BY DOUG COOPER
SYDNEY - The final phase of the Australian government's largest ever war maneuvers took place throughout August. The Kangaroo `95 maneuvers involved 15,750 regular and reserve personnel from the combined land, sea, and air forces of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Troops and equipment from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States participated, while the New Zealand government sent observers.
Malaysian, Singaporean, and Indonesian troops participated in Kangaroo exercises for the first time. Bilateral maneuvers and training of Indonesian troops in Australia has occurred regularly over the last three years. Indonesia has militarily occupied East Timor for 20 years with the complicity of the Australian government.
In the face of decades-long and growing rivalries, the Sydney Morning Herald noted that "careful planning" was involved in keeping the forces of the three Southeast Asian countries separated during Kangaroo `95.
In all, some 17,000 troops, 16 ships and 110 aircraft took part at an estimated cost of $A65 million ($A1=$US.76). The exercises take place every three years.
The ostensible purpose of the war games was to repel an invasion of the Northern Territory by 400 troops from "Orangeland," a mythical nation to the north supported by "Cerise," a fictitious world power.
Australian troops have been sent to intervene in every major military conflict this century that involved defense of either the interests of the British, U.S. or Australian ruling classes.
Canberra's army includes some 25,000 regular troops, 2,500 Ready Reserves, and more than 26,000 general reservists. There were some 65,260 active-duty personnel in all branches of the ADF in 1994.
Kangaroo `95 took place in the context of the November 1994 release of the government White Paper Defending Australia, the first official statement of military policy since 1987. It called for "modest" increases in military spending toward the end of the 1990s. The 1996 military budget is $A10 billion or about 2 percent of the annual gross domestic product.
Attempting to justify Canberra's imperialist policy the White Paper noted, "Ethnic and national tensions, economic rivalry, disappointed aspirations for prosperity, religious or racial conflict or other problems could produce an unstable and potentially dangerous strategic situation in Asia and the Pacific over the next 15 years."
Doug Cooper is a member of the AWU-FIME at Capral Aluminum in Sydney.