Activists from the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOTT) delivered a 10-metre-long banner covered with the signatures of 1300 Timorese to the Australian embassy in Dili on September 16. The signatures were collected in protest at the Australian government's persecution of former spy Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery, for allegedly blowing the whistle on the 2004 bugging of Timor-Leste Cabinet offices by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS).
Timor Sea
Today, it is Timor-Leste that is giving the tutorial in politics. After years of trickery and bullying by Canberra, the people of Timor-Leste have demanded and won the right to negotiate before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) a legal maritime boundary and a proper share of the oil and gas.
Australia owes Timor Leste a huge debt 鈥 some would say, billions of dollars in reparations. Australia should hand over, unconditionally, all royalties collected since Evans toasted Suharto鈥檚 dictatorship while flying over the graves of its victims.
Time to Draw the Line
Directed by Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini
2016, 58 minutes
A new documentary examines the largely overlooked story of the dispute between Australia and its near neighbour 鈥 the new state of East Timor.
East Timor has taken Australia to the United Nations Conciliation Commission at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
At issue is a permanent maritime boundary and the exploitation of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea 鈥 with East Timor accusing Australia of stealing badly needed resources that, by international law, belong to Asia鈥檚 poorest nation.
The Australian government's refusal to negotiate a fair deal according to international law with East Timor over the oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea is not appreciated by the people of one of the world's poorest nations.
Substantial changes proposed for East Timor鈥檚 Petroleum Fund law will expose the nation鈥檚 finances to high risk and open the door to corruption.
Just a few years ago the fund was widely praised as a model of prudential and sustainable management, and a means of possibly escaping the 鈥渞esource curse鈥 of waste and corruption.
That is all about to change.
East Timor's AMP government, led by Xanana Gusmao, has a bill before parliament that removes most of the prudential controls on the fund.