CANBERRA (Pacnews) — Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison concedes that the mounting instability in the Pacific has set back Australia’s policing efforts to tackle crime in the region.
Last month’s coup in Fiji, civil unrest in Tonga and moves to sack the Australian commissioner of Solomon Islands police have come at a time when the Howard government has shifted much of its aid focus to “capacity building” of local enforcement bodies in an attempt to restore law and order in the Pacific and minimize Australia’s exposure to money laundering, drug, gun and people smuggling and terrorism.
More than 500 Australian federal and state police officers are serving in East Timor, Nauru, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomons.
Sen. Christopher Ellison said the recent events — including the ousting of Australians as police commissioners in Fiji and the Solomons — have exposed Australia’s “vulnerability” in its policing program.
“The arc of instability, which stretches from Timor to the Pacific, is of absolute strategic importance to Australia, and the basis of our approach is law and order,” he told The Australian.
“It is a constant challenge in the Pacific, it really is, because the politics interfere with the law-enforcement work that our people are trying to do and that makes it very difficult. It has been a case lately of one step forward, two steps back. But we cannot turn our back on it, we must continue in the interests of the region, in the interests of those countries and, of course, Australia.”
The Australian Federal Police, in a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry on Pacific aid, warned of the “increasing” threat of criminals and terrorists infiltrating Australia.
“One of the great concerns about organized criminal groups and terrorist organizations is that they tend to target weak and vulnerable nations struggling with poor governance structures and social, political and or economic instability,” the AFP said.
The AFP pointed to 2004 research showing the prevalence of money laundering in Vanuatu, drug trafficking in Fiji and Papua New Guinea and the trade in illegal weapons and false passports in Tonga and Nauru.
Ellison said the threat should not be understated and possibly could extend to terrorism. “Guns are a concern, illicit drugs, transnational crime and security threats exist where you have a lack of infrastructure for law and order and surveillance.
“And, obviously, with these problems you become an inviting target for serious criminals (and) there is also the prospect of terrorists who want to operate in the region. That is why we must get the basics right and help these countries build professional, honest police forces.”
Meanwhile, the Solomons government has cancelled a meeting with the Australian high commission in Honiara over the fate of Australian commissioner of the local police force, Shane Castles.
The Solomons late last month declared Castles an “undesirable immigrant.” He faces arrest should he return.
The meeting was expected to go ahead this week when Foreign Minister Paterson Oti returns from leave.