More on Liep Gony (Sudanese man fatally bashed)

As usual after dinner I will check the paper to see what has happened during the afternoon, and I stumbled across this article:

Murder 'shame on entire community'

The mother of murdered teenager Liep Gony told hundreds of mourners at his funeral today she was upset her son had been labelled a refugee.

In a moving eulogy, Martha Ojulo told the packed church in Dandenong, in Melbourne's outer south-east, media coverage of Liep's murder had disturbed her.

"I was disturbed by the television because I was not happy for the media to call Liep a refugee or Sudanese, because Liep is an Australian.

*snip*

Before the service, Mr Kuot and other Sudanese community leaders called on Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews to apologise for comments he made last week about African refugees.

When Mr Andrews was questioned last week about the fatal bashing and whether better settlement services were needed, he said African refugees were having trouble integrating, which he said had contributed to his decision to halve Australia's refugee intake from Africa.

Link: The Age: Murder 'shame on entire community'

After reading that and realizing I actually knew Liep and I am at a total loss for words. Perhaps the best thing I can do is apologize to his family, friends and the entire Sudanese community. This is a tragic loss, and mark my words I will continue reporting in my blog the xenophobic attitudes of the Australian government.

As I mentioned I realized I actually knew Liep during the second security job I ever had. I was working at a shopping centre (Mall) very close to where Liep lived with his family. I remember him as a sweet teenager who was full of respect for the people of authority around the shopping centre.

He never caused us any trouble. We did have trouble from others (mostly white and Asian boys) but never from Liep and his friends.

I agree with the cries from the Sundanese community right around Australia that Kevin Andrews should apologize. If he isn't man enough to eat his words, then he needs to step down immediately. And if he is too self centred to step down, then John Howard should act like a fucking leader for once and fire his ass on the spot for discrimination against a minority group.