Kathy Newnam, Darwin
This month, 11,000 US troops will arrive in Australia to join with 6000 Australian troops for the Talisman Sabre military exercise in northern Australia. Protests across the country will take place on June 10 to mark the beginning of the exercise.
The national focus for the protests will be a three-day convergence in Shoalwater Bay, north of Rockhampton, where the military training base will be used by US and Australian troops for the exercise.
The base has long opposed by environmentalists because of its impact on the sensitive ecosystems of the bay and damage to the nearby Great Barrier Reef.
Last year, PM John Howard's Coalition government signed an agreement with the US to upgrade the Shoalwater Bay base, and two military bases in the Northern Territory, to make them suitable as regular US training facilities. Opposition to these new US bases will be a highlight of the protests against the Talisman Sabre exercise.
Talisman Sabre will also include military activities in civilian facilities such as Sydney, Rockhampton and Brisbane airports, and the use of military training bases in Townsville and Cowley Beach and the Northern Territory's Delamere bombing range. The Tasman, Timor and Coral seas will also be sites for military exercises.
Protest organisers have expressed fears that depleted-uranium- coated weapons will be used during the exercise, an allegation that the Australian government has refused to deny.
For more information about the convergence on Shoalwater Bay, email <peaceconvergence@yahoo.com.au>. Protests are also being planned for Darwin, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Contact <no_war_nt@yahoo.com.au> or <aabcc@zip.com.au> for more information.
From Green Left Weekly, June 1, 2005.
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