Media Release 15 July 2004

Downsize from the Solomon Islands Begins

New Zealand Defence Force personnel are preparing to scale back their commitment to the Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI), the multi national mission established to restore law and order in the Solomon Islands.

Flying operations end today (15 July), and over the coming days ANZAC Lines, the tented camp, which has been the home to the New Zealand contingent, will be dismantled.

On 24 July representatives from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea will take part in a number of ceremonial events that will be held in Honiara to mark the downsize of the military aspect of the Mission.

While the bulk of New Zealand Defence Force personnel are withdrawing from the region, a small military presence will remain in the Solomon Islands until 2006.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

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