Homeland Security

DATE=11/28/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-310308

TITLE=ASIA / TERRORISM / POLICE (L O)

BYLINE=PHIL MERCER

DATELINE=SYDNEY

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Police chiefs from 21 South Pacific countries are meeting in Australia to share ideas about responding to terrorism. Fear of terrorism is now driving the Australian government's foreign policy agenda in the South Pacific. This week the powerful National Security Committee in Canberra approved a plan to send 300 police officers to help restore law and order in Papua New Guinea. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

TEXT: There is genuine concern in Australia that poorer island nations in the South Pacific could be used as staging posts for international terrorists.

Mick Keelty from the Australian Federal Police says radical groups and criminals could exploit small countries with crumbling economies and widespread corruption.

/// KEELTY ACT ///

We have seen, for example, countries like Fiji used as transit points for large heroin shipments, so it's not beyond possibility that small Pacific Island nations may be used as transit points or may be used as staging points to commit crimes.

/// END ACT ///

Australia is worried about an "arc of instability" around its northern and eastern coastlines, stretching from Papua New Guinea through the Solomons to Fiji and beyond. Canberra says this is the reason for its recent military intervention in the struggling Solomon Islands and the reason it is hosting the meeting of police chiefs.

Australia has in recent years spent millions of dollars in aid trying to improve policing and good governance in its backyard. Lately, its approach has become more muscular, and Canberra is expected to deploy police officers to Papua New Guinea soon.

Some Pacific nations are concerned that Australia and New Zealand are not consulting them.

But Cook Islands Police Commissioner Pira Wichman believes the smaller island nations are getting an important say. He says the meeting of police chiefs is an important forum for cooperation.

/// WICHMAN ACT ///

We are the ones that are saying that this is what we need and this is the action that we need, this is the resources that we need in our region.

/// END ACT ///

The police chiefs have agreed on a four-year plan that aims to promote greater cooperation and awareness in the event that international terrorists begin to operate in their sphere. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/PM/MH/KL