Hands Off My Petroleum!

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he former Portuguese colony has assembled a multinational team to prosecute its case - a kind of Dili All-Stars, including forthright Ambassador Galbraith, Portuguese naval officer and legal scholar Nuno Antunes, and experts from East Timor, Australia, Norway, Britain and Canada. According to maritime law, countries are entitled to claim a 200-nautical-mile (370 km) exclusive zone from their coast. "When countries have overlapping claims," says Antunes, "the best settlement is to be found in international law." Citing 15 international arbitrated decisions and 60 examples of state practice, Antunes says equidistance is the overwhelming principle for "delimiting" maritime boundaries in circumstances facing East Timor and Australia. But that would put all the petroleum reserves on Timor's side. Australia argues that the geomorphology of the Timor Sea is unique. "We have successfully established that the natural promulgation of the continent extends to the Timor Trough," says an Australian delegate, pointing to a sea-bed diagram that shows a ditch 550 nautical miles long and up to 3,000 m deep which effectively puts the two countries on different continental shelves. "The Australian position has been presented as non-rebuttable," says Antunes. "That's not justified. Today's case law suggests the Timor Trough would be given no relevance whatsoever."

While Canberra has been reticent, speaking only through Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, the East Timorese have waged a propaganda blitz. "Their strategy is to shame us into more concessions," says Downer. Dili is convinced that telling the world about this new struggle for justice can only help its case - even if it risks alienating its closest international friend. "We slowly came to realize the bad faith that Australia was showing in negotiations over the Timor Sea," says Gusmão about Australia's withdrawal from the International Court of Justice on maritime boundary disputes in March 2002. In private meetings, he says, "Australia did not want to listen to our arguments. 'Be realistic, it's only a dream,' they said about our claims. (Australia) wanted to preserve what they had secured from Indonesia when we were occupied. As if we were blind! Now is the time to speak out about this issue."

Last week President Gusmão told Portugal's Público newspaper: "This is not right. The country which steals from us then organizes conferences regarding transparency (and) anti-corruption." Downer told Time that Australia will take the heat: "Australia's immense generosity in recent times should not be forgotten … We agreed to give East Timor 90% (of the JPDA) … and now we are told that we are thieves and cheats." Downer says he would prefer the talks to remain confidential and cordial. "When you enter into negotiations and you abuse and denigrate the other side - well, they obviously don't regard the relationship with Australia as highly as I thought. (But) I would think twice about this tactic. It's never worked with me. A former South Australian Premier, Sir Thomas Playford, used to say, 'You attract more flies with honey than vinegar.'" East Timor's Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, says the relationship is multifaceted: "The Timor Sea is a separate issue. The general spirit between us is good." Australia is a major donor to the country. During the past four years it has spent $170 million on humanitarian aid, poverty reduction, health and rural development.