APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, August 18, 2008

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APSNet 18 August 2008

  1. Schemes to Import Seasonal Workers Labour under a History of Exploitation
  2. Philippines: Displaced Villagers in Mindanao Begin to Return Home
  3. British Troops Will Be Pulled Out of Iraq ‘by May’
  4. Questions Linger about India’s Safeguards
  5. Minister of Research and Technology: Nuclear Power Plant to be Built on the Banten Coast
  6. Nursing a Nuclear Test Hangover
  7. Indonesia Linked to Teacher Deaths

1. Schemes to Import Seasonal Workers Labour under a History of Exploitation, Ben Doherty, Age, 2008-08-18

Australia’s pilot guest worker scheme announced by Agriculture Minister Tony Bourke, will be based closely on a New Zealand forerunner. A research associate with the Centre for Social Research at SUT, Nic Maclellan, says the NZ trial has shown that as well as the “clear financial benefits, there are significant social costs associated with seasonal labour schemes”, most of them concerned with the care and rights of workers away from the job.

2. Philippines: Displaced Villagers in Mindanao Begin to Return Home, Reuters AlertNet, IRIN, UN, 2008-08-17

Thousands of villagers displaced by fighting between government troops and Muslim separatist rebels have been trickling back to their devastated communities on Mindanao Island, but tension remains high. About 1,500 MILF rebels occupied 22 villages in 5 towns in North Cotabato Province. They attacked government troops and defied orders to leave, after the Supreme Court stopped the government from signing a landmark deal that would have given the MILF control over large areas the MILF claims are ancestral lands.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79843

3. British Troops Will Be Pulled Out of Iraq ‘by May’, Evening Standard, 2008-08-16

Security conditions have improved markedly in the city of Basra – largely thanks to an Iraqi and U.S. drive to oust hostile militias after UK forces withdrew from the city last year. Commanders now hope the British mission can be wound down by next summer. The Ministry of Defence remained reluctant to set a firm timetable for the withdrawal of the remaining 4,000 UK troops from Iraq, but confirmed that it hoped the force would ‘decrease significantly’ next year.

4. Questions Linger about India’s Safeguards, Dean Rust, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2008-08-14

Uncertainty about what the IAEA-India safeguards agreement actually means reinforces the need for continued close scrutiny of all aspects of the U.S.-India nuclear deal as approvals are sought in the coming weeks from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the U.S. Congress. The NSG and the U.S. Congress must not be asked to grant a major exemption to longstanding nonproliferation standards for civil nuclear cooperation unless India and the US confirm that India’s adherence to safeguards on its civil nuclear program is real and enduring.

5. Minister of Research and Technology: Nuclear Power Plant to be Built on the Banten Coast, Kompas*, 2008-08-04

The national minister of research and technology, Kusmayanto Kadiman, said the government is planning to build a nuclear power plant in the northern coastal region of Baten province. Kadiman said the plant which will be built between 2015-2020, will have a capacity of 1000 megawatts and an investment value of around US$2-3 million. He said the reason for choosing the northern coast as the location for the plant is because the region is valuable for its abundant water resources needed for the nuclear power plant operation.
* Indonesian language.

6. Nursing a Nuclear Test Hangover, Ivan Broadhead, SMH, 2008-08-18

50 years after the US military’s nuclear tests on the Marshall Islands ended, islanders are still fighting to make their environment safe. Jack Ading, the Marshall Islands Finance Minister and Enewetak’s senator says: “We are the only population ever to have been resettled on a nuclear test site. Our simple message to the US Government and courts is that … they respect our people’s sacrifice to their military cause and establish a long-term monitoring program, as they would if these tests had occurred in the continental United States.”

7. Indonesia Linked to Teacher Deaths, Tom Hyland, Age, 2008-08-17

New evidence has emerged linking the Indonesian military to the 2002 murder of two American teachers and an Indonesian colleague in a remote region of Papua, according to research by a US academic and an Indonesian investigative journalist. “Credible sources link Indonesian intelligence agents to the planning of this attack,” said Eben Kirksey, an anthropologist at the University of California, who co-wrote a new report on the killing with journalist Andreas Harsono.

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