NGOs Urge Howard to Play Fair in Boundary Talks with East Timor
100 Groups Worldwide Call for Respect for Timor’s Sovereignty and
Resources
For Immediate Release
Contact: John M. Miller, 718-596-7668
November 7, 2003 - A global coalition of non-governmental
organizations today wrote Prime Minister John Howard of Australia
urging his government to set a firm timetable for establishing a
permanent maritime boundary between East Timor and Australia in
upcoming negotiations.
“Throughout these negotiations, East Timor should be treated
fairly and as a sovereign nation, with the same rights as
Australia,” the letter says.
The letter, signed by representatives of over
100 NGOs from 19
countries, was sent as the governments of Australia and East Timor
prepare to begin preliminary talks on the maritime boundary on
November 10. The Howard government has thus far declined to accept a
timetable or an end date for resolving the issue, despite repeated
requests from the government of East Timor.
“At stake in these negotiations are East Timor's rights as an
independent nation to establish national boundaries and to benefit
from its own resources. This is indeed a test of Australia’s respect
for East Timor’s right to genuine self-determination,” said John M.
Miller of the East Timor Action Network, which coordinated the
letter. “The world will judge Australia based on whether it tries to
bully East Timor or treats it fairly and as a sovereign equal in
these negotiations.”
The letter states that under current international legal
principles, “the median line (half way between the coastlines of two
countries) is the standard way to establish maritime exclusive
economic zone (EEZ) boundaries when two countries are closer than
400 nautical miles to each other. If this international principle
were applied, many of the oil and gas fields lying outside the Joint
Petroleum Development Area [JPDA] but north of the median line would
fall within East Timor's EEZ….”
Recognition of East Timor's right to these resources could mean
as much as $30 billion in revenue over three decades for East Timor,
the poorest country in Asia.
The letter says, “We have been troubled by your government's
callous disregard for East Timor's sovereignty and rights, which
seems contrary to the deep concern for East Timor expressed by so
many Australians.” It warns that Australia “risks squandering the
international goodwill Australia established since 1999," and that
“Australia's own long-term national interests are best served by a
stable and prosperous East Timor....”
“Without public pressure, Australia profits by waiting out the
exhaustion of oil and natural gas resources before agreeing to a
boundary, taking revenue rightfully belonging to East Timor. This is
revenue that can help East Timor become independent of foreign
donors and escape from dire poverty as Southeast Asia’s poorest
country,” said Miller.
Several ‘interim’ resource-sharing agreements have been signed
between Australia and East Timor. These agreements are derived from
the illegal 1989 Timor Gap Treaty between Australia and Indonesia,
which heavily favored Australia. Under these interim agreements, the
largest amounts of what should be East Timor’s petroleum resources
are excluded from the JPDA. These include the bulk of the Greater
Sunrise field and the nearly-depleted Laminaria-Corallina field.
Together they contain more petroleum than the Bayu Undan field,
which is within the JPDA. Australia has taken possession of these
resources outside the JPDA, although both countries claim them, and
they would belong to East Timor under current international
principles. Once a permanent boundary is established these
agreements would have to be renegotiated.
See
http://www.etan.org/issues/tsea.htm for
more info.
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