Riot police clash with protesters at Australian detention center

Sunday, March 31st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WOOMERA, Australia (AP) _ Riot police on horseback clashed with protesters Sunday outside a remote Australian detention center where asylum seekers recently staged a mass breakout.

At least three protesters were knocked to the ground by horses and three more taken into custody as police barred their approach to the Woomera Detention Center. There was no immediate word on whether anybody had been arrested or injured.

Meanwhile, police hunting for 11 or 12 refugees still on the loose after Friday's breakout warned they could die of dehydration if they hide in the parched desert around Woomera, a former missile-testing base where 300 mostly Afghan and Iraqi refugees are being held.

``This is a desert area, these people had no knowledge of it,'' said Superintendent Wayne Bristow. ``Let's forget about the semantics of the rights and wrongs of this, the bottom line is we are talking about people's safety and welfare.''

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said 11 refugees were still on the run from about 50 who escaped Friday. Another immigration official said 12 were still free.

Friday's breakout happened as police clashed with hundreds of protesters demonstrating against Australia's policy of detaining illegal immigrants in remote camps while their applications for asylum are processed _ a process that can take up to three years.

The escapees, including three children, scaled razor-wire-topped fences or cut through them with bolt cutters provided by demonstrators.

Sixteen protesters were arrested Friday on charges of harboring the escapees. Police arrested another four late Saturday afternoon when they broke through a fence to reach an outer wall of the center.

In their demonstration Sunday, protesters took crates of toys close to the detention center's fence. They were picked up and taken inside by security staff. Later the protesters walked around the fence throwing flowers to refugees.

A woman refugee in the center shouted, ``We are not animals, free us!''

Seventeen security guards and 14 asylum seekers suffered cuts and bruises in Friday's clashes, during which tear gas was used to control detainees who flung chairs, rocks, bed posts and garbage bins inside the center, said Immigration Department spokesman Paul Olive.

Ruddock said Saturday that those who escaped had ruined their chances of being granted asylum.