orum Aug. 2, 2012, 4:40 a.m. From left, Karno Walker, Mark Koolmatrie and Mark McMurtrie with, at front, the King of Fiji, in Geneva. From left, Karno Walker, Mark Koolmatrie and Mark McMurtrie with, at front, the King of Fiji, in Geneva. See your ad here In July, Ramindjeri law man and spokesman Karno Walker and Mark Koolmatrie, attended the third and final seminar in the United Nations Treaty Series, in Switzerland. The seminar was conducted by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The topic of discussion being “Strengthening Partnership between Indigenous Peoples and States: treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements”. The event was held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. During the two days, Mr Walker and Mr Koolmatrie, with Original Sovereign Tribal Federation convenor Mark McMurtrie, told the UN about the legal anomalies facing the UN nation state of Australia. “Namely, that the Sovereign on this land isn’t the Queen, it is the Tribes and their people who are the legal and lawful Sovereigns,” Mr Walker said. The paper delivered by the three was read into the record at the end of the seminar, and shocked a number of those who heard the information it held, Mr Walker said. A paper by Tanganekald Meintangk elder Dr Irene Watson was also accepted for consideration at the forum. “The UN was informed that various tribes on this continent had also already requested the Crown’s representatives to decolonise their lands, but the Australian state had not complied. “We also indicated that we will approach the relevant station within the UN to obtain an undertaking from the UN that it will demand compliance by its member state to our demands,” Mr Walker said. “We believe we have gotten our message across to a certain degree, but to what practical degree that is will be determined by the belligerence of the state (Australia) in respect of its playing by the rules of the international community and finally showing respect to the tribes here,” he said. See your ad here “We hope the UN is as quick to respond to the concerns of the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of this continent as they are in Afghanistan or Iraq. “We voiced our concerns, for example, that UNESCO, a part of the UN, is sponsoring the reconstruction of the Buddhas of Banyami in Afghanistan, yet the UN and others sit silently while mining interests desecrate our art, treasures and culture - which are tens of thousands of years older and at least equally socially, culturally and spiritually valuable,” Mr Walker said.
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