21 Sir Joh's civil rights legacy condemned

Civil liberties and Indigenous activists have condemned the human rights record of former Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Sir Joh, 94, the state's longest serving premier, passed away in a Kingaroy yesterday after almost a week in hospital... Aboriginal activist Sam Watson says the Indigenous community respects the Bjelke-Petersen family's grief, but it will not be mourning. Mr Watson says Indigenous Queenslanders still have very deep and hurtful memories of how Sir Joh treated them. 'Acknowledge the constructive things that he did and the contribution he made but also acknowledge there is a darker side to Joh, as evidenced by testimony from Aboriginal people and as evidenced by the entire Fitzgerald Inquiry,' he said. Mr Watson says the former premier's legacy lives on today. 'We still have senior people in those Cape communities, I mean Joh ordered the bulldozers into Mapoon as well, totally destroyed a community's township and the order to serve mining interests,' he said. more @ http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1352338.htm