Aborigines fear child removals in blitz on sex abuse

ABORIGINES fear police and troops will seize their children as part of a controversial clampdown aimed at preventing widespread sexual abuse, the Australian government admitted yesterday.

Amid reports that some Aborigines in the Northern Territory were preparing to flee their communities before authorities arrive, indigenous affairs minister, Mal Brough, has sought to reassure them about the government’s intentions.

Mr Brough said troublemakers were whipping up fear in the communities.

“The reason people are scared there at the moment is because people are putting around that the army are coming to take their children away, that the army is coming in to shoot the dogs and the government is going to take away their money and make them sit there and do what they’re told,” the minister told reporters.

Many Aborigines have a deep distrust of welfare authorities stemming from past policies that led to the so-called “stolen generation” of children who until the 1970s were taken from their parents and put into white foster homes.

Canberra began deploying police and soldiers to the Northern Territory outback this week under a controversial plan to combat widespread child sex abuse in Aboriginal communities.

The crackdown includes bans on alcohol and porno-graphy, and there will be child medical check-ups.

Aboriginal leaders gave a petition to Mr Brough yesterday condemning the plan, which involves Canberra taking control of Aboriginal land leases for five years.