Message from the Director

By Jorge Aroche, Executive Director, STARTTS

Welcome to the eleventh issue of Transitions, the first as “Refugee Transitions” a national magazine giving voice to the views and concerns of the National Forum of Services for Survivors of Torture and Trauma (NFSSTT) and our clients and supporters.

Becoming a national magazine has been a slow process, and continues to be a work in progress, albeit a very promising one, as I hope you will judge by yourself on the basis of the quality of this issue. Already the scope of the articles has been enriched by our national base, and this trend will continue.

One of the difficulties that needed to be overcome in becoming National included the increased cost of producing and distributing “Transitions for Refugees”. The measures taken to address this problem include reducing the frequency of publication from 4 to 3 issues per year, and adjusting the price of subscriptions. We also continue to search for sponsorship from appropriate sources.

Putting this issue together, notwithstanding the challenges of going national, has been one of the most difficult challenges faced by the production team so far. So much has happened since our last “Winter” issue of “Transitions”, that 48 pages seemed like nothing to accommodate the number of comments and contributions to this issue of Transitions.

From the shock and horror of the 11th of September, the ensuing conflict in Afghanistan and its multiple implications at every level, to the Tampa incident and the further polarization of the “refugee debate”, and a national election where for the first time refugee issues, or rather border control issues were sadly central to the political debate, the last few months have been extraordinarily eventful at international and national mainstream levels. Inevitably, these events, and the often racist and short-sighted reactions to both the events and the debate, has affected the lives of many of our clients and ex-clients, and of refugee communities in general.

Similarly, a lot has happened at the level of the forum (NFSSTT) and individual agencies, including an incredibly productive 2nd National Meeting of staff from NFSSTT member agencies focusing on the development of national standards for torture and trauma services in Australia (and commencing a process that will continue over the next couple of years), the very successful Triple J “Real Appeal”, raising funds for work with children and adolescents, and tremendously successful in its own right as a consciousness raising event, and many other exciting and interesting projects somewhat obscured by these “larger” events. Other notable events in the field included a very successful conference at UNSW that focused on various aspects of the refugee convention on its 50th anniversary.

Reflecting the substantial thought and internal debate involved, I believe this issue manages to provide a good mix of commentary on the larger events from a variety of perspectives, and our continuing commitment to focus on “forgotten conflicts” behind the genesis of refugees, and on providing a local focus and a voice for refugees and torture and trauma survivors.

Some hard editorial decisions had to be made, however, and so we can look forward to the 12th issue of “Refugee Transitions” for a closer look at the process and outcome of the National NFSSTT Meeting and the Triple J “Real Appeal”. The next issue will also include further commentary on current world issues from various perspectives, and on the national refugee debate, exploring Australia’s current policies from a long-term impact perspective and looking at its implications for the social capital of the nation. We will also provide the second part of the “Kurdistan and the quest for nationhood” article, covering Iranian Kurdistan.

I hope you find reading this issue of “REFUGEE Transitions” as stimulating as I have, and once again, I invite you to subscribe if you haven’t done so already. On behalf of the staff and management of NFSSTT agencies, I wish you the very best for 2002.

Jorge Aroche