Fed: Tent embassy resident vow to stay put
Residents of Canberra's controversial Aboriginal tent embassy are vowing to stay putdespite enduring a freezing night with their electricity cut off.
Tent embassy spokesman DARREN BLOOMFIELD rejects government suggestions that the embassyand its residents make way for something like an information office.
Power to the embassy was cut off yesterday, possibly permanently, after a fire damageda tent and some cables.
While the fire was extinguished without injury, the National Capital Authority anda local electricity company cut power to the site for safety reasons.
The historic tent embassy site was first set up on Australia Day 1972 to protest thethen coalition government's refusal to recognise land rights. It became a permanent fixturein 1992.
Federal Territories Minister WILSON TUCKEY says he's sympathetic to proposals to replacethe embassy with some sort of permanent, more aesthetically pleasing monument -- suchas an information bureau.
AAP RTV mb/sw/pc/rp
KEYWORD: TENT EMBASSY (CANBERRA)
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