1. Downer Puts Plan for Timor Future
2. Portuguese Refuse Australian Command in Timor
3. Invisible Enemy Strikes Australian Troops in Iraq
4. Don’t Endanger Nuclear Energy Debate
5. Japan Maritime Aircraft to Visit RAAF
6. Defence White Paper in Fiji Recommends Cutting Army By 50 Percent
7. Judges Seek Fair Trial For Hicks

Austral Policy Forum 06-17A: We had a House in Dili – Jacqueline Siapno

1. Gusmao Weeps as Downer Puts Plan for Timor Future, Peter Hartcher, Age, 2006-06-05

   Some gang activity in Dili in the past 10 days was orchestrated, and some attacks were co-ordinated using the police radio network. The Australian authorities are unclear on who may have been behind this, but want to make sure that there is no more of it. Australia wants a new UN mandate: a large police force; a more capable UN role; and a role for the UN in reconciliation.

    

2. Portuguese Refuse Australian Command, AFP, Australian, 2006-06-03

   Portugal has refused to put a contingent of 120 military police, in East Timor, under the command of Australian peacekeepers. “Portugal did not accept, does not accept nor will it ever accept that the Republican National Guard be subordinate to the operational command of a foreigner,” said Foreign Minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral.

    

3. Invisible Enemy Strikes Australian Troops, Tom Hyland, Age, 2006-06-04

   It’s not just bullets and bombs that are threatening our soldiers in Iraq. The troops are battling another foe and it has felled more people than the fighting.

   • Understanding the Wounded, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)

   • Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War, Penny Coleman, Beacon Press, 2006

   • Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, iCasualties.org

      

4. Don’t Endanger Energy Debate, Craig Lawrence, AFR*, 2006-06-05

   The report on nuclear energy commissioned by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and authored by British nuclear expert John Gittus appears to be an alarming example of vested interests corrupting the energy debate in Australia.
   * Subscription required.

   • Energy Debate Must Include Nuclear Option, John Howard, Age, 2006-06-05

   • Cabinet to Order Nuclear Inquiry, Katharine Murphy, Age, 2006-06-05

   • The Future of Nuclear Power: an Inter-Disciplinary MIT Study, John Deutch and Ernest Moniz (co-chairs), MIT, 2003-07-29

      

5. Japan Maritime Aircraft to Visit Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Counterparts, Defence Press Release, CPA 106/06, 2006-05-30 [MS Word]

   Two Japan Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) P-3 ‘Orion’ aircraft will visit Australia between 30 May and 5 June 2006. The visit represents an opportunity to further deepen the bilateral defence relationship between Australia and Japan and demonstrates the importance of Maritime Patrol to both nations.

    

6. Defence White Paper in Fiji Recommends Cutting Army By 50 Percent, RNZI, 2006-06-05

   A Fiji government Defence White Paper has proposed slashing the army 3,300 to just 1,700. Cuts should come from the land force or infantry and force headquarters, leaving the army engineering regiment largely untouched. The Paper also recommends that the government moves to reassert civilian control over the army.

   • Call to Slash Army Ranks, Victor Lal, Fiji Sun, 2006-06-04

      

7. Judges Seek Fair Trial For Hicks, Richard Kerbaj, Australian, 2006-06-03

   A group of the nation’s eminent legal minds, including four former Supreme and Federal Court judges, have warned John Howard not to back the detention and military trial of David Hicks. “Whether or not David Hicks is in fact guilty or innocent is not the issue. The illegality lies in the process of indefinite detention and unfair trial by military commission,” the lawyers say.

    

Austral Policy Forum 06-17A: We had a house in Dili – Jacqueline Siapno

Jacqueline Aquino Siapno of the University of Melbourne writes, after being evacuated from East Timor, about the deliberate burning of the house in Dili she built with her husband, Fernando de Araujo, leader of the Democratic Party. Writes Siapno: “Many of the arson attacks witnessed in Dili in the past few days have been ordered by government figures and military commanders, carried out systematically by hiring civilians to disguise the real criminals behind the acts.”

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