1. Indonesia: Official Admits Mistakes in Timor
2. Australia ‘Should Lead E Timor Mission’
3. Afghanistan: PM Warns of Casualties
4. PNG: NGO Releases Report Critical Of Logging Industry
5. Malacca: Strait Struck From Piracy High-Risk List
6. Indonesia Records another Bird Flu Death

Austral Policy Forum 06-27A: Missiles and sanctions: Has a watershed been reached in the Korean nuclear crisis? – James Cotton

1. Official Admits Mistakes in Timor, Stephen Fitzpatrick, Australian, 2006-08-10

   Dino Patti Djalal, a senior Foreign Ministry staffer at the time, said that Jakarta never displayed the “heart and will to rein in” Indonesian-backed militia groups who slaughtered thousands after East Timor’s independence referendum in 1999. He said that if those lessons were not learned “by political officials and security officials, it will not be possible to solve the problems of Aceh, Poso and Papua”.

    

2. Australia ‘Should Lead E Timor Mission’, Australian, 2006-08-10

   The Government would prefer a new mission to East Timor to be led by Australia rather than the United Nations, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said today. But Dr Nelson said it was premature to canvas a timetable and duration for that mission. He rejected a suggestion of a minimum five-year mission proposed by East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta.

    

3. PM Warns of Casualties, Patrick Walters, Australian, 2006-08-10

   Australian troops will begin their most hazardous long-term assignment of the five-year war on terror when they arrive in Afghanistan’s Oruzgan province this month. John Howard confirmed that a much larger, 400-strong taskforce would be based in Afghanistan for at least two years and warned of the possibility of casualties. The size of the force will be reviewed in six months and could be increased again.

   • International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, NATO [regularly updated]

   • Afghanistan, Military Policy Awareness Link (MiPAL), National Defense University Library

   • Statement to Parliament on the Australian Defence Force Commitment to Afghanistan, Transcript of the Prime Minister, The Hon John Howard MP, Parliament House, Canberra, 2006-08-09

      

4. PNG: NGO Releases Report Critical Of Logging Industry, Steve Marshall, ABC, 2006-08-09

   The Australia Conservation Foundation and a PNG environmental law firm have released a report into environmental damage and corruption in Papua New Guinea’s logging industry. The PNG forestry minister says he’s sick and tired of what he calls “greenie smear campaigns”, while an Australian consultancy hired by PNG’s largest logger recommends the country increase its logging.

   • Bulldozing Progress: Human Rights Abuses and Corruption in Papua New Guinea’s Large Scale Logging Industry, ACF, 2006 [PDF]

   • The Great British Forest Slander, Bill Bowen, The National, 2006-08-10

      

5. Strait Struck From Piracy High-Risk List, Bloomberg, Standard, Wednesday, 2006-08-09

   Lloyd’s Joint War Committee has removed the Strait of Malacca from its list of high-risk areas for piracy and terrorism, but added part of the north-eastern coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island to the list.

    

6. Indonesia Records another Bird Flu Death, Reuters, SMH, 2006-08-09

   Indonesia has recorded the highest number of human bird flu deaths, most of them since the start of this year. In Vietnam, where 42 people have died, there have been no reported infections in people this year after the government imposed sweeping vaccination programs for birds. The Indonesian government has defended its efforts to curb bird flu, saying it had done its best despite financial constraints.

   • China Confirms First Bird Flu Case Was in 2003, Zi Xun, Scidev.Net, 2006-08-09

      

Austral Policy Forum 06-27A: Missiles and sanctions: Has a watershed been reached in the Korean nuclear crisis? – James Cotton

James Cotton of the University of New South Wales at The Australian Defence Force Academy writes that “there are at many reasons for considering UNSC 1695 to constitute a watershed in the Korean nuclear crisis.”

He notes that in particular

“not only is China now on record as critical of North Korean weapons and missile proliferation, but Beijing has even expressed support for financial strictures on North Korea to the end of containing that proliferation.”

Cotton concludes that

“North Korea’s rejection of UN authority is unprecedented in modern times; it is also a serious reverse both to multilateral diplomacy as well as to the prospects for confidence-building in Northeast Asia.”

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