to PNG. He has has climbed the tree and remains there.

I left my country because I am a liberal writer and I will always fight for democratic values even with my body’, writes Behrouz Boochani, Kurdish-Iranian journalist and writer detained in Australia’s black site on Manus Island.

RAPBS finds Mr Boochani’s identification of the use of his body in order to resist striking and hope it is met with the gravity it deserves.

Mr Boochani has requested that RAPBS send out the following statement to the media:
Tomorrow morning [24th April] they will move me to Oscar. I want to resist. They must take me by force. They said ‘you only have 15 minutes. If you resist we will take you by PNG police by force.’

I received a positive refugee status determination on 18 April 2016 from the PNG immigration. I arrived in Australia 3 years ago and asked Australia for asylum under international law. The Labour government of Australia exiled me to their prison camp in Manus Island PNG by force. I have been imprisoned here for almost 3 years and have been under a lot of pressure to fill in the protection application in PNG but I have constantly denied to do so. I did not arrive in PNG and did never give the PNG government my case for asylum. I have never wanted to resettle in this country.

This is part of my fight. I have worked hard and tirelessly during the last 3 years to send out Manus voice. I wrote lots of articles and pieces in my real name and fake name. I have worked hard with film-makers, fellow journalists, organisations and lawyers but now I want to send out Manus voice by my body. I don’t have any other way.

I don’t want to lose my personality. I don’t want to be a nameless detainee. ‘By the 19 July law our legal status has been suspended and we become legally un-nameable beings. We are made into non-beings without dignity. Think of Hamid Khazaei, his body was used to violently send a message to the world’ (Boochani, unpublished article, Nauru and Manus Islands and the law: The State of Exception).

This is a fight for Western democratic values of freedom, equality, the right to safety, the right to asylum, the right to freedom of speech and movement, and mutual respect. I will resist not for myself but for humanity values. I left my country because I am a liberal writer and I will always fight for democratic values even with my body.

I fight to show people that Australia has tortured people in this hell prison for three years.

RAPBS will release a further statement later in the day

Media Contact: Janet Galbraith 041839964
Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713

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