1. Australia, PNG Team Up To Secure Border
2. Australia In Poor Shape To Aid PNG, Says Analyst
3. Jihad leader’s suicide bomb warning
4. West Papua Border Mission May/June 2006
5. US Strategy Reaping Chaos Aplenty
6. Australia: Nelson reiterates commitment to Iraq
7. Australia: Budget sinks top-end technology hopes
8. Australia: Claims queried on role of prison ship

Austral Policy Forum 06-26A: Australian government assault rifle now a common crime gun in Papua New Guinea – Philip Alpers

1. Australia, PNG Team Up To Secure Border, John Kerin, AFR*, 2006-08-04

   Australia and Papua New Guinea are seeking to step up joint border patrols to cut the flow of illegal firearms into the country’s lawless Southern Highlands after Prime Minister Michael Somare imposed a state of emergency on the oil- and gas-rich province. Papua New Guinea’s High Commissioner to Australia, Charles Lepani, said yesterday officials from both countries were meeting to thrash out arrangements to allow customs officers to be armed so they could pursue gun and drug runners using the Torres Strait across land and sea boundaries.
   * Subscription required.

   • Gun-Running In Papua New Guinea: From Arrows To Assault Weapons In The Southern Highlands, Philip Alpers, Small Arms Survey, 2005 [PDF]

   • The Use Of Illegal Guns: Security Implications For Papua New Guinea, Jerry Singirok, Discussion Paper 2005/5, State, Society and Governance in Melanesia, ANU, 2005 [PDF]

      

2. Australia In Poor Shape To Aid PNG, Says Analyst, Craig Skehan, SMH, 2006-08-05

   Australia’s ability to respond to a request from Papua New Guinea to help stem violence before national elections is in doubt because of an impasse over the granting of immunity to police About 150 police from the Enhanced Co-operation Program were recalled in May last year after a PNG court ruled their presence was unconstitutional. Australia had insisted on immunity to prevent malicious prosecutions. “I think there would be grounds for the Australian Government to reconsider its position,” Hugh White said.

   • Australia – PNG Enhanced Cooperation Program, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)

   • The ECP and Australia’s Middle Power Ambitions, Alan Patience, Discussion Paper 2005/4, State, Society and Governance in Melanesia, ANU, 2005 [PDF]

   • “Making Their Own Rules” – Police Beatings, Rape, and Torture of Children in Papua New Guinea, Human Rights Watch, September 2005

      

3. Jihad leader’s suicide bomb warning, Marianne Kearney, SMH, 2006-08-06

   A Muslim group has told Israel to stop attacks on Lebanon within 48 hours or it would launch suicide bombing attacks in the Jewish state and any country supporting it, including Australia. The group’s leader said he was preparing to launch bombing attacks against Israeli interests in several countries, including Australia, Britain and the US.

    

4. West Papua Border Mission May/June 2006, Security Assessment & Intelligence Profile, Nick Chesterfield, Free West Papua Campaign Pacifica, 2006-08-03 [PDF]

   Currently a massive troop buildup is occurring on the border by the Indonesian military, who have so far managed to resist genuine civilian control within Indonesia. Evidence was uncovered that a massive ground offensive is in the final stages of planning.

    

5. US Strategy Reaping Chaos Aplenty, Tony Walker, AFR*, 2006-08-05

   At a distance, Australian political leaders may believe that informed US opinion is overwhelmingly supportive of the administration. But this is far from the case. Bush sees opportunity in the spasm of conflict now sweeping across the Middle East from Afghanistan to Iran, Lebanon and Palestine. He may be right, but there is little sign it is doing anything much beyond simply waiting for things to get worse before they get better.
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   • Thousands of Sadrists Rally for Hizbullah in Baghdad, Juan Cole, Informed Comment, 2006-08-05

   • One Ring to Rule Them, Juan Cole, Informed Comment, 2006-08-06

    

6. Nelson reiterates commitment to Iraq, ABC News Online, 2006-08-04

   Defence Minister Brendan Nelson says it is unhelpful to describe the situation in Iraq as descending into civil war. Two senior US military officials, including the head of US Central Command, General John Abizaid, have expressed concern that Iraq could slide into civil war if mounting sectarian violence is not stopped. Dr Nelson says regardless of how people describe the situation in the country, Australia remains committed to Iraq for the long haul.

   • Civil war looms for Iraq, say top brass, Richard Beeston and Catherine Philp, Australian, 2006-08-05

   • Iraq civil war warning for Blair, BBC News, 2006-08-03

   • Round Two in the Battle of Baghdad, Anthony S. Cordeman, CSIS, 2006-08-01

      

7. Budget sinks top-end technology hopes, Jeremy Roberts, Australian, 2006-08-04

   The navy’s new air warfare destroyers will not be equipped with the latest technology being planned for the US Navy. One of two companies bidding for the contract to design them said the $6 billion budget for the three ships did not allow for top-of-the-line technology. By July, the federal Government will decide whether to adopt the Gibbs and Cox design – a heavily modified and smaller version of the US Arleigh Burke Class guided missile destroyer – or the Spanish-designed Navantia F-100 frigate used by the Spanish navy.

   • Evolved Design Unveiled For Australia’s Next Generation Air Warfare Destroyer, Gibbs & Cox, News Release, 2006-08-03

   • DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers, GlobalSecurity.org

   • Alvaro de Bazan F-100 Frigate, GlobalSecurity.org

      

8. Claims queried on role of prison ship, Simon Kearney, Australian, 2006-08-05

   Customs Minister Chris Ellison’s claims that a prison ship planned for Australia’s northern waters will detain people only for “two or more days” are directly contradicted in tender documents that state the vessel must be capable of undertaking patrols of up to 30 days. University of NSW law of the sea expert Rosemary Rayfuse said it was unclear whether the Government had the power to detain people on a continuing basis inside the exclusive economic zone but outside the 12-mile territorial zone around Australia.

    

Austral Policy Forum 06-26A: Australian government assault rifle now a common crime gun in Papua New Guinea – Philip Alpers

Philip Alpers, adjunct associate professor at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney writes that in Papua-New Guinea

“…the Australian SLR remains the experienced criminal’s assault weapon of choice.
…of the 7,664 M-16 and SLR assault rifles delivered to the PNG Defence Force since 1971, only 2,013 (26 per cent) remain in stock.
… now, Australia faces the near-inevitability of its own peacemakers facing its own guns.”

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