Norm Dixon

  • Australian military aid to PNG will not be cut

    Following a meeting between Australian PM John Howard and PNG PM Julius Chan in Sydney on March 9, Howard hinted that military aid to PNG may be boosted and more Australian army "advisers" sent to replace the hired guns from

  • West moves to salvage 'Mobutuism without Mobutu'

    Kisangani, east Zaire's most important city and the Mobutu dictatorship's last stronghold in the country's east, fell to the rebels of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL), led by Laurent

  • Unions blockade Swaziland

    Thousands of trade unionists in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique prevented trucks entering or leaving Swaziland on March 3, in solidarity with the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions.

  • Bougainville rebels prepare for mercenaries

    Fighters of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) are on "red alert" in preparation for attacks by South African mercenaries hired by the Papua New Guinea government. The pro-independence Bougainville Interim Government has

  • Mercenaries on Bougainville: Terrorism Inc.

    "The team that we have hired to train our security force members are not cowboys; they are a reputable professional company, who are part of our many-faceted strategy to reach a lasting solution to this particular crisis", PNG

  • Hypocrisy over PNG's mercenary plan

    According to political commentator Laurie Oakes, writing in the March 4 Bulletin, the Australian government was given detailed information about the PNG government's plot to use mercenaries against the people of Bougainville last

  • Swaziland union leaders freed

    Swaziland union leaders freed@box text intro = As the pro-democracy general strike in Swaziland is set to enter its second month, workers celebrated the release of four senior leaders of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions on

  • Swaziland democracy strikers hold firm

    Swaziland democracy strikers hold firmMass meetings of striking Swaziland workers in the vital sugar and forestry industries voted on February 16 to continue a general strike into its third week. The strikers, organised by the

  • Growing sympathy for rebels in Kinshasa

    As the ADFL sweeps through eastern Zaire, opposition to Mobutu and the war, and sympathy for rebel leader Laurent Kabila, are being openly expressed on the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. A general strike on February 10, called by

  • Zaire rebels tighten 'tourniquet' around Kisangani

    The anti-Mobutu rebellion in eastern Zaire has spread south into the strategic Shaba province — source of much of Zaire's copper, cobalt, diamond and gold wealth — and west towards the central African country's third largest city,

  • Madrid arrests Basque leaders

    Madrid arrests Basque leadersThe Spanish government has begun arresting leaders of the Basque Country's militant, legal nationalist party, Herri Batasuna. Six members of the organisation's executive were detained on February 18,

  • South African police open fire on residents

    Television viewers around the world on February 6 may have thought they had accidentally tuned into a program of archival footage from South Africa's apartheid days: florid, bull-necked cops hidden behind menacing yellow armoured