Indonesia absent as World Court hears E. Timor case
Indonesia absent as World Court hears E. Timor case
THE HAGUE (Reuter): The International Court of Justice is scheduled to open a hearing here on Monday to review the legality of an Indonesian-Australian agreement to jointly explore for oil in the sea off East Timor.
But Indonesia will be conspicuous by its absence as the United Nations court convenes to hear Portugal's challenge to the offshore oil treaty signed in 1989.
Recent oil finds in the stretch of sea known as the Timor Gap have given an edge to the dispute, reviving initial hopes that it may contain up to one billion barrels of oil.
Portugal will argue that Australia had no right to sign the treaty with Indonesia because the United Nations still recognizes Portugal, and not Indonesia, as the administrative authority in East Timor.
Lawyer Miguel Galvao Teles, who will present Lisbon's case, said Australia had flouted East Timor's right of self- determination by signing the agreement.
"Portugal wants oil in the Timor Gap to be conserved for the people of Timor when they are in an effective position to benefit from it," Galvao Teles said.
Unlike Indonesia, Portugal and Australia both belong to a group of about 50 countries that accept the International Court of Justice's compulsory jurisdiction. Portugal can therefore take Australia to the court but not Indonesia.
Australia has called Portugal's case "cynically misdirected" and says there is no real dispute between the two countries.
"Portugal's real dispute over East Timor is with Indonesia," an Australian Foreign Affairs Department spokesman said.
The Timor Gap treaty divided the 23,550 sq miles (61,000 sq km) of sea between Timor and Australia into three zones -- one Australian, one Indonesian and one shared.
Initial drillings were unsuccessful but Australia's Broken Hill company struck oil twice last year.
Galvao Teles said Portugal did not expect the court to quash the treaty but hoped that it would compel Australia to acknowledge Portugal's authority over East Timor.
Australia is one of the few Western countries that have recognized Indonesia's sovereignty over the territory.
Legal experts said Portugal's case seemed well founded given that East Timor's right to self-determination and Portugal's status as the administering power had been affirmed in various resolutions of the UN General Assembly and Security Council.
"I would say Portugal has at least an even chance, if not better than that, of winning the case," said Terry Gill, lecturer in international law at Utrecht University.
Lawyers noted similarities between the Timor Gap case and a 1971 ruling by the court on South Africa's continued presence in Namibia in defiance of Security Council resolutions.
The court ruled then that UN member states were obliged to refrain from any action that would imply recognition of the legality of South Africa's presence in Namibia.
"If you use that as an analogy, then other states would at least have a duty not to do anything that would legitimize Indonesia's title to East Timor," Gill said.
The Portuguese colonial administration abruptly abandoned East Timor in 1975 following the toppling of the Salazar dictatorship in Lisbon. It left in its wake a bloody civil war between the various political factions in East Timor.
The following year, the tribal leaders representing the majority of East Timorese declared their desire to integrate with Indonesia. The integration however has never been recognized by the United Nations and a minority group of East Timorese has been waging an armed struggle for an independent state.
The hearings at the International Court of Justice are scheduled to last three weeks. The judgment is expected several months after the hearings close.
The United Nations Secretary General has been sponsoring talks between Indonesian and Portuguese foreign ministers to resolve the status of East Timor.