Subject: East Timor gets NZ Defence
priority
East Timor gets Defence priority 5:00AM Tuesday February 27, 2007 By <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/index.cfm?a_id=164>Audrey Young Nzherald.com.nz New Zealand is likely to extend its commitment in Afghanistan but East Timor will be given priority for any increased deployment, says Defence Minister Phil Goff. "We may need more people there rather than fewer people there in the immediate future," he told the Herald. "We may give more priority to working locally before we'd give priority to putting additional forces in more distant places such as Afghanistan." New Zealand has 150 troops serving in East Timor as part of an Australian-led combined taskforce. Two youths have died in the past week after confrontations with Australian forces. New Zealand has 108 soldiers in Bamiyan province in the Provincial Reconstruction Team and the deployment is committed until September. Mr Goff said it was likely New Zealand would "roll over" the Provincial Reconstruction Team. Although the United States was publicly asking for all countries already involved in Afghanistan to step up their efforts, "we feel we are making a pretty proportionate effort there". etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan ETAN welcomes your financial support. For more info: http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm John M. Miller Internet: fbp@igc.org National Coordinator East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097 Mobile phone: (917)690-4391 Skype: john.m.miller Web site: http://www.etan.org Send a blank e-mail message to info@etan.org to find out how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan [This message was distributed via the east-timor news list. For info on how to subscribe send a blank e-mail to info@etan.org. To support ETAN see http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm ] Back to February menu January 2007 menu |