Australia’s Pacific neighbours represent a new and frightening threat on our own doorstep – which is why John Howard has decided to act so decisively over the Solomons, report Kerry-Anne Walsh and Matthew Benns. Crime gangs. Self-styled freedom fighters. Even tribes of headhunters. And now, as if our Pacific neighbours didn’t pose enough of a danger, there is the threat of world terrorism exploiting their vulnerabilities. Small wonder, then, that behind Australia’s help-thy-neighbour gesture of a troop deployment to the lawless Solomon Islands lies a much more powerful motive – and a much more powerful threat. The Solomons are just part of a struggling constellation of islands to Australia’s north and north-east that are breeding grounds for criminals and political and religious terrorists. And stable, wealthy Australia stands in the middle as a beckoning mecca. The Solomons is on the brink of anarchy, fuelled by corruption, criminal bedlam and violence. Papua New Guinea, within spitting distance of Australia’s north, has been sliding into lawless chaos for the past decade. A dozen Islamic terrorist training camps have sprung up in recent years in West Papua, on PNG’s borders. Full Story
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