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This page is no longer maintained. All this material, including new content, can now be found at the Nautilus Austral Peace and Security Network Bulletins for 2006 section of the Global Collaborative. This site was archived in 2008.

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Monday 6 February 2006

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

1. US Wants Iraq Diggers To Stay Longer
2. Lockheed Plans Rapid Rise Up Defence Ranks
3. Asylum Case Threatens to Harm Ties, Envoy Warns
4. Special Report: Environmental Security - Illegal Logging

Policy Forum Online 06-01A:The East Timor Truth Commission Report Shines, 2006-02-06, Gerry van Klinken

1. US Wants Iraq Diggers To Stay Longer,
   Brendan Nicholson, Age, 2006-02-03

   The US has asked Australia to keep troops in Iraq when their job in al Muthanna province is finished. "We definitely want to see Australia committed for the long haul," John Hillen, Asst. US Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.

   Related links:

   a. US Department of Defense Quadrennial Review, 2006-02-05
   This 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review is submitted in the fifth year of this long war. The QDR is part of the continuum of transformation in the Defense Department. Its purpose is to help shape the process of change to provide the United States with strong, sound and effective warfighting capabilities in the decades ahead.

   b. Quadennial Defense Review Report 2006-02-06.pdf

2. Lockheed Plans Rapid Rise Up Defence Ranks,
   Fred Brenchley, AFR*, 2006-02-03

   Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest defence contractor, is planning a significant increase in its local operations after winning multibillion-dollar contracts for the three armed services.

   * Subscription required

3. Asylum Case Threatens to Harm Ties, Envoy Warns
   Tom Allard, SMH, 2006-02-04

   Indonesia has stepped up its campaign for Australia to return 43 Papuan asylum seekers, with its new ambassador warning that relations will be strained if they are granted refugee status. Australia and Indonesia are negotiating a new security treaty.

4. Special Report: Environmental Security - Illegal Logging

   Illegal logging is recognised as a threat to environmental security.

   Furniture A Big Offender in $450m Of Imports Using Illegally Logged Timber
   Philip Hopkins, Age, 2006-02-03
   Australia imports about $450 million of illegally logged timber products a year. Most from South-East Asia; main areas Indonesia, Malaysia and possibly China, consultancy Jaakko Poyry says in a report for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

   Related links:

   a. Illegal logging, Energy, Environment and Development Programme, Chatham House, London

   b. Asia - Pacific's Forests Vital To Australia, NewsOnline, no.39, August 2005, CIFOR

   c. EU ban on illegal timber: mission possible - Greenpeace 01/02/2006

   d. National and International Policies to Control Illegal Forest Activities Report, Center for International Forestry Research, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,Government of Japan, July, 2003. pdf

Policy Forum Online 06-01A:The East Timor Truth Commission Report Shines,
Gerry van Klinken, 2006-02-06

Australian historian and editor of Inside Indonesia, Gerry van Klinken, writes that the light from the 2000 page Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor "is dazzling. That a tortured little place like East Timor could produce such a shining beacon as this truth commission report seems out of proportion with reality. Who would have expected this from one of the world's poorest countries, traumatised by decades of brutal occupation by the army of its almost equally poor neighbour Indonesia, from a microstate for which the pundits are already predicting failure? Miracles still happen. The report's recommendations are luminescent in their simplicity. The denial of East Timor's right to self-determination - always acknowledged by the UN - was an international project, and it's only fair the world should make amends."

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Nautilus Institute. Readers should note that Nautilus seeks a diversity of views and opinions on contentious topics in order to identify common ground.

Read the whole essay The East Timor Truth Commission Report Shines

Gerry van Klinken is a research fellow with the KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies. He is editor of the magazine Inside Indonesia, writing a book on post-New Order ethnic conflict outside Java. In 2002-2004 he spent nine months as research advisor to the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR). In 2003 his Minorities, modernity and the emerging nation; Christians in Indonesia, a biographical approach. was published by KITLV Press. He co-edited the second edition of Masters of Terror: the Indonesian military in East Timor in 1999 , to be published this year by Rowman and Littlefield. http://www.kitlv.nl/klinken.html

Related links:

a. Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor.pdf

b: Transitional Justice Approaches

c. Truth Commissions Digital Collection

c. APSNet 2006-01-19
Gusmao To Hand Report To UN, AAP, Age, 2006-01-19

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