Mission & Justice

24/3/08

Residents of Okinawa have gathered to protest against the US military presence on the southern Japanese island, following a series of incidents allegedly involving US personnel, including the rape of a schoolgirl. Thousands of people attended Sunday’s demonstration, despite pouring rain, though the numbers were less than the 10,000 hoped for. “We must bring our anger to both the governments of Japan and the United States,” Tetsuei Tamayose, one of the organisers, told the crowd. The rally was organised by local residents angered after a 14-year-old girl last month accused a US Marine of rape. The girl later dropped charges against the Marine and he was released to the custody of US military authorities.

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 6/3/008

Four US Marines based in Japan are to be court-martialled over the alleged rape of a local woman. They are accused of robbing and raping a 19-year-old woman in Iwakuni in southern Japan last October. The courts-martial will begin next month, an official with the US Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni in southern Japan said on Thursday. Japanese prosecutors investigated the incident but dropped the case in November without giving a reason. The rape case is the latest in a string of allegations to hit US forces based in Japan, triggering a wave of public protest against the American presence in the country. Last week Japanese prosecutors dropped the case of another US Marine accused of raping a 14-year-old girl on the southern island of Okinawa.

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Editorial; 5/2/08

An Asian arms race is under way and it looks more like a marathon than a sprint. China is planning to increase military spending by nearly 18 per cent this year, to $59 billion. This follows increased expenditure by India and Japan. Military spending in Asia is still just a fraction of what the US spends annually but it is increasing, especially among emerging economies. Nor is this confined to Asia. Globally, military expenditure and the arms trade account for the largest spending in the world at over $1 trillion annually. In the short term, at least, this is likely to increase dramatically as space is no longer the final frontier but is considered increasingly by military planners as the first line of defence.

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Ramzy Baroud; 5/3/08

Death hovered over Gaza long before locally-made Palestinian rockets struck near the Israeli southern town of Sderot on Feb. 27, killing Roni Yechiah and sparking an Israeli retaliation that has claimed over hundred Palestinian lives.Yechiah’s death was actually the first of its kind in nine months, and understandably so. The crude Palestinian rockets were often criticized even by Palestinians as useless in the tit-for-tat style of war under way, while easily used by Israeli officials as a “casus belli,” or at least as an excuse for keeping Gaza contained, besieged and on the brink of starvation.

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Paul Toohey; 1/3/08

How do three or four generations of East Timorese who have grown up knowing violence take another path? At this time, the question is the same as the answer: with more violence or the promise of it. In Dili, the capital, the symbol of peace is the gun. Young children on their daily rounds routinely see hundreds of men - their own people or those wearing the uniforms of different nations - standing on street corners, or on patrol, or guarding important people, with automatic weapons at the ready. They are learning the same lessons as their parents and grandparents. East Timor is riddled with all forms of weaponry, the kind held by legitimate forces and the clandestine. In Timor, the AK47, the FN and the Steyr automatic rifles form the coalition ruling party, along with the big, white, crowd-controlling, water-blasting monster with UN markings that has been prowling the streets of Dili.

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27/2/08

Programme and operation managers as well as senior technical advisers from several Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) programmes all over the world are meeting in the Kingdom this week to discuss best practices and challenges faced by their respective programmes. HRH Prince Mired Ben Raad, chairman of the National Committee for De-mining and Rehabilitation (NCDR), who opened the NPA’s 4th Global Operations meeting in Jaber-Mafraq on Monday, highlighted the NCDR’s close working partnership with the NPA. “With the support of many donor countries, NPA has assisted Jordan in dealing with its landmine problem over the course of the last two years and will continue to do so for some years to come. We are very pleased that the NPA operations meeting is taking place in Jordan and hope that the success that has been achieved here in Jordan can be replicated elsewhere,” the Prince said in his opening address. Participants in the five-day annual operations meeting, which was previously held in Sri Lanka, Croatia and Sweden, are scheduled visit the two operational sites of the NPA-Mine Action Programme in Jordan in Jaber and Wadi Araba, according to an NPA statement.

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25/2/08

Delegates from more than 120 countries have failed to reach an agreement on banning the use of cluster bombs during a five-day conference in Wellington, New Zealand. John Duncan, the UK’s chief negotiator, said on Friday that “intense negotiations” would be needed at a final round of talks in May if a treaty is to be established. China, Russia and the US, all manufacturers of the weapons, are not attending. The talks are part of a Norwegian initiative - known as the Oslo process - launched in February last year.

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Frank Walker; 24/2/08

The Federal Government will launch a major cost cutting assault on multi-billion dollar defence projects established by the Howard government, with the controversial $6.6billion Super Hornet jet fighters first in its sights. Other defence white elephants in the Government’s target include the Abrams tank, three massively expensive air warfare destroyers, two huge amphibious carrier ships, dud Seasprite helicopters, unnecessary flying drones and $16billion worth of undeveloped F-35 joint strike fighters. Work will begin this week on the 2008 defence white paper, the biggest review of Australia’s defence priorities since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. It will reassess the Howard government’s policy of spending $50billion to build a defence force that fits seamlessly into the US military machine.

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22/2/08

Britain says two US planes carrying terrorism suspects refuelled at a US base on the British Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia in 2002, contradicting earlier denials. “Contrary to earlier explicit assurances that Diego Garcia had not been used for rendition flights, recent US investigations have now revealed two occasions, both in 2002, when this had in fact occurred,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told parliament. “In both cases a US plane with a single detainee on board refuelled at the US facility in Diego Garcia,” he said. The Government had previously repeatedly insisted that it was not aware of any British territory being used to transfer terrorism suspects outside normal extradition procedures since US President George W Bush took office in 2001.

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21/2/08

A military jury in Hawaii has convicted a soldier of aggravated assault in the killing of an Iraqi man last year. The jury has found Army Specialist Christopher Shore not guilty of third-degree murder on Wednesday but guilty of the lesser charge. The soldier had blamed the June 23 killing on his platoon leader. Shore says he shot at but intentionally missed the victim when ordered by the platoon leader to finish him off.

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