The Australian government has about 2,000 military personnel deployed around the world for military operations, including 1,100 in Iraq and the surrounding region.

The Australian rulers organized a regional intervention force of more than 2,000 troops and police to the Solomon Islands in July 2003 asserting the country was on the verge of becoming a “failed state.” The troops have arrested 4,000 people since then, and seized 3,700 weapons. At the time of the shooting, there were still about 160 Australian military personnel in the country, as well as 150 police.

A Solomon Islander, John Ome, surrendered to police December 24 and has been charged with the killing. The slain cop was buried with full military honors in Canberra December 30.

Citing “mounting intelligence fears that rebels were regrouping and posing a renewed threat to the Solomons peace mission,” the December 24 Australian said sending in the extra troops was “exactly the right message.” Another intervention force patrol vehicle was fired on last October. In an earlier incident at the Central Prison in Honiara, prisoners threw rocks at Australian personnel and painted slogans against Canberra’s military intervention.

Australia’s foreign minister, Alexander Downer, said the troops would stay in the Solomon Islands for as long as they were needed “to demonstrate to anybody who thinks they can intimidate us that they won’t be able to do that.”

The goal of the intervention in the Solomon Islands is to re-establish “law and order,” rebuild the “justice” and prison systems, and reorganize government finances to the satisfaction of the imperialist powers in Australia and New Zealand. It is part of stepped-up interference by Canberra in the affairs of the countries in the South Pacific that are dominated by Australian and New Zealand capitalism.

Last November, Downer threatened to cut off Australian aid to the Vanuatu government of Prime Minister Serge Vohor, claiming it had abandoned “good governance.” On December 17, while in Vanuatu to sign an accord with the government of the new prime minister, Ham Lini, Downer declared the Australian government’s relationship with Vanuatu “back on track.” Radio Australia’s Pacific correspondent Sean Dorney reported that Lini admitted the threat to cut aid had played a role in the ousting of Vohor days earlier.

Australian police began patrolling Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, early in December as Canberra moved to deepen its intervention in that country too. Seventy-five were on patrol in Port Moresby and 19 on the island of Bougainville as of December 31. The deployment is part of the “Enhanced Co-operation Programme” for Papua New Guinea announced by Downer in December 2003 with the grudging agreement of Port Moresby. In addition to the cops, Canberra is sending more than 60 officials to take up positions as judges and top government administrators.

Reflecting ongoing tensions over Canberra’s “enhanced co-operation,” a report released mid-December by an Australian government think-tank was condemned in Port Moresby. The report, “Strengthening Our Neighbour,” asserted that without the intervention of the Australian government Papua New Guinea was in danger of disintegrating into “lawless ministates.” In response, a statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Michael Somare accused the Australian government of taking advantage of “such outrageous claims to support their current policy of intervention into the Pacific.”

Canberra has also been one of the firmest supporters of the Indonesian government’s war against independence fighters in Aceh. The territory was placed under martial law in May 2003 as Jakarta moved to crush the fight for self-determination there, deepening a decades-long reign of terror by Indonesian military and police. A state of emergency, recently extended by newly elected Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was in place in the heavily militarized region when the massive tsunami struck the province December 26.

Since then military operations have continued, with the Indonesian army claiming to have killed three rebels and detained five others January 1.

Following the devastating tsunami, Canberra dispatched 900 military personnel to Indonesia as well, deployed mainly in Aceh, northern Sumatra. The Australian Defense Force logistics, engineering, and medical teams sent there were dubbed “angels of mercy” in the news media here. It was an attempt to play on the sympathy for the victims of the catastrophe to paint the Australian military as a humanitarian force, rather than the instrument for defending the interests of Australian imperialism that it is.  
 
 
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