APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, March 5, 2007

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"APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, March 5, 2007", APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, March 05, 2007, https://nautilus.org/apsnet/apsnet-for-20070305/

APSNet for 20070305

Austral Peace and Security Network (APSNet)

Twice weekly report from the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Australia.

Monday 5 March 2007

  1. East Timor: Reinado On Run, Four Dead in Same
  2. Bush Faces Three Major Afghanistan Stumbling Blocks
  3. China’s Military Spending to Grow by 18%
  4. Australia: The Importance of Defence
  5. Abe Ignores Evidence, Say Australia’s ‘Comfort Women’
  6. Australia’s Thaksin Problem
  7. Why Indonesia Matters

We were wrong: Trouble Brewing in East Timor Again? SIIA, 2007-02-26 [APSNet 2007-03-01]

This article contained two undetected factual errors. The scheduled date for the presidential election is April 9, 2007, not April 2008. Apart from the SIIA story, we know of no other reports of a renewed East Timorese army strike. We apologize to readers for these errors.


  1. Reinado On Run, Four Dead in Same, AAP, Age, 2007-03-04

    Alfredo Reinado has escaped a clash with Australian forces. Four supporters were killed after Australian troops attack his stronghold. Brigadier Rerden confirmed shots were fired, but said the full details were yet to be confirmed. “The ISF are currently conducting searches that include helicopter, road blocks, and vehicle and foot patrols. “I can confirm that ISF has been augmented by some additional forces from Australia.”

  2. Bush Faces Three Major Afghanistan Stumbling Blocks, Amin Saikal, Age, 2007-03-03

    First is that the Government of President Hamid Karzai has not been able to build a unified ruling elite and a clean, efficient and effective system of governance; second is that the US and its allies failed from the beginning to grasp the complexities of Afghanistan as a country whose basic fabrics had been pulverised; third is that Washington underestimated Pakistan’s destructive role in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule.

  3. China’s Military Spending to Grow by 18%, AP, SMH, 2007-03-05

    China will boost military spending by 17.8 per cent. The 350.92 billion yuan ($A57.5 billion) defence budget would mainly boost wages and living allowances for the armed forces and upgrade armaments. [China] defended its spending compared to what is spent by Britain, France, Japan, and the USA. President George W Bush has signed a bill authorising $US532.8 billion ($A680 billion) in defence spending for the 2007 fiscal year.

  4. The Importance of Defence, Brendan Nelson, Defence Direct, February 2007

    Defence [has] an aircraft fleet 1.5 times the size of Qantas (370 aircraft), an inventory worth 1.5 times that of Woolworths and 3 million hectares of land under management. Defence is Australia’s third largest employer, with 2,900 of our uniformed personnel currently deployed on 9 different operations around the world. [In] a little over a year 5 new operations were launched: East Timor, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Fiji and Lebanon.

  5. Abe Ignores Evidence, Say Australia’s ‘Comfort Women’, Stephen Moynihan, Age, 2007-03-03

    The association representing ‘comfort women’ living in Australia has launched an attack on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Next week, Friends of Comfort Women in Australia will rally at the Japanese consulate in Sydney.

  6. Australia’s Thaksin Problem, Tim Lindsey and Jeremy Kingsley, Straits Times, 2007-03-03

    Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, who won three landslide election victories before being toppled in a bloodless coup in September last year, says he is house-hunting in Sydney. But Mr Thaksin’s real estate plans create a dilemma for Canberra. Is he a democratically elected leader unconstitutionally deposed, or a corrupt and power-hungry rogue leader who pushed his country to breaking point?

     

  7. Why Indonesia Matters, Hannah Beech, Time, 2007-02-22

    Indonesia is undergoing a spiritual revolution. Over the past four years, dozens of regencies – provincial subdivisions – across Indonesia have used the more permissive political climate to implement Shari’a-based bylaws that include bans on alcohol and prohibitions on women going out alone at night. Today, more than 10 percent of all Indonesian regencies, are living life under some form of Islamic-inspired law.

     

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