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There has been a spike in violence in Indonesia’s Papua region following a peace conference held in July. While some officials hoped a peace agreement reached several years ago in similarly troubled Aceh province could be a model for Papua, the recent violence may be a reaction from hardliners opposed to any compromise.

An Indonesian military officer was fatally stabbed in the most recent attack in the country’s Papua province. There have been at least seven shootings reported in the month of August.

Officials were hoping for less confrontation after July’s peace conference. Those talks among officials and local Papuan groups were aimed at defusing the conflict between the Indonesian military and an armed separatist movement that has been fighting for independence in the region since 1969.

One of the organizers of the conference is Muridan Widjojo, a Javanese scholar who grew up in Papua and is now a researcher with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. He says the spike in attacks is in part a reaction from hardliners in both the separatist movement and the Indonesian military who oppose any compromise.

“The pro independence group has kind of an interest to tell to the world that there is something wrong in Papua and we are still here,” said Widjojo.  “We still exist. We still fight. And then also on the part of the security institutions, [they can say] посмотреть, Papua is not stable and Papua has still a strong resistance and unstable and we are needed to be there.”

Special status

В 2001 Jakarta granted Papua special autonomy status, giving local authorities more control over tax revenues, but there has been little improvement in poverty, and human rights groups report continued abuses by Indonesian security forces.

The province is rich in natural resources and is home to U.S. gold and copper mining giant Freeport McMoRan. Tensions there between workers and security forces have led to violence.

Widjojo says the peace conference held in July was an attempt to ease tensions and search for common ground. Both Papuan representatives and Indonesian officials attended the conference. Widjojo says his long-term goal is to get both sides to agree to a solution similar to the Aceh peace agreement signed in 2005. That agreement followed the devastation of the 2004 tsunami and ended 30 years of armed conflict in Northern Sumatra. It replaced the Indonesian military with local police to maintain security but kept the province as part of Indonesia.

Right direction

Widjojo says the conference was a step in the right direction. But the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict resolution organization, says in a recent report that the conference did not build any bridges. The report says government officials offered constructive yet vague assurances but were taken aback by Papuan demands for formal negotiations mediated by an international third party.

Don Flassy attended the conference as part of the Papuan pro independence movement. He says nothing less than independence will satisfy the people of Papua.

“That’s right, all people want to be like that,” said Flassy.  “You want to say, okay, this land of God, you want to stay, to be here, okay. You have to stay and to obey the rule, our rule here.”

Djoko Suyanto, the Indonesian coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs, was the highest ranking government official to attend the conference. His spokesman Bambang Sulistyo says the government rejects any call for international involvement, dismisses the need for negotiations and says it will focus on making the current special autonomy status work more effectively.

He says the government sees the problem as a social, welfare and to a degree a political issue, and is putting together an accelerated development approach to solve these problems.

Action urged

The International Crisis Group report says a draft decree of this accelerated development unit has been lingering on the Cabinet Secretary’s desk for the last three months. It urged swift action to deal with the underlying economic issues.

Widjojo is not yet discouraged by the lack of progress. He says peace negotiations require building trust over time to get both sides to move away from hard-line positions.

“If you learn from for example Aceh peace process, in the beginning the suggestion was almost the same, that the Free Aceh Movement also talk about independence,” Widjojo added.  “And it takes more pre-talk, you know, to open the possibility of compromises.”

But he says progress in the short term is doubtful because of a lack of leadership on the issue from the Indonesian government and plans by Papuan leaders to organize a congress to restate their goal of independence.

Прочтите эту статью:
Aceh Peace Model Stumbles in Troubled Indonesian Papua Region

Автор: Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia

We frequently question China’s military build-up without paying regard to China’s own circumstances. Their nuclear armoury, например, is not much larger than Israel’s and probably on par with Britain and France.

So far it has only been a deterrent force in fixed silos. But for such a deterrent force to be effective it would need to be housed in submarines whose location cannot be easily found.

In Australia the press seems quite hostile to China in ways I believe are misleading and damaging. A more reasoned consideration od China’s defence posture is called for.

China has on its borders some of the world’s most unsettled and dangerous countries.

North Korea is unpredictable. The outcome in Iraq is problematic. In Afghanistan there is little sign of real military progress. Then there is Pakistan. Here, an overwhelming number of Pakistanis believe the US has required Pakistan, in the name of the war against terror, to do things contrary to Pakistan’s own interests. India and Pakistan, dangerous rivals capable of starting a nuclear war, are right on China’s borders.

These unsettled borders give China a strong external rationale for reinvigorating her armed forces. But China’s military development is miniscule compared to the 60 per cent of world expenditure on arms which derives from the US alone. Even Japan’s military forces are far more formidable than many believe.

The United States" attempts under the Bush administration to persuade Japan, India and Australia to participate in an anti-ballistic missile shield could only be regarded as inimical to China"s interests. And it was foolish of Australia and of Japan to consider participating in such arrangements.

In recent years successive governments have believed they best served Australia’s interests by doing whatever the US wanted. Such attitudes do not strengthen the alliance but weaken it because most Australians believe we have Australian interests which do not always coincide with those of the US. Blind submission on the part of government undermines public support for the alliance. Participation in the Iraq War was a classic example. ANZUS was invoked, but ANZUS is a treaty strictly limited by geography. Iraq and Afghanistan are far beyond its bounds.

It was not only a question of going to war at America’s behest. We also accepted, unlike the UK, that the US had the right to imprison Australians in Guantanamo Bay and subject them to torture. There was no protest from the Australian Government. Вместо, there was connivance in a trial that would have been regarded as illegal in Australia or in Britain. 

America now moves in a different direction but the legacy of debt and over-extended commitments created in the Bush era have left President Obama with intractable and extraordinarily difficult problems.

What happens at the end of President Obama’s first term is enormously important not only to America but to the world. Whatever the criticisms might be from time to time ,America has done so much for the world and American leadership remains the best hope for peace and cooperation.

Australia has always had a sense of dependence. We had no defence or foreign policy up to the time of the second war — we relied on Britain. When British help proved unavailable we immediately turned to the US, where for too many people it has remained ever since. That has infected the relationship, especially in recent years.

Too few people know that when the Chinese were shelling the Quemoy and Matsu offshore islands in the Taiwan Straits in the middle 1950s, at a time when President Eisenhower moved the Pacific Fleet in or close to those Straits, Prime Minister Menzies quietly told the President that if there were a war with China over Taiwan that was their affair and not Australia’s. Contrast that attitude with attitudes expressed by recent governments.

The last Defence White Paper was arguably the worst White Paper published in over 40 лет. It has been the most damaging, the most destructive, the most extravagant and arguably the most foolish statement of Austrlain interests.

The US alliance is important but it does not mean we should do exactly what America wants. We must have a mind of our own and carefully judge Australia’s interests. We have not done that in recent times.

We have not all fully accepted that we are part of one world and being one world does not just imply financial deregulation and freedom of trade. It implies, in all respects, policies that are free of racism and discrimination on any grounds whatsoever.

The debates that continue in our Federal Parliament do us great damage and demean Australia. In my view, they do not represent the best of Australia which would support quite different policies if given the lead.

These may be sobering thoughts but they are ones that Australians need to consider if we wish, as we should, to play a constructive role in Asian and world affairs. We have done good things in the post war years. We need to build on them and put aside the negatives. With other middle-ranking powers we could do much to create a more secure world, and especially a securer Asia.

The Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser AC CH was the Prime Minister of Australia from November 1975 until March 1983. This is a digest of a speech he presented at ANU Asia Pacific Week 2011. 

1. The Australian Defence Force and Timor-Leste: looking toward 2020
2. China’s Defence White Paper in brief
3. Australian-American partnership in 21st century Asia Pacific

Смотрите оригинальную здесь:
Обороны Китая осанки и австралийские интересы

Thai police have arrested U.S. citizen Lerpong Wichaikhammat, 54, and charged him with defaming the revered monarchy for an alleged offense dating to a four-year-old post on his blog.

Insulting the monarchy, known as “Lese Majeste”, is a serious crime in Thailand that is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Rights groups and academics have criticized the controversial law and say Thai authorities abuse it for political purposes.

The alleged offense appears to have occurred years ago, when he was living in the U.S. state of Colorado, where he spent 30 лет.

Thai police say Lerpong, who also goes by the name Joe Gordon in the United States, provided a link on his blog in 2007 to the book “The King Never Smiles.”

The unauthorized biography of 83-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej is deemed critical of the Thai royal family and is banned in Thailand.

Gordon was arrested on Tuesday in northeastern Nakhon Ratchasimaand province where he has been living for the past year. In addition to the Lese Majeste charge, he is accused of violating Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act for committing Lese Majeste online.

It is not clear why authorities decided to arrest Gordon now, but rights activists say there has been increasing use of the law to silence critical voices and political opponents.

Benjamin Zawacki, Asia researcher for Amnesty International, spoke about the controversial law this week at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.

“Although the Lese Majeste law has been on the books for decades, during Thailand’s ongoing political crisis, which began in late 2005, it has been used more vigorously amidst a worsening climate for political expression,” said Zawacki.

A spokesman at the United States Embassy in Bangkok says a consular official visited Gordon on Friday and that they are following his case closely.

Zawacki says the law, as currently drafted, means Thailand is violating its international legal obligations to protect freedom of speech and that it should be changed.

Thai authorities say the strict law is necessary to protect the revered monarchy from slanderous attack and to ensure national security.

Zawacki says it is clearly a legal and factual stretch to claim that an insulting remark could compromise the security of the nation.

Rights groups and academics have decried authorities’ increasing use of the law to silence critics and opposition politicians.

A Thai historian and an editor of opposition Red Shirt news magazines were recently charged with Lese Majeste.

Thai authorities have also charged 18 leaders of the Red Shirts movement.

Gordon would not be the first to be charged with Lese Majeste for posting someone else’s writing.

The editor of the online magazine Prachatai, Chiranuch Premchaiporn, was charged last year on several counts of Lese Majeste for bloggers’ postings on her website.

Authorities say that although she did not post them herself, she did not remove the offending messages quickly enough and could be sentenced to several decades in prison.

Продолжение здесь:
Американский лица более чем 15-летний срок в Таиланде за оскорбление монархии

To get an idea of how well-equipped China is to prevent mass anti-government protests, you need only look at some of the security equipment that was being touted by Chinese companies at this week’s IDEX arms fair in Abu Dhabi. When China’s leaders crushed pro-democracy protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989, they sent in the army with tanks and live ammunition. В эти дни, they would have many other ways of dispersing such crowds – or preventing them forming in the first place. Chinese companies are now producing advanced surveillance, crowd control and other security equipment – some of it modeled on U.S. technology developed during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and are starting to sell it around the world. Among the Chinese firms advertising their wares at IDEX were several offering counter-terrorism and public security equipment, according to National Defense Magazine’s blog post on the exhibition. The products ranged from body armor, riot shields and armored vehicles, to sniper detection devices, explosives scanners and – perhaps most importantly in this age of tech savvy trouble makers — mobile telephone and Internet jamming equipment. One of the Chinese companies at the exhibition was CETC International, which was founded in 2002 and now says it supplies several Chinese government agencies, as well as exporting to dozens of foreign countries. Under “Anti-terrorism and Security Products”, the company’s website lists jamming devices, surveillance drones, 360 degree cameras and command and control systems, some of which, it proudly claims, were used during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It also advertises what it calls “ Directed High-intensity Acoustic Low-lethal Weapons for Police , ” a sound-based crowd-control device that appears similar to the sonic weapon more conventionally known as a long range acoustic device (or LRAD ). “Strong noise weapons are used to converge certain audible noise into high-intensity sounds to achieve long-distance spread of sound energy,"Он говорит. “At the same time, by stimulating the human hearing sense, internal organs and central nervous system and other organs, it can weaken or destroy the mobs hearing effectiveness so as to control the sitnation (sic)." (See video explaining LRADs, which have been used by the U.S. military, здесь ) CETC International, whose mission is to “Dedicate to the Motherland, Contribute to the Society, Serve the Customers” according to its website, is the export arm of the state-run China Electronics Technology Corp and notched up foreign sales of $1.2 млрд. 2009, according to state media. Neither its website nor state media give many details about those sales – and none appear to have been made public at IDEX — but the company seems to have identified the most likely potential foreign customers. According to its web site, it has overseas branches in the following countries: Алжир, Египет, Марокко, Ангола, Судан, Саудовская Аравия, Пакистан, Таиланд, Мьянма, Сирия, Эквадор, Peru and Venezuela. - Джереми страницу

Продолжение здесь:
Available: Chinese Tech for Putting Down Protests

The Bank of Thailand has alerted commercial banks to improve their security systems, after a hacker stole personal information belonging to a bank customer and used it to transfer money via Internet banking services. Тем временем, the central bank continues to receive a stream of complaints regarding Internet banking and ATM fraud. Читать полностью