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Indigenous Leaders Condemn Australian PM Treatment
January 27, 2012

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, second from left, is escorted out for safety by body guards and police through a crowd of rowdy protesters following a ceremony to mark Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard, second from left, is escorted out for safety by body guards and police through a crowd of rowdy protesters following a ceremony to mark Australia's national day in Canberra, Australia on Thursday. Some 200 supporters of indigenous rights surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged its windows on Thursday while Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside officiating at an award ceremony. (AP Photo/Lukas Coch)
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Sydney. Australian indigenous leaders on Friday said they were appalled at the disrespect shown to Prime Minister Julia Gillard after she had to be dragged to safety from furious Aboriginal rights protesters.

Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were bundled out of a Canberra restaurant by security service agents on Thursday after it was surrounded by activists pounding the windows chanting “shame” and “racist.”

As Gillard was rushed to a waiting car, she dramatically stumbled and lost a shoe in ugly scenes that were beamed around the world.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda said the level of disrespect shown to the prime minister was disgraceful.

“An aggressive, divisive and frightening protest such as this has no place in debates about the affairs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or in any circumstances,” he told ABC radio.

“While we need to acknowledge that there’s a real anger, frustration and hurt that exists in some indigenous communities around Australia, we must not give in to aggressive and disrespectful actions ourselves.”

The protestors had been attending so-called “Invasion Day” commemorations at the nearby Aboriginal tent embassy, a permanent camp of indigenous activists celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

They took offense at comments by Abbott that the embassy may have reached its use-by date and besieged the restaurant when they discovered he was inside attending a ceremony with Gillard.

“Invasion Day,” celebrated as Australia Day by most of the nation, marks the day in 1788 when the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove and proclaimed British sovereignty over the country.

Gooda said the protesters went too far.

“The point could have been made more peacefully and respectfully,” he said.

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine, a former president of the Australian Labor Party, said those responsible should be charged.

“No human being, let alone the prime minister of this country, should be treated in such a way,” he told ABC.

“I believe the people who instigated, the people who have caused this to happen, the full force of the law should come down upon them.”

Aborigines, whose cultures stretch back tens of thousands of years, are believed to have numbered around one million at the time of British settlement, but there are now just 470,000 out of a total population of 22 million.

They have become Australia’s most disadvantaged minority, with shorter life expectancy and much higher rates of imprisonment and disease than their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

Agence France-Presse