Australian asylum detention centre turmoil grows

SYDNEY - Australia's asylum seeker detention centres were in turmoil yesterday, after an attempted mass break-out and riot in a Sydney centre, an armed standoff at another and fires burning in both.

Police said inmates started fires and attacked guards with iron bars in a break-out attempt by 20 to 30 people at the Villawood detention centre in western Sydney. No injuries were reported.

Nearby residents said smoke was pouring from the centre from what fire brigade officials said were six fires. A centre official said that between 60 and 80 detainees rioted in another section of Villawood.

Police later said the detainees had stopped rioting yesterday and that fire brigades were still trying to control fires in the centre.

"The riot has calmed down but the people are still outside their dormitories," a police spokeswoman said.

A Villawood spokesman said 20 detainees had tried to break out by commandeering a car and trying to ram the perimeter gates.

A police vehicle blocking the gates stopped the escape attempt. Police said 30 detainees were involved.

On Australia's remote Christmas Island, 2400km west of Darwin, boatpeople occupied a detention centre compound, setting fire to a dining hall and challenging guards in an armed stand-off, officials said.

The latest violence, which has swept through most of Australia's seven detention centres in recent days, has again shone a spotlight on Australia's hard-line stance of detaining all illegal arrivals in guarded camps.

An Immigration Department spokesman said the fires and riots at Villawood caused A$500,000 worth of damage. The Woomera and Baxter facilities in South Australia, the Port Hedland Detention Centre in Western Australia and the Christmas Island facility have all been the scene arson during recent days, leaving a damage bill of more than A$8 million.

"If anybody thinks they can alter our policy by setting fire to detention centres then they are wrong. That won't alter our policy one iota," Prime Minister John Howard said.

The protest on the Indian Ocean island came less than 24 hours after detainees staged similar action at the Woomera Outback detention centre, where staff fled attacks by asylum seekers armed with metal bars and stones.

"Officers were pelted with stones and threatened with metal bars as they tried to extinguish the fires which were driven by strong winds, spread rapidly and eventually destroyed two compounds," the immigration department said.

Blazes at the desert Woomera camp in South Australia destroyed or damaged 43 buildings before they were brought under control. No one was seriously injured, but some staff and detainees were treated for smoke inhalation.

- AGENCIES