Conference for Disarmament, Security and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region
The records of the Congress/Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD) tell and produce stories of Australian activism toward and anxieties about arms build-up and security in the Asia-Pacific region.[1] As articulated in the displayed advertisement, in 1990 many believed that after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and after peace had ‘broken out in Europe’, benefits had still not arrived to ‘Australia’s region – The Asia Pacific’.[2] In fact, many began to look toward a future security order in the Asia-Pacific region, advocating for a region-wide dialogue.[3] In 1990 these desires and discourses manifested into the organisation of the Conference for Disarmament, Security and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region (ASPAC) at the University of Melbourne. ASPAC aimed to put structures in place to stop navy and military arms build-up in the Asia-Pacific, in particular on arms-control in the North-West Pacific – in Japan, China, Taiwan and North and South Korea. ASPAC’s aims were broad, also concentrating on ‘sub-regional problems of North/South Korea and Vietnam/ Kampuchea, indigenous rights and national sovereignty.’ [4]
CICD Archives
Bringing together many academics, activists and governmental officials, it is clear that such desires for a regional dialogue and security structures were growing. This is especially after the perceived successes of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and other similar events in Europe.[5] Nevertheless, there were tensions about how to organise the ambitious ASPAC, and how to represent and include a diversity of participants. There are many concerns raised in the correspondences archived – from the Premier of Victoria to members of the Senate, unions and other disarmament organisations. While ASPAC claimed the Asia-Pacific as ‘our region’, many within Australia urged for a shifting of this viewpoint, and a push for collaborative and diverse participation. These concerns are echoed in one of Jo Vallentine’s letters displayed on this page, who was the Western Australian Senator for Nuclear Disarmament. She asked, ‘Would it not be more appropriate to hold it in Asia if you want to get people from that region together?’[6] Additionally, Vallentine pointed to the lack of funding available to sponsor participants to come to Australia. Clearly, many were worried that this conference would be held on behalf of this region, and not achieve collaborative goals or approaches to disarmament.
As Antoinette Burton argues, when telling such stories through archives, the archive’s own histories must be considered and understood as produced selectively within its own context.[7] The 72 boxes of CICD archives were received by UMA from 1979 until 1991 through social networks established by Frank Strahan and colleagues in the 1960s focusing on ‘protest, change and liberation.’[8] Formed in 1959, CICD was actively involved in many protest movements: opposition to French nuclear testing, opposition to the Gul Wars, Vietnam Moratorium, the anti-nuclear movement and Palm Sunday Rallies.[9] Significantly, what is chosen to be stored wields power ‘over historical scholarship, collective memory and national identity’.[10] For this reason, it is important to consider how CICD’s archives fit into UMA’s archive collection, which Suzanne Fairbanks noted focused at this time ‘on the dominating culture’.[11] Notably, it omitted many important movements, such as Indigenous protest movements and civil rights activism. [12] Nevertheless, as they are activist records, the CICD archives also represent significant and diverse documentation of movement against such dominating powers.[13] That is not to say that all of these stories are represented in the archives, or that they are not curated by CICD, and it is important to consider voices that may be omitted. Similarly, Lyn Hunt highlights that ‘truth’ in history often rests on documents, and the existence or absence of such documents themselves are a product of history.[14] For example, tensions in the organisation of ASPAC surround how to represent and create a dialogue with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. For this reason, CICD’s records of such discussions and selection of what is included should be considered when telling these stories.
Indonesian Participation
his question of what might have been omitted from the archive comes into focus when looking at the records created after ASPAC. For example, CICD wrote in its final report of disappointment of a lack of participation from Indonesia, Korea, Cambodia, Japan and Mainland China. They quoted the reason for withdrawal of the Indonesian parliamentarian Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid: ‘although I have obtained (my) exit permit and Australian visa… (the) security apparatus ‘requests’ me at the last moment not to go to Melbourne due to a heightening political situation in Indonesia’.[15] There is not further discussion of this conference within CICD’s archives of ASPAC. However, while ASPAC itself received little media attention, this incident was covered significantly in Australian newspapers. For example, Canberra Times reported that Mr Wahid was ‘on the run’ because the Indonesian Government was concerned ASPAC would be examining tensions in East Timor and Irian Jaya and that Mr Wahid had been critical of the Indonesian Government’s use of the military in internal conflicts. [16] In response, the Department of Foreign Affairs stated that he had merely cancelled his trip.[17] The withdrawal of Indonesia from ASPAC when read through CICD’s archives tells a singular narrative, but when combined with secondary readings and newspaper coverage reveals much wider tensions. For this reason, CICD’s archives of this conference and their activist collection need to be read as stories and ‘producers of speech’, not merely as factual tools of History. [18]
The CICD archives and subsequent media coverage of ASPAC show that, in having such a sweeping focus of issues in one event, ASPAC not only displayed heightened Australian anxieties about a lack of disarmament in neighbouring countries, but also tensions amongst different countries in the region. Responding to growing calls for disarmament in the Asia-Pacific region, especially from 1989 onwards, ASPAC tried to create a space to construct solutions and regional dialogues. The CICD archives tell and produce narratives about these attempts, and track Australian and international anxieties in this period.
- Eva
[1] Antoinette Burton, Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006), 6.
[2] Reference no. 2012.0286.00177, Campaign for International Co-operation and Disarmament Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.
[3] Geoffrey Wiseman, “Common Security in the Asia‐Pacific Region,” The Pacific Review 5, no. 1 (January 1992): 42.
[4] Reference no. 2012.0286.00177, Campaign for International Co-operation and Disarmament Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.
[5] Wiseman, “Common Security in the Asia‐Pacific Region,” 42.
[6] Reference no. 2012.0286.00178, Campaign for International Co-operation and Disarmament Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.
[7] Burton, Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History, 6.
[8] Suzanne Fairbanks, “Diverse Worlds and the Collective Archive at the University of Melbourne,” Archives and Manuscripts 46, no. 2 (May 4, 2018): 210.
[9] “Campaign for International Co-Operation and Disarmament (CICD) - History,” accessed May 27, 2019, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/25747/20100921-1553/www.cicd.org.au/index0f91.html?category=about&page=cicdhistory.
[10] Fairbanks, “Diverse Worlds and the Collective Archive at the University of Melbourne,” 209.
[11] Fairbanks, “Diverse Worlds and the Collective Archive at the University of Melbourne.”
[12] Fairbanks, “Diverse Worlds and the Collective Archive at the University of Melbourne.”
[13] Fairbanks, 209.
[14] Lyn Hunt, “Truth in History,” in History: Why It Matters (Cambridge: Polity, 2018), 30.
[15] Reference no. 2012.0286.00143, Campaign for International Co-operation and Disarmament Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.
[16] “Fears for Muslim Leader,” Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), July 7, 1990.
[17] Soekamto Wienardi, “Embassy’s View on Leader,” Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), July 13, 1990.
[18] Burton, Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History, 6.