Ever harsher tones surround the battle with Australia for oil and gas fields
Dili (AsiaNews) Ever harsher tones surround the controversy placing East Timor in competition with Australia for oil and gas fields lying below the Timor Sea.
The president of East Timor, Xanana Gusmao, said during a speech delivered in Lisbon two days ago that his country is fighting an unequal battle with Australia over oil and gas fields, relating the struggle to the country's hard fought war to win independence from Indonesian domination.
On the same day East Timor's prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, said that Australia's decision to auction off permits to the highest bidder to explore the hotly debated area would constitute a violation of international law.
The Australian move would infringe upon an agreement by the country's own Parliament but not endorsed by East Timor, since the latter expected to have a joint management of the area's natural resources.
The "Greater Sunrise Unitization Agreement" permits Australia to have 82% of revenues until both countries come to a reciprocal decision regarding marine borders. The accord came after the East Timor Sea Treaty was reached and signed in 2003 by both countries. The treaty called for 90% of future revenues to go to East Timor and 10% to Australia.
The commercial value of the hydrocarbon deposits, according to some oil experts, could be as high as 5 billion dollars.
According to Mari Alkatiri, Australia's March 2002 decision (two months before East Timor's independence from Indonesia) to pull out of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, was likely a move made to keep the dispute from being subject to an independent jurisdiction.
The dispute between the two countries concerns the ways of determining water boundaries. East Timor sustains the principle of delineating boundaries based on a line of equidistant points from the coast. Australia says that it is has territorial rights along the continental shelf. Australian international law expert, Gillian Triggs, says Australia is not motivated by financial gain but by a desire not to jeopardize its own sovereignty.
Triggs says that according to international law Australia is right in claiming its sovereignty along the continental shelf. Australia's decision to proceed unilaterally with assigning permits to explore the area is thus seen essentially an initiative to push East Timor to come to an agreement.
East Timor's prime minister, Alkatiri, holds that "international law prohibits Australia from intervening in disputed maritime regions." He said that Australia has probably taken in 1.5 billion dollars in revenues from Laminaria-Corallina fields.
The premier did not supply any details as to how he came up with the figure, given that gas will be pumped from the Bayu-Undan field only by the end of this year. The Bayu-Undan field is the first to begin operating in the Timor Sea
East Timor's president, Gusmao, said Australia's usurping of his country's resources (one the poorest in the world) could lead it to ending up bankrupt like Haiti. East Timor has no other resources and the success of the United Nation's intervention is based on the amount of international aid given to the country, which at the time of its independence Indonesia had predicted it would go bankrupt.
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