East Timor News Digest 12 – December 1-31, 2010
- 'It's time to pull out of East Timor' - The Australian
- East Timor wants Diggers to leave - Melbourne Age
- Aussie troops should stay in Timor: Expert - Australian Associated Press
- Troops in Timor already reduced: Defence - Australian Associated Press
- UN urged to cut East Timor's foreign police contingent - Deutsche Presse Agentur
- Indonesian military linked to Timorese drug runs - The Australian
- Centre for refugees still just a vague idea on paper - Sydney Morning Herald
- Release detail of East Timor plan: Coalition - Australian Associated Press
- Indonesia reaffirms support for Timor Leste to join ASEAN next year - Xinhua
- East Timor leader pushes for ASEAN membership - Agence France Presse
- East Timor counts costs of Chinese power plants - Sydney Morning Herald
- East Timor reignites Woodside row - Business Day
- East Timor still at loggerheads with big oil - Dow Jones Newswires
- Balibo killer blacklisted, but mum's the word - Brisbane Times
'It's time to pull out of East Timor'
The Australian - December 29, 2010
Rory Callinan – Australia should set a date for withdrawing its forces from East Timor as the situation has improved and Dili is disregarding UN advice.
The call comes from the International Crisis Group. In a report, "Timor- Leste – Time for the United Nations to step back", the Geneva-based think tank criticised the UN's strategies and warned that contributing nations were wasting time and money on policing operations.
The 1485-strong UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste has been gradually handing over control of districts to local authorities with a deadline of next March.
Australia's contribution includes 400 troops, comprising the bulk of the International Stabilisation Force, as well as 80 federal police, 50 of whom are part of UNMIT and 30 training and advising local police.
The ICG report said even though the peacekeeping operation was due to end in December 2012, it was clear such a large mission was not tailored to the country's needs. The presence of the joint Australia-New Zealand ISF needed to be reconsidered, as the force was now smaller and no longer went out on patrol at the request of the East Timorese government.
ISF's role was a politically contested issue, with local politicians questioning its legality given parliament had not ratified a status of forces agreement.
A Defence Department spokesman said Dili had not advised Canberra of any legal issues with regard to the ISF.
The ICG report said the UN should reduce the police contingent by at least half and strike an agreement with Dili on a more limited mandate for UNMIT. Without such an accord, the international community was wasting time and money and needed to consider ending this role as quickly as possible.
The East Timorese had for years ignored UN advice on reforming the security services. Local authorities had failed to deal appropriately with those accused of the 2006 insurrection that led to the return of Australian peacekeepers and the 2008 assassination attempts on Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and President Jose Ramos-Horta.
UNMIT spokesman Carlos Araujo said the call for reduced police presence was a matter for the UN Security Council and the East Timorese government.
East Timor wants Diggers to leave
Melbourne Age - December 24, 2010
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao wants Australia's 400 troops deployed in his country to leave.
Mr Gusmao told police and military leaders in Dili that the tiny island nation, with a population of 1 million, was now capable of resolving its own problems, according to Timorese media reports.
The troops, serving with 75 New Zealand soldiers in the Australian- commanded International Stabilisation Force, were previously expected to withdraw in 2012 after national elections.
Government spokesman Agio Pereira told The Age there was a "total shift in the way our people perceive security threats".
"Nowadays when the President [Jose Ramos Horta] and Prime Minister go to the districts, beyond the capital, the demands of the population are about water, roads and bridges and not at all about policing and the army," he said.
A spokesman for the Australian Defence Force said the troops were deployed at the invitation of the East Timorese government.
"The security situation in East Timor has remained calm and stable over the past 24 months," the spokesman said. He said discussion about the troops' role and presence "is one for the respective governments of East Timor, Australia and New Zealand".
It is believed that official talks to discuss a withdrawal date have yet to be held. The troops, sent to Dili to help quell upheaval in 2006, have been training and mentoring East Timor's armed forces.
East Timor has recently looked further than Australia to help build its fledgling armed forces, signing a co-operation agreement with Portugal and buying two navy patrol boats from China.
Aussie troops should stay in Timor: Expert
Australian Associated Press - December 24, 2010
Greg Roberts – Life in East Timor is as good as it's ever been but that does not mean Australian troops should leave, according to an expert on the tiny island nation.
Deakin University's School of International and Political Studies Professor Damien Kingsbury said he did not agree with East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's assessment this week that the country could now manage its own problems.
"East Timor is the best its ever been, which is a positive thing for the people of East Timor," he told AAP.
"Having said that, it is still a fragile society recovering from massive trauma. It is trying to put in place all the things that make a society function, such as a comprehensive education program, healthcare, communications and transport, which is still a work in progress."
Australia has 400 troops in the country – which became a sovereign state in 2002 – along with 75 New Zealand soldiers, as part of the Australian- led International Stabilisation Force.
Australian troops, along with forces from various countries, went to East Timor in 2006 during a violent crisis that began with disputes within the country's military.
The Australian force was expected to withdraw after the 2012 national election but Timorese media reports say Mr Gusmao favours an earlier withdrawal.
Professor Kingsbury said there had been an increasing desire among the East Timorese in the last year to "assert national identity" and "control its own circumstances".
"The idea of Timor as a militarised society is worn out, people don't want to continue to see soldiers on the streets on patrols... that's a normal response," he said.
He said Mr Gusmao was a nationalist who also had an eye "firmly fixed" on the election but the professor still believed Australian and New Zealand troops would play a role training soldiers and police both up to, and after, the 2012 vote.
"It might be modified and smaller... I would expect the international community to have asignificant if reduced presence after 2012 and have a police or military training role," Prof Kingsbury said.
"In the past I've said it (East Timor) was like a broken bone with a cast put on it that is healing while there is danger... if it is healing well do you take the cast off and throw it away? Or do you put in place a lesser degree of support for healing if it is not 100 per cent?"
Troops in Timor already reduced: Defence
Australian Associated Press - December 24, 2010
The Australian Defence Force says the security environment in East Timor has been calm for the past two years and that has allowed troop numbers to be reduced.
But any discussion about the future of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) in East Timor would need to take place between the governments of East Timor, Australia and New Zealand, defence said.
That follows comments from East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who said the country could now manage its own problems and Australian troops should leave. Under the current timetable that was expected to occur after East Timor's elections, due in April and June 2012.
Australian troop numbers in East Timor peaked at more than 5000 immediately following the initial intervention in September 1999. Troop numbers have been reduced progressively, but in 2006 and 2008 civil unrest prompted rapid reinforcement, followed by drawdown as the security situation stabilised.
"The security environment in East Timor has remained calm and stable over the past 24 months," defence said in a statement.
"In light of the continuing stability in East Timor and following consultation with the Government of East Timor, the number of ISF personnel reduced in early 2010. The ISF commitment in East Timor currently comprises around 400 Australian and 75 New Zealand military personnel."
Defence said the ISF operated at the invitation of the government of East Timor, and in support of the United Nations, to support stability and assist the government of East Timor.
"Discussion about the future role and presence of the ISF is one for the respective Governments of East Timor, Australia and New Zealand," it said. "Australia remains committed to working with the Governments of East Timor and New Zealand and the United Nations mission in East Timor."
UN urged to cut East Timor's foreign police contingent
Deutsche Presse Agentur - December 16, 2010
Sydney – The United Nations should cut the number of foreign police in East Timor to encourage one of world's newest countries to manage its own affairs, an influential security think tank said Thursday.
"The government has for years ignored UN advice on undertaking difficult reforms in the security sector and pursuing formal justice for crimes," International Crisis Group South East Asia analyst Cillian Nolan said in a statement.
"Real risks to stability remain, but these will be best addressed by the country's political leaders rather than a continued international police presence."
The Brussels-based Crisis Group said that since 2008 the East Timorese have handled internal threats without the help of the world's third largest foreign police contingent after Darfur and Haiti.
"A reduction would align the UN mission's size with reality, as the local force has long answered to its own command rather than UN police," Nolan said.
"As talk of 'right-sizing' the peacekeeping mission begins with an eye towards its withdrawal by December 2012, it is clear that such a large mission is not tailored to the country's needs."
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and its occupation continued until 1999, the year Australia led an international force that helped guide the nation of 1 million to independence.
East Timor, which achieved formal independence in 2002, should be able to do without foreign peacekeepers by 2012, according to President Jose Ramos Horta.
"We cannot continue by then to ask the UN to keep a significant police force here and a big political presence, so we have to consolidate the gains in two or three years next, so that by 2012 we can be fully self-supportive and the UN can move on to help other countries in need," Ramos Horta told the German Press Agency DPA in an interview last year.
Indonesian military linked to Timorese drug runs
The Australian - December 28, 2010
Rory Callinan – Indonesian soldiers have been linked to the alleged trafficking of crystal methamphetamine and other illegal drugs into East Timor.
The troops have been involved in a smuggling operation using remote bush tracks along the two nations' border, according to a local security- monitoring NGO.
Fundasaun Mahein (Guardian Foundation), which was established partly through funding from an Australian Federal Police grant, has warned of a growing threat from organised crime to the tiny nation and noted links between the Indonesian military and the trafficking of hard drugs.
It alleges that drugs are being sourced in Bali before being smuggled to East Timor and are then distributed to foreigners through a restaurant in the capital in a racket run by an Indonesian businessman with military connections.
The AFP, which has a contingent based in East Timor, says it is aware of the report but any comment should come from local authorities.
The report, compiled last month, quotes an anonymous official in the border regions and several informants, and provides detail of criminal activity identifying some alleged perpetrators and their businesses by initials and documenting the operations of one syndicate that is allegedly bringing in marijuana, ecstasy, crystal methamphetamine and heroin.
It says the mastermind of the drug syndicate is a Bali-based businessman who is involved in marine transport operations between Java and Bali.
He is alleged to hold a position in the military and has a contact based in Kupang in West Timor with connections to former militia members, who act as drug couriers to cross the border, the report says.
Smuggling now takes place at midnight, or early in the morning, and "there are stories that they are accompanied by several Indonesian National Army (or TNI members), who are on duty in the border area" and also by ex- militia members, the report says.
"Although I know there is distribution in the border, I don't dare to report because the risk is I can lose my life," a local official from the border area told FM.
"Selling takes place openly, especially when there are no UN staff, or UNPOL, around to take action."
The report said: "Smuggling activities from Nusa Tenggara Timor territory to Timor Leste are mostly done in the forests, among walking paths and other hidden locations along the border between the two countries."
Once in the country, the drugs were passed to a restaurant owner in Dili whose business the report names by its initials.
East Timor's Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Guterres, said the government was aware of the report but was already acting on the issues raised.
FM was established by East Timorese academic Nelson Belo and a former UN adviser, Edward Rees, to monitor security in East Timor. In 2009, the AFP donated $90,000 to help fund the NGO.
Centre for refugees still just a vague idea on paper
Sydney Morning Herald - December 20, 2011
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – More than five months after the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced she wanted to send asylum seekers to East Timor to "wreck the people-smuggling trade", the tiny island nation has finally received a document from Australia outlining the proposal.
The Timorese Foreign Minister, Zacarias da Costa, says the document provides a broad concept for a regional processing centre in his country.
"I wouldn't say the document has much detail but it has more detail than we had before," Mr da Costa said. "We can at last clarify what Australia has in mind to [East Timor's] cabinet."
Amid concern about the proposal among Asian nations and widespread opposition in East Timor, the government in Dili has referred negotiations on it to a 50-nation meeting on people-smuggling called the Bali Process.
A date has yet to be set for the process's next ministerial-level meeting, which was expected to be held before the end of this year but will not take place until February at the earliest.
A meeting of Timorese and Australian officials to discuss the proposal, which the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, said in September would be held within weeks, has still not taken place.
A spokesman for Mr Bowen said the government would announce dates for the meeting "when these are confirmed".
Mr da Costa said senior officials had worked on a concept paper before the Bali Process meeting. "About 50 countries are involved, so it is not easy."
Countries taking part in the Bali Process, which is co-chaired by Indonesia and Australia, include Afghanistan, China, India, Paki- stan, Russia, Sri Lanka and the US, as well as agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Decision-making at its previous meetings has been slow and bureaucratic.
Officials discussed some of the agenda for the next meeting at a workshop co-hosted by the UNHCR and the Philippine government in Manila last month.
A spokeswoman for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said "the idea of a processing centre as an element in a framework approach was raised in the discussion".
But officials stopped short of endorsing a regional processing centre, saying they saw value in developing a "regional framework approach".
After Ms Gillard revealed the proposal in July, Indonesia said it should be considered in the Bali Process, established in 2002 to counter people- smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region.
East Timor's leaders decided in September they would not consider the plan outside of the Bali Process, rebuffing Ms Gillard, who said before the election the proposal was such a priority that if elected she would travel to East Timor to negotiate personally with its leaders.
All the main political parties in Dili have stated their opposition to the proposal. But the Timorese Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, has said he remains open to the idea being discussed in the Bali Process as part of a regional agreement.
Mr da Costa told the Herald that the Christmas Island boat tragedy would not change how it was handling Australia's proposal.
The opposition Fretilin party has warned that East Timor would become a target for asylum seekers if the centre was built because it would be seen as a conduit for reaching Australia.
Release detail of East Timor plan: Coalition
Australian Associated Press - December 20, 2010
The opposition has called on the federal government to release the details of its proposal for a regional processing centre in East Timor.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said no details of the plan had been made public since Prime Minister Julia Gillard first announced the idea more than five months ago.
"The prime minister has been unable to answer questions in the Parliament on the subject and regional leaders have given the proposal the cold shoulder," Mr Morrison said in a statement.
Earlier, he told Fairfax Radio Network the proposal was "the only contribution (Ms Gillard) has made on this debate since becoming prime minister".
"It is the only policy they have," he said. "There is no detail – that detail should be made available today."
His comments followed a newspaper report that East Timor has received a document from Australia outlining the plan. The Timorese foreign minister, Zacarias da Costa, told Fairfax the document provided a broad concept for a regional processing centre in his country.
Mr Morrison said the Coalition was ready to work with the government to implement "our comprehensive plan" to stop the arrival of boats full of asylum seekers.
The coalition's plan includes reintroducing temporary protection visas, the re-opening of the processing centre in Nauru, and restoring the policy of turning boats back.
He also said a returns policy should be immediately implemented to ensure people with failed asylum claims went back to their home country.
Mr Morrison added in his statement that Ms Gillard's "only other contribution" had been to open more detention centre beds in Australia at significant expense to the taxpayer and without consultation with local communities.
Indonesia reaffirms support for Timor Leste to join ASEAN next year
Xinhua - December 9, 2010
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono conveyed his government's full support for Timor Leste's intention to join the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year, local media reported on Thursday.
President Yudhoyono's support was conveyed during his meeting with Timor Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in Bali Democracy Forum (BDF) inaugurated Thursday by the president.
Speaking at the third BDF summit, Xanana said that Timor Leste joining would bring positive atmosphere to all ASEAN state members. "In terms of geopolitical and geo-strategic sectors, we understood that should Timor Leste is accepted in ASEAN, it will bring positive impacts to the other state members," Xanana was quoted by the Detik.com as saying.
"Timor Leste is able to contribute stability and peace in the region," he added.Regarding Timor Leste's intention, President Yudhoyono said that Indonesia will always fully support it.
As the country that will chair ASEAN next year, President Yudhoyono said that Indonesia would convey this to the other ASEAN state members. "I hope that Timor Leste can join ASEAN in the near future," President Yudhoyono said.
East Timor leader pushes for ASEAN membership
Agence France Presse - December 1, 2010
Singapore – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday it would be symbolic if his fledgling country gained ASEAN membership next year when former occupier Indonesia takes over as chair of the regional bloc.
"If it is under Indonesia and Timor-Leste joins ASEAN as the 11th member at the summit in Jakarta in November 2011, it would elevate Indonesia's statesmanship, it would elevate ASEAN," Ramos-Horta said in Singapore.
"So we are determined and working towards membership in ASEAN," he told a forum organised by the Asia office of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Indonesia will assume the revolving chairmanship of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2011 from Vietnam. As chair, it will host the group's annual summit and related meetings and steer the agenda for the year.
East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 as it moved towards formal independence, starting a brutal 24-year occupation.
It won its freedom in a 1999 UN-backed referendum that was marred by violence as Indonesian-backed militias laid waste to much of the country in a scorched earth campaign that displaced hundreds of thousands. East Timor gained formal independence in 2002.
Besides Indonesia and Vietnam, the other ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Ramos-Horta said ASEAN members had voiced support for East Timor's bid to join the bloc, and he proposed that his country be allowed a timeframe to meet any membership commitments once it was admitted.
"We have visited all ASEAN countries and everyone has agreed politically that Timor can join," said Ramos-Horta. "Of course there are questions about stability in Timor (and) can we deliver on commitments like attending meetings," he added.
"We believe that more important is that we join now and then have a five- year period whereby we take steps, with ASEAN support, to fulfil any obligations, criteria that (are) still missing at the time that we are joining ASEAN."
East Timor counts costs of Chinese power plants
Sydney Morning Herald - December 15, 2010
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – The construction of two second-hand Chinese power plants in East Timor is an escalating environmental and safety disaster that has been hit by delays and cost blow-outs, the project's supervisors say.
The government in Dili has removed the Beijing-owned Chinese Nuclear Industry 22nd Construction Company from responsibility for building the plants and has hired an Indonesian company to finish the work.
Puri Akraya Engineering Limited was registered with the Hong Kong Companies Register only five weeks before it was secretly given a contract expected to multiply the cost of building the plants from US$91 million to US$353 million.
A confidential report in September by the Italian joint-venture company Electroconsult and Bonifica, which was hired last year to supervise the project, estimates the project will now cost at least $US629 million, almost double the original price.
The report, obtained by the non-government organisation La'o Hamutuk in Dili, revealed a deteriorating quality of work, safety practices that were "far below regulations" and acts of "environmental negligence" at the plant sites.
The report listed 14 serious "issues of concern" and eight more "problems/issues" but said the supervisor's recommendations to the Chinese company were rarely implemented.
Although being removed from responsibility for the plants at Hera and Betano, the Chinese company is still believed to be responsible for building high-voltage transmission lines and other parts of the project.
The government in Dili has been criticised for buying the 20-year-old plants from China, which commits the gas-rich country to three decades of importing expensive heavy oil and using outdated technology that is banned in many countries.
Environmental groups say the plants will create acid rain, water pollution, toxic solid waste, particulate air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
While government leaders claimed the project would provide 20,000 jobs for Timorese, the Chinese company had hired only 155 Timorese workers by May this year.
Dili residents say that hundreds of Chinese workers brought to Timor to work in electricity and other projects have caused social tensions among impoverished Timorese, particularly in Dili, where Chinese have fought local gangs on the city's streets.
The supervisors' report said the Chinese company had not prepared a single monthly environmental report, although it has been required to do so since January this year.
The report said the Chinese company had no formal process for complaints, had not replanted cleared areas, had no solid waste management plan, had not established buffer zones between residential and project areas and had not complied with requirements for silt containment, oil and grease traps, sanitation facilities or waste treatment. And the company was working below the level required to finish the plants by December next year.
Most routes for the transmission lines had not been surveyed and land disputes were causing problems.
In a website posting, La'o Hamutuk said it was distressed that its predictions about the project were being fulfilled while Timorese became increasingly frustrated about power shortages and public officials concealed the extent of the problem.
East Timor reignites Woodside row
Business Day - December 11, 2010
Lindsay Murdoch – East Timor has renewed its criticism of Woodside over its plans to build a floating liquefied natural gas platform above the Timor Sea's Greater Sunrise field, warning of potential cost blowouts and accusing the company of making misleading statements.
Government spokesman Agio Pereira pointed to Standard & Poor's recent lowering of Woodside's credit rating after delays and higher costs at the company's Pluto project in Western Australia.
He said a $US900 million ($A914 million) cost blowout and a six-month delay at Pluto because of the need to rebuild flare towers that did not meet cyclone specification "raises concern within the Timorese government given the potential cost blowouts for the untested floating LNG technology proposed by Woodside for Greater Sunrise".
"If similar cost blowouts were to occur with Greater Sunrise, the costs would effectively be paid for by the people of Timor-Leste [East Timor] before any revenue flowed to the nation," Mr Pereira said.
East Timor and Woodside have been in an acrimonious standoff over the Greater Sunrise field since the Perth-based company announced earlier this year it would build one of the world's first floating platforms at the field. East Timor's leaders bluntly rejected Woodside's plans, demanding the gas be piped to a processing plant on its south coast, which would boost employment and provide greater revenue in the country, where most people live in poverty.
"The government has consistently maintained their position that the option of the pipeline to Timor-Leste is the safest and most economically viable, following the spirit of treaties covering the Timor Sea which promote shared benefits," Mr Pereira said.
"The one productive field in the area, Bayu Undan, has its gas piped to Darwin, which has provided a huge boost to the Northern Territory's economy."
East Timor's Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, has said that his country is prepared to forgo billions of dollars of revenue from Greater Sunrise if Woodside does not bring the gas to East Timor.
But Woodside's chief executive, Don Voelte, has insisted that East Timor cannot walk away from agreements it has made about developing the field.
Mr Pereira accused Woodside of continuing to "announce the Greater Sunrise project was progressing well when communications had all but ceased last year". A Woodside spokesman declined to comment.Woodside closed up 5" at $43.
East Timor still at loggerheads with big oil
Dow Jones Newswires - December 9, 2010
Ross Kelly, Sydney – Three big oil companies have met a request by East Timor to submit different development concept studies for the Greater Sunrise gas field but an impasse over where to process the gas is showing little sign of breaking.
East Timor indicated Friday that it still wants gas from the field, which straddles Australian and East Timorese waters, piped to a new liquefied natural gas plant on its own shores. The LNG terminal would chill the gas to liquid for export by tanker.
Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and partners ConocoPhillips (COP) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc in March chose a floating LNG vessel after assessing that the gas field isn't big enough to support construction of an onshore terminal and long pipeline to shore. Floating LNG – where gas would be chilled onboard a vessel bigger than an aircraft carrier – is a new concept championed by Shell that's been tested but never executed.
The Sunrise partners also selected floating LNG over piping gas south to an onshore terminal in Darwin, Australia.
In what could be interpreted as a small sign of progress, East Timor said Friday that Woodside has met its request to submit different development concept studies, including building a plant in East Timor.
But East Timor continued to espouse its preference for its own plant and Woodside said it hasn't changed its mind either. "Floating LNG remains our preferred development concept," a Woodside spokesman said.
Early this year, East Timor rejected documentation submitted by Woodside outlining the floating LNG plan because it wanted to see studies on all three concepts. Woodside Chief Executive Don Voelte later confirmed the document had been thrown back through a car window after Woodside representatives dropped it off with the country's energy regulator. The regulator claims the Woodside representatives dumped the document on a desk then walked out.
"In recent months, Woodside has relented to meet the conditions required by the regulators," East Timor's Secretary of State Agio Pereira said in a statement.
Perth-based Woodside has presented concept studies for floating LNG, a plant at Darwin and a plant in East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste. "These documents are being carefully scrutinized by the National Petroleum Authority along with the Australian regulators," Pereira said.
Woodside said last month in a filing that it continued to "actively progress" the Sunrise development and had submitted "concept evaluation reports" to East Timorese authorities in September.
According to Pereira, Woodside assessed that a pipeline from the Sunrise gas field to East Timor would be US$400 million cheaper than a pipeline to Darwin. He reiterated that independent studies commissioned by the government suggest a pipeline to East Timor would save costs.
"The government has consistently maintained their position that the option of the pipeline to Timor-Leste is the safest and most economically viable, following the spirit of the treaties covering the Timor Sea, which promote shared benefits," Pereira said.
Woodside has said that a floating LNG vessel would be A$5 billion cheaper than an onshore LNG plant in East Timor.
East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta has used rhetoric that is a little more conciliatory than some of his colleagues. In June, he said if a pipeline to East Timor proves too expensive, "then we have to think twice. We don't want a white elephant."
Woodside last week announced a A$900 million cost blow out and six-month delay at its Pluto LNG project in Western Australia state, partly because it found flare towers weren't cyclone proof.
Pereira said this raises concerns "given the potential cost blowouts for the untested floating LNG technology... which holds far greater risks than simple flare tower technology".
Shell also wants to use floating LNG to develop the Prelude gas field offshore Western Australia state. It plans to make a final investment decision on that project in the first half of 2011 in what would be the first ever go-ahead for construction of a floating LNG vessel.
Building Sunrise would help Woodside reach its goal of becoming one of the world's biggest LNG companies by 2020. It operates Australia's North West Shelf LNG terminal, is just about to finish Pluto LNG and also wants to build the Browse project.
Balibo killer blacklisted, but mum's the word
Brisbane Times - December 18, 2010
Philip Dorling and Nick McKenzie – The Australian government has quietly blacklisted a prominent Indonesian political figure implicated in the Balibo Five killings while working with Indonesian authorities to manage the fallout from the scandal.
Secret US diplomatic cables reveal that Australia has declared Yunus Yosfiah – a special forces captain during the 1975 invasion of East Timor – to be "persona non grata", a sanction that would bar him from entering Australia.
The NSW Deputy Coroner Dorelle Pinch found in 2007 that Yosfiah had ordered and participated in the murder of the five Australian newsmen at Balibo. He later became a general, the minister of information in the late 1990s, and remains an influential figure in Indonesian politics.
Cables sent from the US embassy in Jakarta confirm that Australian officials worked privately with the Indonesian government as it tried to "manage" the political reaction to the coronial finding.
In a cable dated November 21, 2007, obtained by WikiLeaks and made available exclusively to the Herald, the head of the political section at the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Justin Lee, is reported to have told US officials that he had "reviewed the coroner's report with the Indonesian government".
"He had stressed to his Indonesian interlocutors that Australia wanted to work with the GOI [government of Indonesia] carefully on the matter," the cable says.
"The Indonesians replied that they also wanted 'to help manage' the issue, although they categorically rejected the allegation that Indonesian security forces committed human rights violations or war crimes.
"Lee noted that the soundings he picked up in private were 'much more constructive' than the tenor of some of the public remarks. He added that as far as he knew there were no active duty TNI [Indonesian army] members implicated in the Balibo incident."
After the coroner's finding, an Indonesian foreign affairs spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah, said: "In our view, this case is closed and should stay closed."
The embassy cable reveals that despite Australia taking no formal action against Yosfiah, Mr Lee privately told the US diplomats that he was blacklisted.
"Justin Lee told... [the US embassy] that Yosfiah is 'persona non grata' in Australia, though formal charges have never been brought against him over the killings."
The Australian government has never commented publicly on the status of Yosfiah, but at the time of the coroner's finding the then opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, vowed to ensure that action was taken against the military officers implicated in the killings.
"I also believe those responsible should be held to account... You can't just sweep this to one side," Mr Rudd said publicly in November 2007. As prime minister and now as Foreign Minister, Mr Rudd has remained largely quiet on the matter.
Ms Pinch found that Greg Shackleton, Malcolm Rennie, Gary Cunningham, Brian Peters and Tony Stewart were murdered by Indonesian special forces as they tried to film the first stages of the invasion of East Timor.
In September last year, nearly 22 months after the case was referred to the federal government for action, the Australian Federal Police began its continuing war crimes inquiry into the killing of the journalists.
Shirley Shackleton, the wife of one of the murdered reporters, Greg Shackleton, said Australia should not have engaged in backroom diplomacy with Indonesia in connection to the murders.
"The cable makes us realise that Australia is not interested in justice, they are interested in smoothing relations with Indonesians," Ms Shackleton said.
"There is a constant pattern of deception from the Australian government. Kevin Rudd has vowed that the Indonesian military should be held to account, but privately the Australian government doesn't do anything. This hasn't just gone on since the coroner's report, it has gone on since the murders."