| 26
April 2005
Forum National ONG Timor Lorosa'e
Press Release
TIMOR-LESTE CIVIL SOCIETY
“Demands the expeditious determination
of a fair median line”
The results
of the most recent negotiations held last March in Canberra-Australia,
spoke about the establishment of a Resources Sharing Agreement or
an agreement which favours a “legal framework” for a
“creative solution”.
The essence
of this “creative solution” is that Timor-Leste will
receive 5 billion American dollars from the total reserve of 30
billion American dollars in the Greater Sunrise oil field. The logic
for the granting of this 5 billion dollars is that it is a “bonus”
from the oil and gas exploration in the field, and that there will
be no determination on the maritime border for 100 years. The Australian
government is pressing for any solution that will provide a legal
agreement to the Woodside company and its partners so that they
can begin the exploitation of the Greater Sunrise field.
From the above
information we can conclude that the Australian government is anxious
about discussions regarding the Maritime Boundary and prefers to
discuss the distribution of natural resources, of which we are all
aware that according to international UNCLOS law, 100% of the natural
resources in the Timor Sea belong to Timor-Leste.
Based
on these reasons we, Timor-Leste civil society and students, those
of us who are issuing this declaration, wish to convey our concerns
regarding something which is of great importance to this nation.
We wish to remind the two governments involved, but in particular
our own government, the Government of the Republic of Timor-Leste.
Based upon what
we know about the negotiations process, we demand that the Timor-Leste
and Australian governments do the following:
- Request the
negotiators, who will tomorrow sit together to discuss the future
of the Timorese people, to respect the sovereignty of the Democratic
Republic of Timor-Leste, and to make an expeditious decision on
the Median Line.
- We ask the
Australian government to return to the international dispute resolution
process for maritime boundaries of the International Court for
Justice and the International Court for the Law of the Sea, and
- To cease exploration
of the Laminaria-Corallina and other fields in the disputed territory,
including the granting of new licences. The money obtained from
the exploration of these fields should be put in a fund which
can later be divided between the two countries when agreement
is reached.
- To our government
Timor-Leste: we ask that you do not rush in obtaining an agreement
for the exploration of Greater Sunrise; it is more important that
you determine a maritine boundary and a lateral boundary based
on international law, and
- If the Australian
government remains stubborn and refuses to come to a decision
on the maritime boundary based upon international UNCLOS law,
we ask the Timor-Leste government to return the “AusAid
grant” money which the Australian government gave to Timor-Leste.
Once again, we
ask that the Government of Timor-Leste assign priority to a discussion
of the Maritime Boundary, rather than that of resource distribution
with the Australian government, who are intent on the continuing
exploitation of Timor-Leste’s resources.
For futher information
please contact: Tomas Freitas,
Caicoli
Street, Dili, Timor-Leste. Tel +670-723-5063 or 7254912. Email:
laohamutuk@easttimor.minihub.org
or etngocentre@hotmail.com
Asosiasaun HAK,
La’o Hamutuk, Sahe Institute for Liberation, Asosiasaun Estudante
UNTL, Asosiasaun Estudante UNDIL, ETADEP, FOKUPERS, AMKV,Dai Popular,
Hasatil, Kdalak Sulimutu Institute.
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