Timor anger with Australia over maritime border talks

Timor anger with Australia over maritime border talks

Jonathan Steele , Guardian News Service, Dili/London

Australia, which led an international peace force to help East
Timor become independent last year, has become the greatest
barrier to the country's hopes of breaking free from reliance on
foreign aid, according to stark budget figures released on
Monday.

Despite starting out as one of the world's poorest and most
war- torn states, East Timor stands to benefit from huge gas
reserves which lie under the sea that separates it from
Australia.

But harsh Australian negotiating tactics over disputed claims
to the gas have forced the government to accept that long-
promised revenues will not materialize for several more years, if
ever.

As a result the Timorese budget deficit for the three years
from June next year will be roughly double the US$70 million
previously projected, the finance ministry in Dili announced on
Monday.

News of the revenue shortfall came as Xanana Gusmao, East
Timor's president, started an official visit to Britain. "We're
not asking too much from Australia. What belongs to us is ours.
We hope Australia can understand that," he told the Guardian in
London.

Gusmao has been dubbed Asia's Nelson Mandela because of his
long years in prison as leader of the armed struggle against
Indonesian occupation, and more recently as a champion of post-
conflict reconciliation.

But he could not conceal his anger at Australia's behavior.
"They still haven't agreed when to start maritime border
negotiations," he said.

The huge reserves of gas in question are known as the Greater
Sunrise field. Although they are closer to East Timor than
Australia, they were "awarded" to Australia under a treaty with
Soeharto, in 1989.

Economic factors were a key incentive in making Australia one
of the first countries to recognize Indonesia's illegal invasion
of East Timor after the territory declared independence from
Portuguese colonial rule in 1975. An international outcry finally
arose in 1999 when the Indonesian army and local militias
massacred hundreds of Timorese after a nationwide vote to move to
independence.

The Timorese government, with the backing of the UN, announced
last year that it wanted to renegotiate the boundary line. Under
normal international practice it would be fixed as the halfway
mark, putting all of Greater Sunrise inside East Timor's waters.

Australia first announced it would not accept any decisions by
independent arbitrators such as the international court of
justice, thus leaving East Timor at the mercy of bilateral
negotiations with its giant neighbor. Then it persuaded cash-
strapped East Timor last year to agree that 20 percent of Greater
Sunrise was part of a "joint production area", giving Australia a
right to a share.

Now Australia is declining to set a timetable for completing
negotiations on the remaining 80 percent. By delaying production,
the apparent aim is to press East Timor to soften its claim.

"We don't have to exploit the resources. They can stay there
for 20, 40, 50 years. We are very tough. We will not care if you
give information to the media. Let me give you a tutorial in
politics - not a chance," Alexander Downer, Australia's abrasive
foreign minister, recently told East Timor's prime minister, Mari
Alkatiri, according to a leaked transcript.

Australian officials were not available last night for comment
on the budget figures.

"Australia is giving A$1 million in emergency food aid for
families affected by a two-year drought and is launching a major
new initiative to provide training for East Timor's police," said
a spokesman for the high commission in London.