APSNet for 20060706
Austral Peace and Security Network (APSNet)
Bi-weekly report from the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Australia.
Thursday 6 July 2006
- Afghanistan: Troops Face Resurgent Taliban on Home Turf
- Australia, India to Strengthen Defence Links
- Australia: Troops Hit by Equipment ‘Stuff-Ups’
- North Korea: Yet Another Failure to Launch the Taepodong Missile
- Pirates Hit Two UN Ships in Malacca Strait
- Iraq and Vietnam: Different Battles, Different Response
- Why Trying to Appease Indonesia Doesn’t Work
- Regional Allies in the Fight against Bird Flu
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Troops Face Resurgent Taliban on Home Turf, Cynthia Banham, SMH, 2006-07-06
Australian troops are about to be deployed to an area of Afghanistan where government is virtually non-existent. The province of Oruzgan is due to see 240 Australian soldiers arrive this month as part of a Dutch-led Provincial Reconstruction Team. A grim assessment of Oruzgan was provided by a German official, closely connected with Germany’s deployment to Afghanistan.
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Australia, India to Strengthen Defence Links, John Kerin, AFR*, 2006-07-05
Australia and India will forge closer military ties as India seeks to wield greater influence over Indian Ocean Rim security. Canberra and Delhi will step up the tempo to include joint naval and air exercises, and joint Special Forces training and counter-terrorism exercises.
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Troops Hit by Equipment ‘Stuff-Ups’, Nick McKenzie, Age, 2006-07-05
In a candid briefing, Stephen Gumley, head of the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) stated that troops serving overseas had “missed out” on gear they should have received, and that the body responsible for equipping them, the DMO, had engaged in “inappropriate behaviours”. He said, “We are going to let the troops down if we don’t improve the reliability, quality and safety of our equipment.”
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Defence Procurement Failures, edited extracts of Dr Stephen Gumley CEO DMO, Age, 2006-07-05
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Statement by the DMO, Media Release CPA 145/06, Defence Department, 2006-07-05
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Defence Denies it Gave Inadequate Gear, Cynthia Banham, SMH, 2006-07-06
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Yet Another Failure to Launch the Taepodong Missile – So What Does That Say About North Korea’s Missile Capabilities? Peter Hayes, ABC Radio, 2006-07-06
The chances they’ll go from failure to success, if they go to the third or fourth test over the next eight years, I have no idea, but what we do know is that they as of today, have virtually zero capacity to put whatever warheads they have, on a missile and deliver it anywhere, but on themselves.
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North Korea’s Giant Firecracker: Or, How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Taepodong, Timothy Savage, Ohmy News, 2006-07-06
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Pyongyang Fired Up To Save Face? Ron Huisken, AFR*, 2007-07-06
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Pirates Hit Two UN Ships in Malacca Strait, AFP, TerraDaily, 2006-07-04
Pirates have attacked two UN-chartered vessels in the Malacca Strait off the coast of tsunami-hit Aceh province in Indonesia, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre.
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Piracy – Guidance and Reports, International Chamber of Shipping and the International Shipping Federation [Web site]
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Weekly Piracy Report, Piracy Reporting Centre, International Maritime Bureau, 2006-07-03
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Plan to Enhance Maritime Security – Australia Backs India’s Policing Of Indian Ocean, P. S. Suryanarayana, The Hindu, 2006-07-06
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Different Battles, Different Response, Owen Harries, Australian 2006-07-05
Holt was right in giving full support to the US in the 1960s; Howard has been wrong in giving full support to the US in the very different conditions prevailing in the 2000s. Seven reasons why US policy and Australia’s support for it were right in the ’60s, but are not right today.
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Why Trying to Appease Indonesia Doesn’t Work, Bruce Haigh, Canberra Times, 2006-06-29
Recent excising of Australia from the migration zone in response to Indonesian criticism is by far the greatest over-reaction in the history of appeasement toward Indonesia. As much as decent Indonesians want Howard to back off over West Papua, they see the ease with which he was prepared to do so as part of his deep-seated racism, expressed equally towards Aborigines, West Papuans and by implication towards themselves, the Javanese.
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Regional Allies in the Fight against Bird Flu, Tony Abbott, SMH, 2006-07-05
A bird flu pandemic may lead to 40,000 deaths and a 7 per cent drop in Australian gross domestic product, according to recent modelling by the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics. This is why health authorities right round Asia are continuing to take the mere possibility so seriously.
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Avian Influenza: Potential Economic Impact of a Pandemic on Australia, Benjamin Buetre, Yeon Kim, et.al, ABARE, June 2006
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Avian Influenza, World Health Organisation [web site]
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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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