By Margaret Rodgers and Nick Kerr

The Rev Dr Sam Kobia, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches called on the Australian government to abolish its policy of mandatory detention after visiting the Baxter Detention Centre near Port Augusta last month.

After arriving in Adelaide, Dr Kobia was taken to Port Augusta where he spent the best part of a day with an Aboriginal community. He went as well for three hours to the Baxter Detention Centre and also met briefly with the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone.

It was clear that Dr Kobia was greatly moved after speaking to detainees and seeing the conditions under which they lived. His comments were widely reported Australia-wide and also internationally.

“I’d read and heard about the detention centres,” he said. “But I must say I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. I was really shocked, firstly by the physical reality – the high fences, the forbidding gates. I couldn’t understand what made the government detain these asylum-seekers, who are not criminals, in a maximum security prison. Because that’s what it looked like to me, a prison.
“Then I looked at the detainees’ faces. I came out of Baxter with more than pity. I left wanting justice done.”

Dr Kobia, an affable Kenyan Methodist who was elected in August 2003 to be WCC General Secretary, visited Australia for four days in July as the special guest of the triennial Forum of the National Council of Churches in Australia.

With a broad smile, he told member church representatives at the NCCA meeting in Adelaide that he received the invitation to attend on the afternoon of the day the result of his WCC election was announced. Though this meant he could hardly turn it down, after consultation with WCC staff, Dr Kobia included visits to Hong Kong churches and to the Pacific Conference of Churches in Fiji on the same trip.

As well as addressing the NCCA Forum, Dr Kobia also preached on Luke 15 during the main Sunday morning service in St Peter’s Anglican Cathedral.

Each time he spoke, Dr Kobia issued a strong challenge to Australian Christians. He urged them to visit detention centres like Baxter, to see the conditions for themselves and to be like good Samaritans to the detainees held there.

He also called on them to support Aboriginal people many of whom feel that their self-determination is threatened by government moves to abolish the elected ATSIC and to replace it with an appointed advisory council.