Following is a letter to DIMA from Alan Neild, a local from near Port Augusta who has been visiting Baxter for years:
"Sandi Logan, DIMA,
In response to your interview tonight on the 7.30 report I'm letting you know my disgust with what has happened to asylum seeker/refugees who have recently been sent back to Baxter from Glenside against the clear recommendation of their consulting psychiatrist. Your interview was somewhat surreal as if DIMA had selected someone who knew absolutely nothing about the situation, to be their spokesman. I don't remember whether your position in DIMA was stated on the report but if you were speaking as an official who should have known then I can only regard you as incredibly inept or as having made it your business not to know or as a bare faced liar!
As a long term visitor to those detained at Baxter, when they were transferred to Glenside due to severe mental health problems, and when they were sent back to Baxter, I view your pretence that the process was legitimate as both laughable and tragic. For instance when I began visiting Peter Mode he was still hopeful and open. I saw him a day or two after he had been assaulted by guards while he was trying to protect his friend who was also under assault. One guard twisted his leg till his ankle snapped. Soon after that Peter tried to end his life and I was only able to see him after he had "recovered" in hospital. But Sandi he didn't recover and he never will until he is out of that hell hole and living freely in the community, and then it will take some time. (My wife and) I visited him in Glenside where he'd been transferred and have seen him now that he's been sent back to Baxter against the recommendation of his consulting psychiatrist.
I saw the change in Peter's face and demeanour after he had attempted suicide. It was a haunted face that spoke of a deep assault to his soul, not just his body, which he could not put into words but was as evident as the plaster on his leg. He still has something of that haunted look. There are similar stories for the other victims. The day before Jems was sent back to Baxter we saw him in Glenside and he was in a "zombie" state.
What a draconian department DIMA has become under the influence of Howard, Ruddock and Vanstone and how little it has changed since the "whoever he was" report. What Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and African dictators have failed to do to their citizens, ie destroy their hope and sanity, Australia's DIMA has done with ease!
Allan Nield, Whyalla, in the menacing shadow of Baxter"
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