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East Timor News Digest 9 – September 1-30, 2010

Actions, demos, protests...

Human rights & law Politics & political parties Refugees & asylum seekers Economy & investment Indonesian invasion & occupation Analysis & opinion

Actions, demos, protests...

Protests in East Timor over gas

Agence France Presse - September 28, 2010

Dili – About 400 protesters shouted anti-Australia slogans on Tuesday as officials from Canberra held talks with their East Timorese counterparts over a troubled joint gas development project.

The student protesters shouted "Australia is a thief" and "Down with Australia" as the the officials arrived for talks on the development of the Greater Sunrise project, witnesses said.

They also carried banners condemning Australian miner Woodside Petroleum, one of the main partners in the field, for treating the East Timorese as "fools" and trying to "steal" the tiny country's energy resources.

East Timor has strongly opposed the Greater Sunrise consortium's proposal to process the gas on a floating platform in the Timor Sea separating the two countries, instead of on East Timorese soil.

East Timor official Francisco Monteiro, who is involved in the discussions, said Dili would not budge from its insistence on an onshore processing centre. "What's clear is that our government maintains that the pipeline should come into Timor Leste and there's no bargaining on this matter," he said, using the country's formal name.

East Timor, which agreed to split projected multi-billion dollar revenues 50-50 with Australia after a maritime border dispute, has said a floating platform is untested and carries an unacceptably high level of uncertainty.

Human rights & law

US urged to reject Indonesian ambassador

ABC News - September 24, 2010

Helene Hofman – Human rights advocacy groups for East Timor have urged the US president to overturn the appointment of Indonesia's new ambassador to Washington.

Dino Djalal presented his credentials to Barack Obama as the new Indonesian ambassador last week. However, the East Timor and Indonesia Advocacy Group, backed by the West Papua Advocacy Team, wants the appointment thrown out.

It accuses Mr Djalal of covering up violence carried out by Indonesian militia and security forces during the 1999 referendum on independence. About 1,500 East Timorese died in the lead-up to East Timor's vote on independence from Indonesia in August 1999.

A report published two years ago by the Commission of Truth and Friendship concluded that Indonesian soldiers, police and civilian officers were involved in the violence.

"[Dino Djalal] consistently tried to portray any violence as between the East Timorese when it was violence perpetuated by the militia, by the Indonesian security forces," John Miller, national coordinator of the East Timor Indonesia Action Network, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia.

"When the referendum itself took place and the violence escalated he was part of the team that tried to discredit the vote itself. [He] tried to portray what was a vicious attack on the East Timorese population for having voted for independence as some kind of civil fighting, when it really was the final violent outburst of Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor."

However, Professor David Cohen, who heads the War Crimes Studies Centre at the University of California, Berkley, says the allegations against Mr Djalal are not enough to justify rejecting him as ambassador.

"Almost everyone in the government of Indonesia took that position at that time," he said. "If the charges against him are simply that he denied the Indonesian military was involved in the violence then one would probably have to reject every other member of the Indonesian foreign ministry from that period."

Mr Djalal has a PhD from the London School of Economics and went on to work as spokesman for Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. His appointment as ambassador has been welcomed by the president of the United States Indonesia Society, David Merrill.

"He understands the American mindset, which benefits Indonesian interests and makes it easier for our countries to find areas of common ground," he said. "He's going to increase support for Indonesia on Capitol Hill."

Mr Djalal declined to comment on the allegations against him. But his appointment has been backed by Kit Bond, US senator for the state of Missouri, who met Mr Djalal on an official visit to Indonesia.

He said the American government was aware of the allegations, but was focusing on the future.

"We believe that certainly there were some really bad problems in the past, but under president Yudhoyono's enlightened leadership I believe these things are going to be in the past," he said.

"We'll work very hard to make sure they understand how important it is to make sure they don't continue to occur."

Calls to reject Indonesia ambassador to US

Radio Australia - September 23, 2010

Human rights advocacy groups for East Timor are calling on the president of the United States, Barack Obama, to reject the appointment of Indonesia's ambassador-designate to Washington. The East Timor and Indonesia Advocacy Group and the West Papua Advocacy Team say Dino Patti Djalal played a key role in defending violence against the East Timorese by Indonesian militia and security forces around the 1999 referendum on independence and they want the United States to bring him to justice.

Presenter: Helene Hofman

Speakers: David Merrill, president, United States Indonesia Society (USINDO); John Miller, national coordinator, East Timor Indonesia Action Network; Professor David Cohen, director, War Crimes Studies Centre, University of California, Berkley; Kit Bond, US senator for Missouri

Merrill: Dino is the perfect choice for Indonesia to send to Washington. He understands the American mindset, which benefits Indonesian interests and makes it easier for our countries to find areas of common ground. Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome Ambassador Dino Djalal [...]

Hofman: He has a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science, has written five books, including a bestseller and, until recently, was president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's spokesman.

It's not surprising then that the president of the United States Indonesia Society, David Merrill, was so keen to welcome Dino Patti Djalal as Indonesia's latest ambassador to the United States with a special gala dinner.

But after all the praise of his work as a diplomat, academic and activist, there was one issue that no one mentioned. John Miller is the national coordinator of the East Timor Indonesia Action Network.

Miller: He was the spokesperson for the Indonesian taskforce for the referendum in East Timor in 1999 and he consistently tried to portray any violence as between the East Timorese when it was violence perpetuated by the militia, by the Indonesian security forces.

Hofman: About 1,500 East Timorese died in the lead up to East Timor's vote on independence from Indonesia in August 1999.

Two years ago, a report by the Commission of Truth and Friendship concluded that Indonesian soldiers, police and civilian officers were involved.

And among those who had denied it – say the East Timor Indonesia Action Network and the West Papua Advocacy Team – was Dino Djalal. Based on that, they want the US president, Barack Obama, to reject his appointment as Indonesia's ambassador to Washington.

But Professor David Cohen, director of the War Crimes Studies Centre at the University of California, Berkley, says that's not enough to justify removing him from the post.

Cohen: The issue for me would be whether or not, when Djalal was in East Timor, he was directly linked to the criminal activities of the militia and Indonesian security forces there. But if the charges against him are simply that he denied the Indonesian military was involved in the violence then one would probably have to reject every other member of the Indonesian foreign ministry from that period.

Hofman to Cohen: Do any international governments, say Australia, for example, have a responsibility to weigh in on this and raise their own concerns about his appointment?

Cohen: Well, the Australian government has a great deal of information in its possession about who was involved in the 1999 violence and in what capacity and they would be well placed to determine whether or not Djalal appears anywhere in their documentation and if so, what his role was.

Hofman: Dino Djalal declined Radio Australia's request for an interview. However, Kit Bond, US Senator for the state of Missouri, who first met with ambassador Djalal on an official visit to Indonesia, was quick to back his appointment.

bond: We believe that certainly there were some really bad problems in the past, but under president Yudhoyono's enlightened leadership, I believe these things are going to be in the past and we'll work very hard to make sure they understand how important it is to make sure they don't continue to occur.

Politics & political parties

Gusmao says resignation will not lead to government's collapse

Associated Press - September 9, 2010

Guido Goulart, Dili – Prime Minster Xanana Gusmao said Friday that the resignation of his deputy, whose party has threatened to withdraw from the ruling coalition, will not lead to the collapse of East Timor's government.

Gusmao's former deputy Mario Viejas Carrascalao said he had no choice but to quit this week after his boss called him a "liar" for openly questioning the country's commitment to fighting corruption and improving people's lives.

If Carrascalao's Social Democratic Party pull outs of the government, Gusmao's ruling coalition will lose its majority in Parliament by three seats, dealing another blow to the tiny country's political stability.

"This won't affect my government at all," Gusmao told The Associated Press early Friday morning. "The government is still strong."

It was unclear wether Gusmao was saying that he expected remaining Social Democrats Party to stay, or whether he was confident that other lawmakers could be recruited to join his coalition if they withdraw.

East Timor, which broke from 24 years of Indonesian occupation in 1999 and was then briefly administered by the United Nations, has faced political turmoil and violence since declaring independence in 2002.

The half-island nation in the Pacific, with a population of 1 million, is still one of the poorest in the region, even though it has benefited from large offshore oil and gas resources.

Gusmao said he has accepted Carrascalao's resignation as one of two deputy prime ministers and will not seek a replacement.

Members of the Social Democratic Party, among four parties in the ruling coalition, hinted Friday that they could withdraw from the government as early as next week.

Damien Kingsbury, an Australia expert on East Timor, has said that if that happens the prime may have to push up a 2012 election date by a year.

East Timor deputy prime minister quits amid spat with boss

Associated Press - September 8, 2010

Guido Goulart, Dili, East Timor – One of East Timor's deputy prime ministers said he has resigned after Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao publicly called him a "liar" for his outspoken critiques of the government's failure to tackle corruption and improve people's lives.

The abrupt departure of Mario Viejas Carrascalao, who assumed the post 18 months ago, dealt another blow to the young country's political stability. One analyst said it could even prompt the collapse of the ruling coalition.

Carrascalao announced his resignation Wednesday in a column in the national newspaper Tempo Semanal in which he accused Gusmao's government of failing to stand up to corruption and nepotism, even as the problems become more sophisticated and entrenched

Carrascalao – who is a member of the Social Democratic Party, a partner in Gusmao's ruling coalition – said most of his efforts to make positive changes during his tenure were met with "silence, disinterest and passivity" – and sometimes even outright hostility.

He listed a raft of problems facing East Timor that he said the government had failed to solve in the eight years since independence.

Without a compulsory education policy, many children still do not attend school, he wrote. The infrastructure is in shambles. Efforts to fight AIDS and tuberculosis are woefully insufficient. Most people live in abject poverty. And local industry is virtually nonexistent.

But the final straw came when Gusmao criticized Carrascalao at a public gathering in Dili, the capital, last week for spreading allegations in the media about official graft and mismanagement before carrying out proper investigations.

"Mario (Carrascalao) is stupid and a liar," the prime minister said. "I have lost my confidence in him."

Carrascalao insisted Wednesday that he has acted properly. "Dignity is much better than any position," he told reporters. "I'm 73 years old and have never been so humiliated. My response is to resign from my position of deputy prime minister."

It was not clear if his offer had been accepted. Government officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

East Timor is a tiny nation that declared independence in 2002 following decades of harsh rule by Indonesia and a period of UN administration. The country has been plagued by violence and political unrest since then.

Damien Kingsbury, professor of international studies at Deakin University in Australia and an expert on East Timor, said the dispute could pose a risk to the government's stability.

If Carrascalao's Social Democratic Party decides to pull out of the government, Gusmao's ruling coalition will lose its majority in parliament by three seats, Kingsbury said, and could have a hard time wooing new partners.

Though the prime minister earlier said he wanted to postpone elections until 2012, after he had a chance to consolidate power, he may now be forced to push up the date, Kingsbury said.

Refugees & asylum seekers

East Timor baulks at refugee plan

Melbourne Age - September 25, 2010

Bernard Lagan – East Timor has declared it does not want to become a mere transit point for boat people picked up in Australian waters.

At a meeting of foreign ministers in New York yesterday, Australia formally put to the governments of East Timor and Indonesia its plan for an asylum seeker processing centre in East Timor. But East Timor Foreign Minister, Zacarias da Costa, said: "We cannot be in the middle as a transit point for these people."

He said Prime Minister Julia Gillard had briefed East Timor's Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, on the plan on Wednesday.

Mr da Costa said that while East Timor remained open to hosting the asylum seeker processing centre, once Australia firmed up its plans, there were serious issues with the plan in East Timor. These included opposition to the idea already expressed by the East Timor Parliament, as well as by the country's Catholic leaders.

Mr da Costa said that in the meeting Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had conveyed a sense of urgency about the proposal that the asylum seeker processing centre be built in East Timor.

The foreign ministers agreed that a meeting of the Bali process on people smuggling – involving up to 50 Asia Pacific nations – would need to be called to consider the proposal. East Timor had asked for the meeting. But Mr da Costa said Indonesia, which must call the meeting, was hesitant to do so.

Australia's immigration detention centres are almost filled to capacity, following the arrival of record numbers of asylum seekers in Australian waters over the past year.

Mr da Costa said: "I think Mr Rudd said that Julia Gillard wants to find a solution to this problem. I have to say that this presents us with a regional concern. This is why we have agreed it needs to be discussed within a regional framework."

Dili adds demands to talks on refugees

The Australian - September 24, 2010

Mark Dodd – East Timor wants Julia Gillard's proposal for an asylum-seeker processing centre linked to better co-operation with Canberra on maritime security.

Speaking by telephone from New York yesterday, Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa told The Australian he would meet his counterpart Kevin Rudd today to discuss the plan on the sidelines of the UN.

Despite widespread Timorese opposition to the centre, Mr da Costa reaffirmed the Gusmao-led government remained open to Canberra's proposal. He said he looked forward to hearing more about the plan during talks with Mr Rudd.

The Prime Minister first unveiled the proposal in July, saying she had asked President Jose Ramos-Horta to allow a regional processing centre to be established in East Timor.

Three months on, Mr da Costa said Dili was still waiting to learn the details. "We're open to look at the proposal coming from the government of Australia, although we haven't received anything concrete at the moment," he said.

"Actually, this is not a bilateral issue, it's an issue that concerns the entire region and the best forum to discuss this will be through the Bali process," Mr da Costa said. East Timor viewed the problem of asylum-seekers as part of broader concerns about regional maritime security, he said.

Mr da Costa confirmed widespread opposition in Dili to the Australian proposal but said the government remained open.

"We're aware of some sectors in East Timorese society from the parliament (opposed to the plan) but we're (the government) open to look at this Australian proposal," he said. "We'll leave it to them (Canberra) to put on the table any concrete details."

Any final decision would involve consultation with Indonesia while the plan and Canberra's concerns about asylum-seekers should be raised at the next Bali process meeting – a regional diplomatic grouping established in 2002 to combat trans-national crime and people-smuggling. Jakarta remains cool about a refugee detention centre on its doorstep.

Opposition immigration and citizenship spokesman Scott Morrison accused the Prime Minister yesterday of refusing to lead negotiations on her proposal. And he said Mr Rudd was more worried about being seen at the UN in New York than Dili.

"In his recent meeting with Indonesian counterpart Dr Marty Natalegawa, Kevin Rudd did not even discuss the East Timor proposal, let alone issue a joint statement on it," Mr Morrison said.

"Minister Rudd simply doesn't believe in an East Timor processing centre, is not interested in discussing it and has now washed his hands of it by standing by as (Immigration) Minister (Chris) Bowen is handed the can."

PM hands Timor deal to minister

Melbourne Age - September 23, 2010

Katharine Murphy and Yuko Narushima – Immigration Minister Chris Bowen will head to East Timor to revive plans for an offshore immigration processing facility following talks between Julia Gillard and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

The Prime Minister spoke yesterday to Mr Gusmao and asked whether she could dispatch Mr Bowen to discuss the processing centre with his East Timorese counterpart.

It comes as political controversy has again erupted over boat arrivals and Australia's system of mandatory detention with a suicide and two days of protests at Sydney's Villawood facility.

Detention facilities are overcrowded. Mental health experts and refugee advocates believe this has contributed to the incidents this week, although the asylum seekers appear to have protested in an effort to have their claims reconsidered.

Plans for an offshore processing centre have faced strong resistance in East Timor since they were first mentioned by Ms Gillard earlier this year, and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd was quick to indicate after the election that it would be Mr Bowen who would deal with the issue.

The East Timorese Government has signalled it wants the issue of a processing centre resolved through regional dialogue, not through a bilateral deal with Australia. It has however left itself open to talks with Australia.

Yesterday's discussion between the Prime Minister and Mr Gusmao comes as Mr Rudd is due to meet the East Timorese Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa at the United Nations in New York.

The deal comes as the head of a government advisory group on asylum seekers warned incidents of self harm at Villawood were the beginnings of a detention system spiralling out of control.

Monash professor of psychiatry Louise Newman said conditions would likely deteriorate at other detention centres across Australia and chastised the government for failing to learn from the past.

Already, men have broken out of Darwin detention centre to stage roadside protests and others fought with tree branches and pool cues in a mass riot on Christmas Island.

"There is a shocking sense of de ja vu," Dr Newman said. "We're seeing the tragic repetition of the same risk factors that we know are predictive of the sorts of problems we saw in Woomera and Baxter."

Nine Chinese nationals on the roof of the stage two accommodation building had climbed up just after 8am yesterday in the same area where Fijian detainee Josefa Rauluni, 36, died in an apparent suicide on Monday.

Speaking through a translator last night, one of the detainees said one of the men had cut himself and was lying unconscious on the roof. The nine include four women, one of whom Xiao Yun, 32, says she is two and a half months pregnant.

Ms Yun was detained upon arriving in Australia in early April after she was caught on a fake passport. She has been in Villawood since. Ms Yun said the group were Falun Gong or Christian and feared persecution if returned to China. (With Nick Ralston)

Timor to discuss asylum centre at NY meet

Radio Australia - September 20, 2010

East Timor's foreign minister says setting up a regional asylum seeker processing centre is not a simple bilateral matter for his country and Australia to decide.

The idea was first suggested by Australia, which detains thousands of asylum seekers at remote locations and places like the Villawood detention centre in Sydney, where a Fijian man died this Monday. Many centres are said to be overcrowded. And Zacarias da Costa has told Radio Australia that he expects the issue of a new regional centre to be raised by his Australian counterpart, Kevin Rudd, at three-way talks, including Indonesia, in New York.

Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra correspondent

Speaker: Zacarias da Costa, East Timorese foreign minister

Da Costa: So far we haven't heard any detailed proposal from the government of Australia, so we remain open to look at this issue in due course.

Mottram: One of the issues that has been raised among people I've talked to about this in East Timor is that Australia might be able to buy East Timor's support, if you like, by offering something like an open option for East Timorese to come to Australia as seasonal workers. Do you see any prospect of that sort of offer working in your view?

Da Costa: Oh well, let me emphasise again that this is not a simple bilateral issue between Australia and Timor Leste, so I don't think we would like to put in the discussion other issues. But I can say that we remain open to listen to Australia's proposals.

Mottram: You say that it is not a simple bilateral issue and indeed recently, the UNHCR's assistant high commissioner, Erika Feller, wrote a newspaper article saying, indeed, that it is a matter for a regional solution, that it is a matter for there to be a sense of engagement and burden sharing. Do you get the feeling that this region, the Asia Pacific region is in a mood to do that?

Da Costa: The government of Timor Leste has already declared that the reason we are willing to discuss this issue is purely motivated by humanitarian reasons. Of course, in further discussion with other countries, with countries of the region, I believe that the common understanding is that this is a regional concern and should therefore be addressed in the regional context. It is understood that the most appropriate forum is the Bali process, a regional mechanism shared by Australia and Indonesia, and we have agreed in Hanoi that before the end of the year, both Indonesia and Australia will call for a ministerial meeting, where not only this issue but other issues relating to human trafficking, illegal migration and other transnational crimes can be discussed.

Mottram: Is the Bali process the best place for this discussion, though. After all, it has a very large membership of countries and is quite unwieldy?

Da Costa: Well, it's important, and I have seen Kevin Rudd also raising the issue, that we need to have regional support. Of course, we will also have the discussion among the three countries that are directly involved, Timor Leste, Australia and Indonesia, and this will happen in New York when we will have our next trilateral meeting host by Timor Leste.

Mottram: So, you intend to raise this issue at that meeting do you?

Da Costa: No, I will not raise the issue. I expect that Australia will raise the issue, but this is not the first time that we meet.

No refugee trade-offs, says East Timor

Melbourne Age - September 18, 2010

Yuko Narushima – East Timor has refused to be party to humanitarian "trade-offs" in order to satisfy Australia's search for a country to detain asylum seekers.

Ambassador Abel Guterres said his country understood the plight of refugees and would not be bought by economic incentives offered by Australia.

East Timor has 90 per cent unemployment and wants an opportunity for its citizens to make money doing seasonal labour in Australia, similar to a deal struck with South Korea.

But any such deal would be considered separately to Labor's desire to set up an East Timor solution, Mr Guterres said.

"That issue stands on its own," he said. "Timor Leste will never trade humanitarian issues for any of these things because it's a principle. There's no link with this processing centre."

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd rebuffed East Timor's request to be included in a guest worker scheme he began as prime minister in 2008.

Mr Rudd will be meeting his East Timorese and Indonesian counterparts in New York at the UN General Assembly this week.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced plans to build a refugee processing hub for the region in East Timor shortly after deposing Mr Rudd who refused to "lurch to the right" on his last night as leader.

East Timor defers talks on refugee processing centre

Sydney Morning Herald - September 15, 2010

Lindsay Murdoch – East Timor has rebuffed Julia Gillard over her plan to build a regional processing centre for asylum seekers there, referring the negotiations to a 50-nation meeting on people smuggling.

The decision means any talks to establish a centre will be more difficult and delayed for months until a meeting in Indonesia.

East Timor's Council of Ministers decided last Wednesday that there would not be any consideration of the plan outside a meeting of countries called the Bali Process on people smuggling, a government spokesperson said yesterday. The council, which is chaired by the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, had not made the decision public.

The spokesperson said any proposal for a regional asylum seeker centre should have been raised first in the Bali Process, which was established in 2002 to counter a surge in people smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region.

But the spokesperson stressed that East Timor remained committed to promoting humanitarian causes, including that of asylum seekers.

Before the election, Ms Gillard said a regional refugee processing centre was such a priority that if elected she would travel to East Timor to negotiate personally with the country's leaders.

Now the new Foreign Affairs Minister, Kevin Rudd, will have to push the plan in a forum of diverse countries, United Nations agencies and non- government organisations where decision-making is slow and bureaucratic.

Dili's decision came after Jakarta made clear it believed the Bali Process was the proper forum for the consideration of any regional processing centre.

The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, put Jakarta's position to East Timor's leaders during a visit to the country in late July.

Earlier, after meeting Australia's then foreign minister, Stephen Smith, in Jakarta, Dr Natalegawa told reporters any regional processing centre should be part of a regional co-operation framework and a "broader picture".

Indonesia, which chairs the Bali Process with Australia, has not yet set a date for its next ministerial meeting but officials have indicated it may be called by the end of the year. The grouping's website, www.baliprocess.net, says "stay tuned" for coming events.

Countries participating in the meetings include Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, China, the US, Russia, India and Pakistan. Participant organisations include the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organisation for Migration and Interpol.

Past meetings have agreed on more effective sharing of information and intelligence, improved co-operation in law enforcement and co-operation in identifying asylum seekers.

But many participating countries have been slow to act on illegal asylum seeker boats, including Indonesia, where laws against people smuggling are still not in force.

Mr Rudd will get the chance to discuss Dili's stand with his East Timorese counterpart, Zacarias da Costa, during UN meetings in New York early next week.

But Mr da Costa has had a bitter falling out with Mr Gusmao, who has sidelined him from decision-making.

Agio Pereira, East Timor's official spokesman and Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers, yesterday played down a report in the Herald that the government in Dili had singled out the south coast town of Suai for consideration as a possible site for an asylum seekers centre.

"No plan has been submitted or discussed," Mr Pereira said in a statement.

Dili identifies site for refugee centre

Melbourne Age - September 14, 2010

Daniel Flitton – Julia Gillard's plan to turn East Timor into a regional hub to process refugee claims has been boosted after the government in Dili identified a possible site in the country's south to house asylum seekers.

In an early sign that the Prime Minister's "Timor solution" is being taken seriously in Dili, it is believed the township of Suai in the south has been singled out for consideration.

Ms Gillard laid out what was dubbed the "Timor solution" in June before the election in a bid to stymie relentless opposition criticism of Labor's border protection policies.

Despite widespread scepticism about the plan in East Timor and Australia, official talks on the proposal are about to start.

The Timorese Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, is expected to speak with Ms Gillard by phone this week to congratulate her on forming government and discuss the next steps.

The talks come at a delicate time for Mr Gusmao's coalition government after the resignation of his deputy last week.

While it has been stressed that Suai is just a possible site for asylum seeker processing, an airstrip to the east of the town is said to have potential for expansion and there are hopes to construct a port. It is also the region where East Timor's government is proposing to build a refinement plant to pipe gas from offshore fields.

Dili is in dispute with the resources giant Woodside over the development of the Sunrise gas field in the Timor Sea. Woodside wants to build a floating refinery and deliver gas south to Darwin. Dili is insisting on an onshore refinery.

The Timorese President, Jose Ramos-Horta, who will lead the negotiations with Australia on the asylum centre, reacted indignantly in July to suggestions the two issues might be linked.

Timor storm over proposed centre

Herald Sun - September 14, 2010

Paul Toohey – Attempts by Julia Gillard to get moving on her proposed asylum-seeker processing centre in East Timor have come at a bad time for Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who is presiding over a shaky government and cannot afford unpopular distractions.

Timor's main opposition party, Fretilin, says it is prepared to fight a national election on a platform of opposing the asylum centre.

With more than 4900 detainees in Australia's immigration detention centres and residential facilities, the Gillard Government is desperately seeking new accommodation options for unauthorised arrivals.

Ms Gillard has said the East Timor centre would remain a priority, although the Government is also examining proposals to expand onshore detention centres.

It will be up to incoming Immigration Minister Chris Bowen and new Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd to renew approaches to Timor.

But the Australian Government will put itself in the difficult position of being seen as promoting a divisive issue in a foreign country in order to advance its own interests.

Fretilin MP Jose Teixeira said if Mr Gusmao supports the proposal, it will be his undoing in the elections. So far, Mr Gusmao said he would listen to any proposals put forward by Australia, and has asked President Jose Ramos-Horta to conduct any negotiations.

Mr Rudd has a good relationship with Mr Gusmao and Fretilin but will need to be especially mindful of Mr Gusmao's political troubles.

Mr Rudd's office said the Timor matter was delicate and he would be making no comment until after he was sworn in this afternoon.

Mr Gusmao presides over the Parliamentary Majority Alliance, or AMP, made up of four parties, who disagree on many issues but are committed to staying together to ensure political stability. But all are united with Fretilin in opposing the centre.

Deputy PM, veteran Timor politician Mario Carrascalao, a member of the ruling alliance's PSD party, resigned last week saying he'd been humiliated by Mr Gusmao, who called him stupid and a liar after Mr Carrascalao raised complaints about the Government's inability to deal with corruption.

Fretilin believes the ruling alliance is fracturing. It holds 34 seats while Fretilin, with the help of other opposition parties, can count on 28 seats. Mr Carrascalao's PSD party has six seats. If it were to abandon the alliance, a vote of no confidence would see Mr Gusmao lose power.

Timor watcher Prof Damien Kingsbury, from Deakin University, said the centre was very unpopular in Timor.

Economy & investment

East Timor and Woodside remain at odds over Sunrise

Radio Australia News - September 29, 2010

Karon Snowdon – Woodside Petroleum has denied reports it is willing to consider processing gas from the Greater Sunrise field in East Timor.

In an email to Radio Australia, Woodside spokeswoman Laura Hammer said the floating LNG remained the preferred development concept for Sunrise. She confirmed the company discussed the land option in meetings with officials in order to explain why it wasn't viable.

But East Timor Sunrise Commissioner Fransisco da Costa Monteiro says Woodside has backed away from its position that an offshore floating platform is the best option. He says he believes there has been a commitment by Woodside to consider all options equally.

"Woodside has retracted from its position to now submitting for our appreciation and review the three concepts," he said. "We are talking about concepts at the moment, so there are three concepts on the table."

Mr Monteiro says the East Timor's preferred option is that the project be built in the country. "As far as Timor Leste is concerned, which we present several times, is the position and the policy remains that...the development of the LNG should on the shores of Timor Leste," he said.

East Timorese officials have been in talks with Australian government officials and Woodside in Dili over the past two days. The negotiations are a bid to break the impasse over East Timor's insistence that it hosts the gas processing plant. Mr Monteiro says further talks are required.

Earlier, hundreds of protesters shouted anti-Australia slogans in East Timor before the talks. Four hundred student protesters in the capital, Dili, shouted "Australia is a thief" and "Down with Australia" as Australian officials arrived for talks on the development of the Greater Sunrise project.

East Timor has strongly opposed the Greater Sunrise consortium's proposal to process the gas on a floating platform in the Timor Sea separating the two countries, instead of on East Timorese soil.

Timor oil field dispute challenges new nation's diplomacy

Pacific Scoop - September 30, 2010

Nicholas Jones – East Timor will lose more than revenue if a dispute with Woodside Petroleum over where gas from the Greater Sunrise field will be processed is not resolved, says an academic researching politics in the country.

"This is going to be seen internationally as a marker of East Timor's capacity to engage with international investment," says Damien Kingsbury, a professor at Deakin University's School of International and Political Studies.

"And if they get this right then people will have confidence in the possibility of doing business in East Timor. If they get it wrong that confidence will disappear," Dr Kingsbury says.

Australia and East Timor have agreed to split evenly the profits from the Greater Sunrise field, which lies in the Timor Sea and contains resources worth tens of billions of dollars. But the issue of where to pipe and process gas from the field has strained relations between the neighbours.

Woodside wants to process the gas via a floating platform – the first of its kind – onto ships, while East Timor insists gas must be piped to its shores to provide local jobs and infrastructure.

But piping gas across the Timor Trough on the ocean floor would be both difficult and expensive, and seismic activity in the area would significantly increase insurance costs, Dr Kingsbury says.

'Not in piggy bank'

"The capital for the project has to be raised by Woodside. They don't just have it sitting in the piggy bank. And investors in the project would insist that Woodside go for the most viable option," he says.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard angered the East Timorese government when she said the plant's location should be made "in the best interest of [Woodside] shareholders".

East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao labelled the remarks "very disappointing" and threatened to abandon the deal with Woodside in favour of Malaysia's Petronas energy company.

Charles Scheiner, researcher at local East Timor NGO La'o Hamutuk, says while Woodside's position is unsurprising, Gillard should consider the wider implications of hers.

"The Australian national interest in having a successful, stable neighbour may not be the same as Woodside's, who only want to maximize shareholder profits," he says.

These differing perspectives underline the dispute, says Auckland University associate professor Stephen Hoadley, who wrote a chapter on East Timor in the Political Handbook of the World.

Moral claim

"East Timor are saying, 'We're poor, we have a moral claim on as many resources as we can get. Australia is already rich, they don't really need it – we do."

He says Australia, in comparison, takes a very legalistic standpoint, and is careful to maintain investor confidence.

Dr Kingsbury says Woodside's initial handling of the dispute was high- handed and alienated East Timor's politicians. However, he says the East Timorese government's reaction has – fairly or not – concerned potential investors in the country.

"I know from discussions with companies that have looked at investing in East Timor that the protests over this issue in fact reinforce the perception of sovereign risk. So I think in this regard East Timor has been its own worst enemy," he says.

Worst fallout

Dr Kingsbury, in an article for The Age newspaper, said comments from Gusmao criticising Australia reflected the worst fallout between the countries since 2005. However, he says the relationship between the neighbours remains fundamentally strong.

Jose Teixeira, an MP for the opposition Fretilin Party, says anti- Australian sentiment is not on the rise, nor does it exist at a substantial level in East Timor.

"I think there have been statements made by politicians who have wanted to whip things up in that regard. And I think the media has reported from a very parochial and nationalist position here," he says. "But I think the Timorese population should be given due credit in that they can see through that."

Fretilin were in power in 2006 when a deal was struck with Australia allowing the joint-development of the Greater Sunrise field, known as Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS).

Development options

Teixeira headed the negotiations, and says while the treaty states development options are to be based on principles of commerciality, Woodside must also seek approval from the Sunrise Commission – a regulatory authority comprised of East Timor and Australia.

"So when Gillard said, 'The company will decide in the best interests of shareholders', yes, that's true. But it's equally true that it's got to go through the process that's approved in the treaty, including obtaining the authorisation of the regulatory authority – which involves both countries," he says.

Australia and East Timor dispute their boundary in the Timor Sea. East Timor argue for a boundary at the half-way point between the countries, while Australia want to maintain a border approved in 1972 with Indonesia based on the continental shelf principle.

CMATS suspended boundary negotiations for 50 years, and split the profits from Greater Sunrise equally between Australia and East Timor. Teixeira and others accepted this, because under previous agreements East Timor would have received less than 20 percent of Greater Sunrise revenue.

Step backwards

But Scheiner says agreements including CMATS were a step backwards. "We feel that all of Sunrise belongs to Timor-Leste under international legal principles, but that the agreements signed during the last eight years constrain Timor-Leste's rights," he says.

Scheiner says La'o Hamutuk is concerned about how East Timor would benefit from an onshore processing plant. He says there is a risk that the plant could be an enclave predominantly staffed by foreigners, at odds with the local environment and culture.

La'o Hamutuk published a report in 2008 which argued East Timor's infrastructure and law-making were insufficiently developed to maximise the benefits from Greater Sunrise.

It stated that necessary laws and institutions to protect human rights, land, environment and local economies did not exist, meaning East Timor could suffer the same "resource curse" as other nations dependent on oil income.

Scheiner says these issues are not well understood by people in East Timor, partly because of media coverage of the Greater Sunrise dispute.

"Local media sees it like a football game or a war, and rarely covers the facts – just the polemics. They're full of misinformation, so readers here rarely have a good understanding of the substantive issues.

"And international media, with a few exceptions, make little effort to understand Timor-Leste's rights or societal dynamics. All they see is dollars and the companies' perspective," he says.

China's role

Developments such as the construction of a US$8 million Chinese-funded military headquarters have coincided with the Greater Sunrise dispute, but Dr Kingsbury rejects the notion the two are linked.

"China's role is increasing, but it's got nothing to do with the dispute. It's simply to do with China's general strategic positioning," he says.

Dr Jian Yang from Auckland University lectures on China's foreign relations, and says the country is growing its influence in other Pacific countries like Fiji and Tonga.

However, he says China is not in a position to challenge US-Australian dominance in the region because of "image problems" and its relatively superficial involvement with countries in the region.

Dr Kingsbury believes Woodside and the East Timorese government "are moving back together".

"I think they're going to resume a discussion, or at least take steps towards resuming a discussion, about how they might progress negotiations," he says. "I would like to think that both parties will find a way forward. It's certainly in the interests of East Timor to have this matter sorted."

[Nicholas Jones is a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.]

Woodside re-examines Dili gas demands

Australian Associated Press - September 29, 2010

Australia's Woodside Petroleum has promised East Timor it will re-examine Dili's demands for gas from the Greater Sunrise field to be processed on East Timorese soil, an official said on Wednesday.

East Timor official Fransisco Monteiro said the company, a major partner in the Greater Sunrise consortium, had backed away from its position that an offshore floating platform was the most economically viable option.

Monteiro has been holding talks with Australian government officials and Woodside in Dili over the past two days in a bid to break the impasse over East Timor's insistence the gas be piped to East Timor for processing.

"Today was very impressive because Woodside came with three options. They used to only have one option and that was only to process the gas on a floating platform," he told AFP.

"Now they also offered options of a pipeline coming into East Timor or a pipeline coming into Darwin" in northern Australia.

Monteiro said further talks would be required but warned that Dili would "use any means" to ensure the gas from the gas field – split 50-50 between East Timor and Australia – would be processed in East Timor.

"This is one step ahead, which is good and positive. And we can be a little happy because our strategy has been well executed and they have changed their position. Hard work, however, is still needed to achieve our target," he said.

Woodside officials were not available to comment after the meeting.

About 400 protesters shouted anti-Australian slogans on Tuesday as officials from Canberra arrived at the first day of the talks with their East Timorese counterparts over the troubled project.

The student protesters shouted "Australia is a thief" and "Down with Australia", and carried banners condemning Woodside for treating the East Timorese as "fools" and trying to "steal" the tiny country's resources.

East Timor, which agreed to split projected multi-billion dollar revenues 50-50 with Australia after a maritime border dispute, has said a floating platform is untested and carries an unacceptably high level of uncertainty.

The joint venture however says it has studied all three options and the floating platform is the most economically viable. The Sunrise Joint Venture comprises Woodside (33.4 per cent), ConocoPhillips (30 per cent), Shell (26.6 per cent) and Osaka Gas (10 per cent).

Indonesian invasion & occupation

Defence fights to keep 1975 secrets

Sydney Morning Herald - September 13, 2010

Hamish McDonald – The minority government era of openness and co-operation has begun with strike one for secrecy against an attempt to open up 35-year-old defence intelligence information.

The federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, issued a public interest certificate last week preventing senior intelligence officials from being questioned in a public hearing on why they still sought to keep the defence material secret.

A University of NSW senior lecturer, Clinton Fernandes, has applied to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for access to daily "situation reports" that were prepared by the Defence Department during the takeover of then Portuguese Timor by Indonesia in 1975.

Two senior officials – the director of the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), Ian McKenzie, and the Defence Intelligence Organisation deputy director, Stephen McFarlane – told the tribunal that disclosure of many passages in the 42 documents would damage national security by disclosing sources and methods of intelligence gathering.

Some passages would reveal "highly sensitive communications from the US government which were then, and remain now, confidential", Mr MacFarlane said in an affidavit. Release would damage the intelligence-sharing relationship.

As well as blocking disclosure of passages in the archived documents, the two officials have applied to appear at the tribunal behind closed doors, without Dr Fernandes present.

Mr McClelland's decision to support their application for a public interest certificate means the doors will be closed when the hearing of Dr Fernandes's application starts. A timetable for the hearing will be established tomorrow.

Dr Fernandes was a major in the Australian Army's intelligence corps. He had top secret security clearance that gave him access to the sort of material the Defence Department is now trying to keep from him.

He will represent himself at the tribunal against a team of government lawyers barristers and solicitors and had hoped to question Mr McKenzie and Mr MacFarlane about their assertions that disclosure of intelligence capabilities in 1975 affected national security now.

"They know they are not dealing with an amateur so they are trying to stop me cross-examining the DSD people," Dr Fernandes said yesterday.

He wanted to demonstrate to the tribunal that the world of cryptography had changed decisively in the 1980s, making the signals systems the Indonesian military had used during the Timor crisis obsolete.

And the Defence reports had been "sanitised" to hide any clues to the source of information in case they fell into the wrong hands, Dr Fernandes said.

That the DSD was intercepting Indonesian Army signals had been disclosed in the 2007 NSW coronial inquest into the killing of five Australian-based newsmen at Balibo in October 1975.

Dr Fernandes said he would agree to US material not being disclosed if the tribunal verified that the Defence Department had asked its US counterparts for permission to make the material public and had been refused.

"The documents would tell us about the actual conduct of the Indonesian military against the Timorese people and Australia's knowledge of that," he said.

In a letter to Dr Fernandes, Mr McClelland said the tribunal could still decide independently whether the documents should be made public.

Analysis & opinion

Rudd's East Timor challenge

Crikey.com - September 14, 2010

Damien Kingsbury – As the new consolation prize, Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd's first job will be to try to implement the government's "East Timor solution" for asylum seekers. The issue is whether this policy has any chance of success.

The first hurdle to be overcome was the unanimous vote by East Timor's parliament, if with an incomplete sitting of members, opposing the idea. As a wealthy developed country, many East Timorese ask, why does Australia want to off-load its problems onto its impoverished neighbour? Why does Australia not properly shoulder its responsibilities under the Refugee Convention?

The backdrop to this opposition is that East Timor's political climate is now delicately poised. The government of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao is a coalition of parties, most of whom object to the asylum-seeker processing centre proposal. Only last week, an exchange of gratuitous insults between Gusmao and his deputy PM Mario Carrascalao from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) saw the latter resign his post.

This followed an earlier spat between Gusmao and Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa, head of the PSD, in which the latter threatened to resign.

Carrascalao has said that his resignation does not mean that PSD will immediately withdraw from the governing alliance, leaving it without a majority on the floor of the parliament. But it does mean the government is in serious trouble. The last thing that Gusmao now needs is to try to push through an unpopular agreement with Australia, which is already widely seen as having bullied East Timor over the Timor Sea Treaty.

The opposition Fretilin Party has said it is prepared to wait until next year for an election – a year earlier than the full parliamentary term. But it has said clearly that it is not interested in accepting Australia's asylum seekers, with any possible negotiation likely to spill over into a new government and become an unpopular election issue along the way.

There is also the issue that the East Timorese people know too well what it is like to live under oppression and to seek to flee from it. Their view is one of sympathy to asylum seekers, not some over-inflated objection over "border security". And, if there is a way forward on the asylum seeker issue, this might be it.

East Timor might agree to accept asylum seekers if this is part of a larger and more humane approach to the issue, including bringing East Timor into an international forum as an equal partner. Asylum seekers would also need to be housed in an Australian-built facility on the country's under- developed south coast, its employees paid Australian wages and the whole facility to be overseen by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in co- operation with the International Organisation for Migration and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Asylum seekers would not be locked up, but could have a degree of freedom. Timelines for processing will be short and tight under any agreement and Australia will be obliged to immediately take those asylum seekers acknowledged as legitimate. In this way, East Timor hopes to show Australia, and the world, a more humane approach to caring for people fleeing persecution.

It won't be easy, though, given existing antipathy towards Australia on the issue and Gusmao's need to placate a fractious domestic political environment. If a deal is to be done, it will require time, patience, large doses of diplomacy and a lot of money. The East Timorese will need to believe they are doing a good thing, as well as be very generously compensated for it.

Kevin Rudd will know there won't be any quick or easy "East Timor solution", and there may not be one at all. The second string to Rudd's asylum-seeker bow will, then, be to work more vigorously on regional co- operation and to look for more lateral answers to the asylum-seeker issue.

The "East Timor solution" will be pursued by Rudd, but it won't be his only option. A multifaceted approach to asylum seekers is much more likely than a single-track off-shore processing plan.

Indeed, the whole emphasis on asylum seekers will probably shift to the broader approach, to minimise the loss if the "East Timor solution" doesn't work, but more importantly because that is what should have been done from the start.

[Professor Damien Kingsbury is in the School of International and Political Studies at Deakin University.]

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