APSNet for 20060206
Austral Peace and Security Network (APSNet)
Monday 6 February 2006
Bi-weekly report from the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Australia.
- US Wants Iraq Diggers To Stay Longer
- Lockheed Plans Rapid Rise Up Defence Ranks
- Asylum Case Threatens to Harm Ties, Envoy Warns
- Special Report: Environmental Security – Illegal Logging
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US Wants Iraq Diggers To Stay Longer,
Brendan Nicholson, Age, 2006-02-03The US has asked Australia to keep troops in Iraq when their job in al Muthanna province is finished. “We definitely want to see Australia committed for the long haul,” John Hillen, Asst. US Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.
Related links:
a. US Department of Defense Quadrennial Review, 2006-02-05
This 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review is submitted in the fifth year of this long war. The QDR is part of the continuum of transformation in the Defense Department. Its purpose is to help shape the process of change to provide the United States with strong, sound and effective warfighting capabilities in the decades ahead. -
Lockheed Plans Rapid Rise Up Defence Ranks,
Fred Brenchley, AFR*, 2006-02-03Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest defence contractor, is planning a significant increase in its local operations after winning multibillion-dollar contracts for the three armed services.
* Subscription required
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Asylum Case Threatens to Harm Ties, Envoy Warns
Tom Allard, SMH, 2006-02-04Indonesia has stepped up its campaign for Australia to return 43 Papuan asylum seekers, with its new ambassador warning that relations will be strained if they are granted refugee status. Australia and Indonesia are negotiating a new security treaty.
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Briefing note: Environmental Security – Illegal Logging
Illegal logging is recognised as a threat to environmental security.
Furniture A Big Offender in $450m Of Imports Using Illegally Logged Timber
Philip Hopkins, Age, 2006-02-03
Australia imports about $450 million of illegally logged timber products a year. Most from South-East Asia; main areas Indonesia, Malaysia and possibly China, consultancy Jaakko Poyry says in a report for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.Related links:
a. Illegal logging, Energy, Environment and Development Programme, Chatham House, London
b. Asia – Pacific’s Forests Vital To Australia, NewsOnline, no.39, August 2005, CIFOR
c. EU ban on illegal timber: mission possible – Greenpeace 01/02/2006
Policy Forum Online 06-01A: The East Timor Truth Commission Report Shines,
Gerry van Klinken, 2006-02-06
Australian historian and editor of Inside Indonesia, Gerry van Klinken, writes that the light from the 2000 page Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor “is dazzling. That a tortured little place like East Timor could produce such a shining beacon as this truth commission report seems out of proportion with reality. Who would have expected this from one of the world’s poorest countries, traumatised by decades of brutal occupation by the army of its almost equally poor neighbour Indonesia, from a microstate for which the pundits are already predicting failure? Miracles still happen. The report’s recommendations are luminescent in their simplicity. The denial of East Timor’s right to self-determination – always acknowledged by the UN – was an international project, and it’s only fair the world should make amends.”
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Nautilus Institute. Readers should note that Nautilus seeks a diversity of views and opinions on contentious topics in order to identify common ground.
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