Turnbull orders abuse probe
Print Edition
AUSTRALIA’S premier ordered a sweeping probe yesterday into alleged abuse at a juvenile detention center after video emerged of Aboriginal teens being tear-gassed, stripped naked and shackled to a chair.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he would launch a Royal Commission — Australia’s highest form of inquiry — and suggested that there had been an institutional cover-up of the scandal. Rights groups, however, scoffed at the cover-up claim, saying officials had ignored evidence of abuse in the corrections system for years.
The footage, which aired on Monday on the Australian Broadcasting Corp’s investigative program “Four Corners,” was filmed largely at a youth detention center in the Northern Territory city of Darwin between 2010 and 2015. Its release triggered a national uproar, with officials from the local level all the way up to the prime minister denying they had ever previously seen it.
“We are determined to get to the bottom of this, we’re determined to examine the extent to which there has been a culture of abuse and, indeed, whether there has been a culture of a cover-up,” Turnbull said.
When the tear gas incident occurred in 2014, officials said guards used the chemical to subdue six teens who had staged a riot. But closed circuit television and video footage filmed by staff at the center appears to show that the tear gas was used after just one teen escaped his cell, while the other five remained locked in their cells. The guards are heard laughing as the teens cough and cry after multiple shots of tear gas were fired into their isolation wing.
In another video, a guard is seen picking up a 13-year-old and hurling him across the room onto his bed.
Rights activists accused the government of ignoring the issue until it became public because the teens involved were indigenous. The Northern Territory has the highest rate of youth detention in the country, and 97 percent of its juvenile detainees are Aboriginal.
The Don Dale Youth Detention Centre has been the subject of complaints for years. Last year, a review by the Northern Territory Children’s Commissioner found an excessive use of solitary confinement and inappropriate use of restraints.
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