APSNet for 20060619

Recommended Citation

"APSNet for 20060619", APSNet Briefing Notes, June 19, 2006, https://nautilus.org/apsnet/apsnet-for-20060619-2/

APSNet for 20060619

Austral Peace and Security Network (APSNet)

Bi-weekly report from the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Australia.

Monday 19 June 2006

  1. Giant New Bases to House US Troops
  2. Indonesia Plays Down Security Deal
  3. Timor Minister Equipped Police as Private Army
  4. More Police to Patrol ‘Tense’ Timor
  5. Troops leave for Solomon Islands
  6. Afghan POWs Denied Rights Because ‘It’s Not a War’
  7. Briefing Notes: US Expansion and Upgrading of Joint Australia-US Training Facilities
  1. Giant New Bases to House US Troops, Geoffrey Barker, AFR*, 2006-06-19

    Two huge US-Australia joint military training and forward expeditionary bases will be built on the coast in N-W Australia. A new base at Bradshaw in the NT will be equipped with a landing strip for giant C-17 military transport aircraft and accommodation for some 750 troops. At Yampi Sound, in WA, a major base for joint US-Australia training in amphibious seaborne landing techniques is planned.
    * Subscription required.

  2. Indonesia Plays Down Security Deal, Fiona Carruthers and Morgan Mellish, AFR*, 2006-06-19

    Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono has said the final treaty with Australia will be an “agreement rather than a pact”. “It will not be a military pact,” he said. “Certainly not a bilateral military pact, because we want to maintain our degree of independence according to our basic foreign policy principles. We have never been aligned to any other country since the birth of our nation” said Mr Sudarsono.
    * Subscription required.

  3. Timor Minister Equipped Police as Private Army, Hamish McDonald, SMH, 2006-06-19

    New details have emerged about a Government minister’s efforts to turn police into a private army for the ruling Fretilin party and arm civilian hit squads to cow voters and rivals before next year’s elections. An ammunition order shown to the SMH will firm suspicions that Mr Rogerio Lobato, former interior minister, was trying to build the 3500-member police force as a counter to the 1800-member army.

  4. More Police to Patrol ‘Tense’ Timor, AFP, Australian, 2006-06-19

    Justice Minister Chris Ellison, speaking after a meeting with East Timor’s Interior Minister Alcino Barris, said Malaysia would send another 250 police, in addition to 250 already there. He did not specify how many extra officers other nations would provide. Senator Ellison said that the force had the backing of the UN and would eventually be led by Australian Federal Police officers who are now on the ground.

  5. Troops Leave for Solomon Islands, ABC News Online, 2006-06-18

    About 100 Australian troops have flown out of Darwin Airport, on their way to the Solomon Islands in a troop rotation to assist the regional assistance mission.

  6. Afghan POWs Denied Rights Because ‘It’s Not A War’, Cynthia Banham, SMH, 2006-06-16

    Detainees captured by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan are not being given prisoner of war status under the Geneva Conventions, because the Federal Government says there has been no declaration of war and it is not an armed conflict between nation states.

  7. Briefing Notes: Expansion and Upgrading of Joint Australia-US Training Facilities

    In 2004 the Australian and US governments announced initiatives to heighten military collaboration between US forces and the ADF, including missile defence, the establishment of an Australia-US Joint Training Centre, and an Australia-US Joint Statement of Principles on Interoperability.

    This has led to plans for expansion of several defence facilities in northern Australia: Bradfield Defence Training Area in the NT and the Yampi Sound Training Area in WA. Both areas have significant environmental values. The Bradshaw facility was established following a Native Title Agreement.

    The upgrading of joint Australia-US training capacity in part flows from US initiatives to establish a Global Joint Training Infrastructure, developed from the US Joint Forces Command Joint National Training Capacity. The Australian Joint Training Centre will be networked together with the US facility in 2007.

    Introduction
    Bradshaw Field Training Area
    Yampi Sound Training Area
    Joint Combined Training Centre (JCTC)

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Austral Peace and Security Network is issued late on Mondays and Thursdays (AEST) by the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.

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