Norm Dixon

  • Australia 'heavily involved' in Bougainville fighting

    A meeting of traditional leaders from central Bougainville has condemned the attack on the area by Papua New Guinea Defence Force troops and called for their immediate withdrawal. The chiefs vowed not to cooperate with the PNG

  • Australia aids police brutality in PNG

    The government's Australian International Development Assistance Bureau is training paramilitary police squads in Papua New Guinea for jungle warfare in the highlands and on Bougainville. These police squads have a penchant for

  • Australian-trained commandos sent to Bougainville

    The Papua New Guinea government has sent 40 troops to Bougainville who have just completed intensive counterinsurgency, jungle warfare and commando training at the Australian Defence Force base in Canungra, near the Gold Coast in

  • Vigil against blockade

    Vigil against blockadeSYDNEY — Fourteen-year-old Kirrallee Gillespie, braving bitterly cold wind and rain, began a lone vigil outside the Papua New Guinea consulate on October 20. She has vowed to remain until PNG's consul

  • PNG attacks central Bougainville

    The existence of the fledgling independent Republic of Bougainville is under grave threat. The Papua New Guinea Defence Force launched a major military push towards the island's capital, Arawa, in the early hours of October 21.

  • International pressure on Bougainville blockade

    The Papua New Guinea government's military blockade of Bougainville is coming under increasing international pressure. The European Community and those countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific that receive EC aid (known

  • Civil war threatened as Angola rejects UNITA

    The people of Angola have decisively rebuffed the bid for power by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) in presidential and parliamentary elections held on September 29 and 30. The ruling Popular

  • Why death rides South Africa's trains

    "Commuters travelling on trains, buses and taxis have been coming under increasing attack and are daily being exposed to the danger of losing their lives while simply travelling to and fro from their work." This description

  • Red Cross Bougainville claim queried

    Red Cross Bougainville claim queriedThe Solomon Islands government is prepared to help transport desperately needed medical supplies into Bougainville. The offer comes after claims by the head of the PNG Red

  • Australian, NZ pilots in Solomons kidnapping

    Papua New Guinea's Australian-supplied Iroquois combat helicopters and their Australian and New Zealand "civilian" pilots have again been involved in a serious abuse of human rights, the Solomons Star newspaper has revealed. One

  • Pretoria agrees to release prisoners, curb violence

    Stung by the almost universal condemnation of the September 7 Ciskei massacre, and widespread scepticism over the South African government's claim to be uninvolved, Pretoria has been forced to meet several key demands of the

  • Fiji trade unions ban Emperor

    Fiji trade unions ban EmperorThe confrontation between the Australian-owned Emperor Gold Mines Limited and Fiji continues to escalate. On September 17, the Fiji Trades Union Congress voted to ban all equipment and materials