No US bases in NT!

BY RAY HAYES

DARWIN — Recent media reports that US war secretary Donald Rumsfeld told his Australian counterpart, Senator Robert Hill, that the Pentagon wants to set up US military bases in north Australia have angered anti-war activists in Darwin.

According to the November 23 Sunday Territorian: "The United States is set to build B1 and B2 bomber bases in the Northern Territory... a tank base is also part of a plan to use the Territory as a staging point for a new US sphere of influence stretching from India to Japan."

"Any plans for a US military facility of any sort in or around Darwin will be vigorously opposed", Brianna Pike, a spokesperson for the Darwin No War Committee, told Green Left Weekly. Pike called on the national anti-war movement to oppose the positioning of any further US military personnel anywhere in Australia.

She said that the reports had galvanised support for the building of a broad anti-bases/anti-war coalition in Darwin and other regional centres.

There are suggestions from US military planners that they would like to station about 5000 Marines in the NT.

NT Chief Minister Clare Martin has stated that she considers it "inappropriate" for there to be a major US base in Darwin but has refused to oppose it outright, saying "defence is a matter for the federal government".

Pike said: "A US base in Darwin is more than 'inappropriate' — it is downright unacceptable. This should be a matter for the people of Australia to decide, not John Howard and Robert Hill."

The Darwin No War Committee can be contacted through the Activist Centre, on (08) 8981 4714.

From Green Left Weekly, December 10, 2003.

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From GLW issue 565