1. Leaked Email Shows Hand of Canberra in Honiara
2. Timor’s Rocky Road
3. Political Elites ‘Prolonging’ Sulawesi Sectarian Conflict
4. Separatism in Papua a Racist Aim: Vanstone
5. NATO Mulls Australian Alliance
6. Goff Welcomes Call for US to Build Relations
7. Special Report – Solomon Islands: background

1. Leaked Email Shows Hand of Canberra in Honiara, Craig Skehan, Age, 2006-05-01

   A leading candidate to become the next prime minister of the Solomon Islands is described as a “depressing choice” in a highly embarrassing leaked email from an Australian official, which also reveals behind-the-scenes involvement in local politics by Canberra.

   • Solomons Group Plans Tilt From Taiwan To China, Russell Skelton and Craig Skehan, SMH, 2006-04-29

2. Timor’s Rocky Road, Editorial, Australian May 01, 2006

   The riots that erupted in the East Timorese capital of Dili on Friday are an ominous signal to the international community of the new state’s increasingly dangerous fragility. Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd’s suggestion that Mr Downer seek UN intervention to prevent further violence exploding in East Timor has merit, and should be considered as a priority.

   • Two Dead as Rioters Go on Rampage in East Timorese Capital, Lindsay Murdoch, Age, 2006-04-30.

   • New State Still Suffers After Difficult Birth, Richard Lloyd Parry, Times, 2006-02-10

3. Political Elites ‘Prolonging’ Poso Sectarian Conflict, Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta Post, 2006-04-29

   For those people who wonder why the sectarian conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi remains smouldering, local Muslim and Christian peace activists have a theory. They say it is a public knowledge in Poso that the conflict, which claimed more than 1,000 lives during the past six years, has been intentionally prolonged by elites in Poso and Jakarta for political and economic gain.

   • Waiting For Peace In Poso: Why Has This Muslim-Christian Conflict Continued For Three Years? Lorraine V Aragon, Inside Indonesia, April – June 2002

   • Indonesia Backgrounder: Jihad in Central Sulawesi, International Crisis Group, Asia Report N°74, 2004-02-03

   • Breakdown: Four Years Of Communal Violence In Central Sulawesi, Human Rights Watch, December 2002, Vol. 14, No. 9

4. Separatism in Papua a Racist Aim: Vanstone, Patricia Karvelas, Australian*, 2006-04-29

   In inflammatory comments, Senator Vanstone says so-called Papuan nationalism in Indonesia is based on nothing more than hostility to people from other parts of Indonesia. “Such racist sentiment should be condemned, not encouraged. It is surprising that some of the groups in Australia who lend support to Papuan separatism are groups that are otherwise quick to condemn racism,” she says.
   * Subscription required.

   • West Papua’s Long Search For Identity, Brian Toohey, AFR*, 2006-04-29
     * Subscription required.

   • Playing Games Over Papua, Michael Baume, AFR*, 01/05/2006
     * Subscription required.

5. NATO Mulls Australian Alliance, AFP, ABC Online, 2006-04-28

   NATO has launched a debate on forging formal partnerships with Australia and New Zealand. NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says the alliance “has to spread its wings because it is increasingly being called upon”. The proposal to form privileged ties with Australia and New Zealand would reflect the active role those countries play in NATO missions. The ties would fall short of full membership.

6. Goff Welcomes Call for US to Build Relations, Press Release: New Zealand Government, 2006-04-26

   Defence Minister Phil Goff welcomed the support of former US officials for closer defence cooperation with NZ. In the Asian Wall St Journal, Richard Armitage, a former Deputy Secretary of State, and Randy Shriver, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for E. Asian and Pacific Affairs, called on the US to relax restrictions placed on defence cooperation in the 1980s as a result of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear legislation.

7. Briefing note: Solomon Islands: background

   • Country Profiles, Reports, Fact Sheets on the Solomon Islands, WomenWarPeace.org

   • Rebuilding State And Nation In Solomon Islands: Policy Options For The Regional Assistance Mission, David Hegarty, Ron May, Anthony Regan, Sinclair Dinnen, Hank Nelson & Ron Duncan, State Society and Governance in Melanesia Project Discussion Paper 2004/2 [PDF]

   • Monitoring Peace and Conflict in the Solomon Islands, Gendered Early Warning Report No. 2, December 2005

   • Lending a Fist? Australia’s New Interventionism in the Southwest Pacific, Sinclair Dinnen, State Society and Governance in Melanesia Project Discussion Paper 2004/5 [PDF]

   • Political Consequences of Pacific Island Electoral Laws, Jon Fraenkel, State Society and Governance in Melanesia Project Discussion Paper 2005/8

   • Late Night Live in the Solomon Islands, ABC Radio National (seven part 2004 series)

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