Blood at Yellow Water
Page 27
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SUNDAY - JABIRU
The news of the rescue of the Japanese Prime Minister spread quickly around the media. Helen Kwang was one of the first to hear it and rang Anna Sentoro’s press secretary for confirmation. She verified the story and indicated that the Acting Prime Minister would be calling a press conference that afternoon at the resort to provide details. Helen repeated the rumour that the Chinese assassins had been killed in an air smash but the press secretary would not confirm this.
Helen had also been following up the other big news story of the death of Barry Buckstone. Accompanied by her photographer, she had driven to the township of Jabiru and observed a large group of protesters outside the police station. She had interviewed a number of the local inhabitants who claimed that Buckstone had been beaten up by police while being questioned over the attack on the Australian and Japanese Prime Ministers. One of the people she spoke to was Larry Wilpena, a wizened old aboriginal man, who had shared the cell with Buckstone and confirmed that Barry had a number of cuts and bruises when he was released from his cell after his interrogation.
After some more questioning, Wilpena let slip that Barry claimed he had acquired evidence that some members of the Land Council had been bribed to relinquish their land rights so that the mine at Jabiru could go ahead. Helen took notes on this, determined to find out whether there was any substance or not in what Wilpena was alleging. She had put in calls to the local and federal police but no one was returning her calls.
She watched as the protesters waved their signs outside the police station. There was a large group of police and security personnel keeping watch around the station. One of the protesters threw a rock which shattered a window of the station and the crowd started getting angry. They started yelling slogans and waving placards saying “JUSTICE FOR BARRY BUCKSTONE”. Suddenly another raced up to the front of the station and threw a Molotov cocktail through the window which set alight one of the wooden office desks in the station. The police responded by moving in on the crowd using pepper spray and swinging their batons around and arrested the demonstrator. The crowd quickly dispersed to avoid the onslaught. The police inside the station immediately dowsed the flames with fire extinguishers.
Helen kept a safe distance while the National’s photographer, Percy Usifail clicked away with his camera. She would have another lead story and pictures for the National’s morning paper. She and Percy drove back to the Yellow Water Resort in time to attend the Acting Prime Minister’s press conference.