Timor Sea Justice Campaign

WHAT’S THE ISSUE?

Under the sea between East Timor and Australia lie billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves Australia is taking a greater share of these reserves than it is legally entitled to under international law (as a result of previous negotiations between Indonesian and Australian governments which established temporary demarcation lines.) The East Timorese government is pressing to have fair and permanent boundaries established, but the Australian government is not yet cooperating.

The Australian Government is currently extracting oil and gas from these resources that rightfully belong to East Timor. Revenues from Timor Sea oil and natural gas will enable East Timor to develop essential services such as health, education, electricity, radio, telephone, post, internet and public transport.

For more information see the Timor Sea Office Website

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Write/email/phone

rapidly establish fair maritime boundaries (in accordance with the median line principles of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) giving East Timor a just share of the revenue from oil and gas fields under the Timor Sea and the opportunity to escape continued debt and poverty.

Join the TIMOR SEA JUSTICE CAMPAIGN

Timor Sea Update

Canberra fast-tracks FTA with US—gridlocks Timor Sea boundaries

It took 11 months for Howard to negotiate a complex agreement of hundreds of pages to complete a Free Trade Agreement with the US. In April 2004, Canberra began formal negotiations on a maritime boundary with Timor-Leste(T-L), nearly 2 years after T-L called for talks. Canberra says it can't meet more than twice a year & the issue is so complex it will take decades to settle!

Timor Sea: Recent Developments

The ALP says if in Government it will: (a) settle boundaries in 3 to 5 years, (b) renegotiate frequency of talks with T-L (c) not issue further exploration licenses in disputed areas (Howard has issued licenses in the Greater Sunrise field).

Sunrise partner Shell says the long-running border dispute is hurting its marketing efforts. It is reluctant to increase investment until a deal is ratified. Howard's solution is to send secret envoys to Dili to bully T-L into ratifying an unfair deal ("The Australian", May 26th)

Oxfam warned in May that loss of revenue to Australia could turn T-L into a failed state. Kofi Annan more diplomatically said T-L's political development & social progress depend on its economic prospects. The World Bank wants a quick & fair resolution & meanwhile no new exploration permits in disputed areas (or revenues put into escrow). The NT Government wants Sunrise to go ahead with no delays & wants Canberra to make a one-off revenue deal over the Sunrise field rather than wait for final boundary agreement.

Woodside is studying design options for Greater Sunrise. These include a pipeline to T-L, a pipeline to Darwin & a floating LNG plant. The World Bank says T-L would gain much in employment & downstream benefits from a Timor pipeline.

At a meeting in Adelaide 4 years ago, East Timorese negotiators asked Foreign Minister Downer to halt production in disputed areas or place the revenue into escrow (Brisbane Courier-Mail, May 31st). Laminaria-Corallina was then pumping at 170,000 barrels a day. Downer refused. Now almost depleted, Laminaria-Corallina is now pumping at less than 50,000 barrels a day. Downer was warned at the time that T-L may try to retrieve that revenue when boundaries are finally settled. Downer's & Howard's legacy to Australian taxpayers may be a bill for billions of dollars!

Canberra's treatment of T-L is so outrageous that it is attracting unfavourable worldwide media attention. Recent examples are major articles in UK "Independent" (June 3rd) & "Wall Street Journal" (June 10th). Downer replied to the "Wall Street Journal" that the criticism was "offensive and disingenuous" & then made a series of remarks which were mostly offensive & disingenuous (letter in "WSJ", June 25th).

T-L Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri began the April boundary talks saying: "For us, a 20 year negotiation is not an option. Timor-Leste loses $1m a day due to Australia's unlawful exploitation of resources in the disputed area. That is too many lost and wasted lives."

Women’s Shelter in Crisis

After receiving an appeal from Kirsty Sword-Gusmao on behalf of the Women's Shelter in Dili conducted by FOKUPERS,(the Communication Forum for the Women of Loro Sae), the AETFA Committee decided to sent $500 to the shelter, which was in danger of closing due to lack of funds.

The only women's shelter in East Timor, it provides a haven for women victims of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence. A recent report of the Judicial Services Monitoring Program of East Timor identified a serious shortfall in services for women victims of violence as a leading cause in the under-reporting of cases of violence against women and in women's reluctance to take legal action against perpetrators.

Apart from the shelter, FOKUPERS, East Timor's longest established women's organisation, provides a wide range of services to women. Seminars and courses to empower women, support to mothers after child-birth and in the care of their children, counselling for women traumatised by experiences during the occupation or because of discrimination within Timorese society are some of its activities.

The Women's Shelter needs continuous support
If you can help, contact FOKUPERS via

Kirsty Sword-Gusmao
The Alola Foundation
PO Box 3, Dili, Timor-Leste

Or
• http://alolafoundation.org

Who Are The Terrorists?

Wage War on Terrorism by Cooperating with Kopassus!?

AETFA disagrees...

Australian Defence Minister, Robert Hill, says it's in our national interest to resume military cooperation with Kopassus (Indonesian army special forces).

But: -

• an Australian Foreign Affairs official told a Senate hearing that Kopassus is linked to Islamic militia Laskar Jihad the International Crisis Group says Kopassus created the terrorist group which became Jemaah Islamiah
• a 2002 US Navy report called the Indonesian army (TNI) "a major facilitator of terrorism" due to the "radical Muslim militias they had organized, trained and financed"
• US Congress has banned cooperation with TNI since Kopassus killed 2 American teachers in West Papua (Aug 2002)
• 2 Kopassus officers jailed for blowing up Jakarta Stock Exchange, killing 15 people (Sept 2000)
• 5 Kopassus officers caught smuggling arms to militias massacring civilians in ethnic & religious conflict (Maluku, Sept 2000)
• Kopassus officers murdered Papuan leader Theys Eluay (Nov 2001)
• 2 Kopassus Generals planned and directed the massacre of 1,000 people by militias in East Timor (Sept 1999)
• TNI is forming, training & paying violent militia groups in West Papua now, just as it did in East Timor in 1999
• A convicted war criminal was promoted to a leading position to plan TNIs military assault on Aceh; 2,000 killed, mass graves now uncovered (Aceh, 2003-4)

TNI gets 1/3 of its budget from the Jakarta government. The rest comes from extortion & protection rackets, drugs, prostitution, illegal logging - it gets more "protection" money from multinational firms where there is instability & unrest, so it causes unrest by terrorising civilians. The US trained TNI for decades, but saw no reduction in human rights abuses. They've stopped training TNI; Australia hasn't. Indonesia's police have worked with our police since the Bali bombing. They're under civilian control; TNI isn't. We need a sensible anti-terror policy.

Write to: Defence Minister Hill or PM Howard at Parliament House, Canberra 2600 or 'phone, fax or email your local MP.

Justice for Timor-Leste

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently proposed an International Commission of Experts to review progress towards justice for T-L.. It would look at accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity in East Timor. Six leading human rights groups have written to Kofi Annan saying Indonesia's ad hoc Tribunals weren't impartial or independent & didn't punish perpetrators. The process also sustained an incorrect historical record (in May General Wiranto's counsel repeated this version of history, saying UNAMET's "deceit" caused riots in September 1999). The Rwandan & Yugoslav tribunals operate with budgets of over US$100m annually; T-L's Serious Crimes Unit has a budget of less than US$5m & is to be closed in less than a year. The Commission of Experts proposal should be strongly supported.

War Criminal deports Human Rights Monitor

Leading anti-terrorism researcher Sidney Jones was expelled from Indonesia in May. She is South-East Asia director of the International Crisis Group. She is a leading expert on terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah. Her reports on the separatist campaigns in Aceh & West Papua are thought to have prompted the moves to not renew her work permit & visa. These moves were initiated by head of the national security agency BIN, General Hendropriyono. He was nicknamed "the Butcher of Lampung" for the massacre of hundreds of unarmed peasants by hundreds of troops he led in Lampung in 1989. As Transmigration Minister in the 1999 Habibie Government, he used his entire ministerial budget to transfer tens of millions to hundreds of millions of US$ World Bank aid into arming, training & paying militias in East Timor. The World Bank aid was a special 1999 grant for anti-corruption measures. In the concluding words of a "Dateline" SBS-TV report, Feb. 16th 2000:

In a forest West of Dili, Filomena's husband is unearthed. His wife and children now know how he was killed - with his ears cut off and his head caved in. But in a ledger in the department of finance, this is not a grave, it's a road project or canal, not a murder but a public service.

1999 Violence Could Have Been Prevented

A June 2003 UN report by human rights expert Geoffrey Robertson has accused the US & Australia of pressing the UN "not to push too hard on the security issue" before the 1999 referendum. Their motive was maintaining good relations with Jakarta. Robertson called for a special international court to try up to 75 senior Indonesian officials, including Wiranto. The report is still suppressed (perhaps by someone wanting to maintain relations with Jakarta?).

The Australian Government has once again rejected calls for a Royal Commission into our intelligence services. Intelligence analyst Lt.-Col. Lance Collins says pro-Jakarta bias in the Government caused it to bury evidence that TNI (Indonesia's army) would create militia violence after the 1999 ballot (ABC radio, Background Briefing, May 30th).

Rebuilding Education in East Timor

As a teacher trainer in East Timor I saw at first hand the needs and pressures on the public sector.

The East Timorese government have no tax base to fund roads, schools, hospitals and infrastructure and so will be dependent on revenues from oil and gas deposits.

The government is paying its teachers an average of $US90 a month and relies on support from NGOs for teacher training.

The legacy of the Indonesian occupation and the scorched earth of 1999 was an education system in ruins. Schools have had to be rebuilt and most of the teachers had fled. 50% to 60% of the population is illiterate.

Most schools now have a roof, desks, chairs and a battered blackboard. But no textbooks or equipment, and chalk is doled out one stick at a time. Donated materials cannot always be distributed because the rooms have no windows or a lockable door.

Children fail and drop out, particularly as it costs about a dollar a month to keep a child in school. Only 75% of children complete their primary education and 30% complete secondary.

I worked for a year in the Catholic Teachers' College set up by the Bishop of Baucau. We opened with 53 first years who still attend despite sickness, being away from home and trying to study without electricity. The town of Baucau has not had any electricity since New Years day 2004 due to maintenance problems and the lack of parts for the generator.

The Ministry of Education has launched the first new curriculum, beginning with kindergartens. The college is conducting the in-service training to implement the curriculum in the kindergartens of which there are about 60 The teachers are very keen and willing to try new ideas despite their lack of equipment. It has been a privilege to work with these people. It is planned to have the College entirely in Timorese hands within ten years and we always worked with a counterpart so that our skills would be passed on.

Volunteers like myself are in a small way compensating for the way in which our government is treating the Timorese at the oil negotiations. The country will be in a dire situation unless these revenues become available. We may see our nearest neighbour go under without their only hope of income.

Crystell Halliday

Letters of Appreciation

Institute Católico para Formação de Professores

Baucau
Timor Leste

20 April 2004

Mr Don Jarrett
Australia East Timor Friendship Association
Dear Don

Re: Donation AUD 1500.00
I wish to convey on behalf of the Institute my sincere gratitude for the generous donation you have kindly passed on care of Rosanne Simpkin towards our Undergraduate Bursary Program.
I can assure you that this donation will be put into excellent use towards the future development of the East Timorese and once again, many thanks for your generosity.
Yours sincerely

Instituto Católico para Formação de Professores
Br. Mark Paul fms Director

_________________________

Dear Don,
The Teaching and Learning Team would like to thank the Australia East Timor Friendship Association for their contribution to our College and a personal thank you!
You yourself will be aware contributions are what inspire us and help us to produce effective education. Thanks so much to our friends there! Warmest regards
       Rosanne, Pollyana

Indonesian Elections

By the time you read this, you'll know the July 5th vote results. Early polls show former Security Chief Yudhoyono (SBY) should win the Presidency. As an army general he hasn't got clean hands, but he is a reformer & both he & his vice-Presidential running mate have reputations as negotiators. In 2003 he tried to keep the Aceh peace talks going, but other TNI Generals stopped the talks, imposed martial law (without even telling Megawati's Government, let alone consulting her first), arrested the Acehnese negotiators & launched a massive attack on Aceh. SBY also negotiated a ceasefire in war-torn Ambon, only to see it destroyed by TNI's militia proxies.

Asmara Nababan, Jakarta director of the Institute for Democracy & Human Rights, says no presidential candidate is taking on the 2 big issues. One is Indonesia's foreign debt, now $150 Bn. The other is the army. TNI gets 2/3 of its budget from its own "business" activities (mainly illegal). Nababan says "it can't be controlled by a civilian government. In effect the military is a state within the State" (ABC radio, June 25th). Things will only get worse, he says, unless these 2 big issues are tackled.

THE GOOD NEWS!