Rather have peace (starve to death)...

This quiet man calmly looked me in the eyes and told me how he'd rather have peace (die from lack of food) than be further tortured by a forced deportation to face certain brutal death in Syria.

He is now on hunger strike, and has not eaten for fifteen days.

His arm is damaged because he has epilepsy, made far worse by the stress of detention and the very real fear of deportation to certain death. He suffers frequent epileptic episodes,and has damage all over his body.

With regard to his hunger strikes, the Immgration Department simply lied through their teeth to the media and told the Epoch Times (23 November 2005) "there was no Syrian man currently refusing food." He showed me this news report, this lie negating his very existence and his struggle to be heard. He urged me to tell you he was real.

And when he looked me in the eye and softly told he wanted to die, to have peace, I could not deny his quiet sincerity.

I salute his dignity and his commitment to the integrity of his free soul, and I pray that there is some way for him to have this other than starving to death because that's better than what our anti-immigration detention and deportation regime is offering him.