Wednesday, October 20, 2010



McCully ignores torture

Murray McCully is in Indonesia at the moment, talking trade (of course) and closer cooperation. Meanwhile, the Indonesian military are torturing people in West Papua [graphic video]. McCully's response? "I know nothing!"

As that Scoop story points out, this is almost certainly bullshit. That video has gone around the world. Its been in all the major media, and major governments and NGOs have commented on it. His office has been specifically informed about it. It beggars belief that MFAT would not have briefed him on it. Either they are grossly incompetent (which I find hard to believe), or the Minister was briefed and chose to remain silent in the face of clear evidence of torture. Which is it?