The Hindu : Front Page : No clampdown on visas: Australia

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Thursday, Jul 12, 2007
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No clampdown on visas: Australia

Sandeep Dikshit

Australian Defence Minister agrees that investigation should be through proper channels

— Photo: AFP

Sorting it out: The visiting Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson (left) with Army Chief General J.J. Singh, Naval Chief Sureesh Mehta and an Air Force official in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Australia has acknowledged the need to conduct investigations in India against Mohammed Haneef (detained in Brisbane in connection with the failed Glasgow bombings) through proper channels and assured New Delhi that there would be no clampdown on visas on ethnic considerations.

Paying tribute to the role of the Indian community, especially doctors, in modern Australia, the visiting Defence Minister Brendan Nelson expressed satisfaction with the investigations being conducted by India. He hoped that both countries would arrive at an institutional arrangement that would avoid such probes falling into procedural tangles.

Reacting to queries about a report in The Hindu that India did not welcome “casual and informal inquiries” by a visiting Australian police officer, Dr. Nelson said he was aware of the issue. “India had said such in vestigations should be through proper processes. It is being negotiated. It is very important that they be so. Courtesy suggests and we also recognise that we have to develop some mutual arrangements in order to expedite deliberations like these in future. We need to be mindful and respectful of the fact that we are two different sovereign countries with different ways of approaching a similar issue.”

Declining to share details of the investigations, he gave the assurance that the Australian approach was “a person was innocent unless proved otherwise.” Pointing out that that Dr. Haneef’s detention was approved by a magistrate, he indicated no time period for his imprisonment without charges.

“Investigations are of national and international level. And the period of detention is approved by a judge. So it requires the police to convince the magistrate that it requires more time to detain a person. The investigations are complex and time consuming.

“The period of detention will be a combination of police satisfying itself with the probe and convincing the judge that it is following a reasonable course of action. It is important that all lines of enquiries are completed. In my view, the police has been absolutely thorough and scrupulous. Australian Federal Police in cooperation with other international agencies is considering a significant amount of material.”

Pointing out that he was a physician by training and former president of the Australian Doctors Association, Dr. Nelson said, “I am aware that there are issues involving the detention of an Indian doctor in Australia in matters involving terrorist activity in Glasgow and London. There are a number of other Indian doctors who have been questioned. I want to say as a former president of the Australian Doctors Association that the country’s health care system is of a very high standard due to the hard work, dedication, professionalism and sacrifices of Indian doctors.”

Doctors of Indian origin, he said, had made “key contributions” in the leadership in the medical community and health care, particularly in regional and rural areas of Australia. “There are over 1,56,000 Indians in Australia who have key contributions to modern Australia.”

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