EAST TIMOR/APEC: Peace Force Row – Australia – Aid – Te Kaha – APEC Editorial – Ansett Strike – Axe Murder – Tauranga
Manhunt – Scott Watson Appeal
EAST TIMOR – PEACE FORCE ROW: New Zealand and Australia were last night warned to keep out of East Timor as deep
divisions emerged over the shape and leadership of an international peacekeeping force. The head of Indonesia's
parliamentary defence commission, Aisyah Amini, said: 'Those without neutrality on the East Timor problem, such as
Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and the United States ... do not deserve to be involved. We have to reject them.'
EAST TIMOR – AUSTRALIA: Three decades of painstaking bridge-building between Canberra and Jakarta has collapsed with the
pillage of East Timor. As Indonesian students burned crude homemade replicas of the Australian flag, Prime Minister John
Howard accepted the inevitable. "We have tried over the years to build a relationship [with Jakarta] and it's very
important that we go on doing that," he said in Auckland. "But obviously we can't remain silent or inactive or paralysed
when something that is so clearly wrong is going on."
EAST TIMOR - AID: New Zealand aid agencies are ready to help clean up the human carnage in East Timor but are worried
their arrival may be delayed by arguments over the terms of the United Nations peacekeeping mission. And independence
leader Jose Ramos-Horta said last night that thousands of East Timorese faced starvation if they did not get food in a
few days.
EAST TIMOR – TE KAHA: Crew of the New Zealand frigate Te Kaha were horrified to see the glow of the East Timor capital,
Dili, burning as they rushed to join the multinational peacekeeping mobilisation. Te Kaha, which arrived in Darwin
yesterday for urgently needed supplies before returning to international waters, armed its anti-missile weapon system as
it passed to the north of Timor.
EDITORIAL - APEC: The country can take satisfaction from our first truly high-powered international event. Aucklanders
did exactly as the organisers asked, avoiding the inner city for the duration. For many it meant altering working
schedules, and for retailers it has been a costly couple of days. The Government should let them know their cooperation
was appreciated. If there are traffic problems today it will not be the fault of returning commuters, who learned very
late that Apec leaders would be here a day longer than organisers supposed.
ANSETT STRIKE: Ansett New Zealand will chop at least 20 flights this week after it locks out pilots on Thursday. But it
is not saying who will fly its remaining flights and whether any overseas captains and first officers have been signed
on short-term contracts. The airline - hit yesterday by a fourth 24-hour strike in the long-running dispute with pilots
over a new contract - last night revealed its initial plans to cope during the lockout.
AXE MURDER: Axe murderer Lachlan Jones told mental health staff he thought about killing someone using a crossbow, gun
or poison and one psychiatrist rated him 10 out of 10 for severity of symptoms. Yet when the teenage schizophrenic came
to discharge himself from a psychiatric unit only four days later, his caregivers deemed his psychotic symptoms to be
"very mild," and either caused by substance abuse or fabricated.
TAURANGA MANHUNT: Police are still hunting for an armed attacker in Tauranga who is missing the end of his nose - and
they have the bitten-off tip waiting in a glass jar for its owner. Steven Paul Mapu, aged 33, allegedly shot a
37-year-old Tauranga man at a Kingswood Rd home about 4 pm on Sunday. A small-calibre pistol bullet went through the
man's arm and into the side of his chest, but not before the victim managed to bite the end off the gunman's nose.
SCOTT WATSON APPEAL: Scott Watson will appeal against his convictions for murdering Olivia Hope and Ben Smart, says his
lawyer Bruce Davidson. Watson was found guilty in the High Court at Wellington on Saturday, the third day of jury
deliberation after a three-month trial. When the jury delivered the verdict Watson said: "You're wrong." Mr Davidson
said appeal documents would be filed this week.
See... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ for full text of articles.