doug wrote:
>I was talking to a journalist who covers Indonesia at a party last
night. She told me that the Australian government threatened a cutoff
of military and intelligence cooperation with the U.S. if the U.S.
didn't agree to an East Timor intervention. Has anyone else heard
this?<
i think the phrasing was more along the lines of "australians will not understand unless the US comes to Australia's aid". similar effect, but not a threat by our bushy-browed PM. cutting off US ties scares the beejeezus out of him. wot would australia do floating about alone in a sea of darkies??? the Lib-Nat Coalition govt made a significant effort to reverse the geo-political trend of the last decade or so, back to Our Good and Faithful Ally the US. unlike the ALP, who were more than keen to set down military links within the region, having decided that the US was not such a trustworthy ally after all... and it's here that the links between the Aust govt/military/spies and Indonesian govt/etc were laid down by various infamous agreements between Suharto and Keating, including the Timor oil exploration agreement.
what Howard was saying, was in effect, "look bill, if you don't send some boys over -- it doesn't have to be too many -- then the popular sense of an historical agreement between australia and the US is dead in the water'. i think it already is in any event. the australian military is handling the indonesian military with the kind of emotional attachment that can only come from both a combination of overwrought fear of gravitational pressures plus strong military connections. all the talk about deputising is so as not to panic the chooks into thinking white australia is adrift...
the Australian Govt, with full knowledge of the impending slaughter, lobbied the UN to agree not to force outside soldiers into ET during the ballot. and no one, not even Nathan, can give a good reason as to why, given these circumstances, either the UN or Australia or Portugal agreed to hold the ballot at this time. collusion? you betcha.
an article below:
Angela _________
Agence France Press
Australia's Howard unveils new post-Timor doctrine on Asia
SYDNEY, Sept 22 (AFP) - Australia will upgrade its defence forces and embrace a new role as the United States' peacekeeping "deputy" in Asia, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said in an interview released Wednesday.
Speaking with The Bulletin magazine, the prime minister unveiled the "Howard Doctrine", which he said would see Australia take a new place in Asia now that it had led a multinational security force into East Timor.
"We have displayed our responsibility, shouldered the burden we should have," Howard told the magazine in an interview published in its September 28 edition released Wednesday.
Australia, he said, "has a particular responsibility to do things above and beyond in this part of the world" and was prepared to take on a role as America's "deputy" in the region.
That new role would mean increasing defence spending and make upgrading the military a priority that could stand in the way of other, less urgent needs, Howard said.
The prime minister said Australia's role in leading a multinational security force into East Timor this week had set a precedent for its future role under the "Howard Doctrine".
"Despite the inevitable tensions that are involved (in East Timor) and some of the sensitivities, this has done a lot to cement Australia's place in the region," Howard said.
"We have been seen by countries, not only in the region but around the world, as being able to do something that probaly no other country could do, because of the special characteristics we have, because we occupy that special place -- we are a European, Western civilization with strong links with North America, but here we are in Asia."
But Howard said there was a caveat to Australia's future role in Asia.
Australia, he said, planned to be a "participant on our own terms" in Asia and would spend less time worrying about fitting in.
"In foreign policy, we spent too much time fretting about whether we were in Asia, or part of Asia, or whatever. We should be ourselves in Asia."
Australia's Labor governments in the 1980s and early 1990s, he said, had spent too long worrying about offending Indonesia and trying to make Australia "much like the countries in the region."
The prime minister said he expected Australia's relationship with Indonesia would be repaired in the coming years and speculated that work could begin once the current "power vacuum" in Jakarta was resolved.
"I think power is shifting almost on a daily, weekly basis between groups and different individuals ... They are on a real cusp," he said.
"When it settles down and a new administration -- whoever will be there -- is installed, and if it does go down the path of democracy as we all hope it will, I'm not sure it will take long to resuscitate the relationship."