Emma Alberici speaks with Nick Xenophon about his calls for a Royal Commission following Lateline's exclusive report on the spying scandal between Australia and East Timor.

Transcript

Emma Alberici, presenter: First though, this week on Lateline we've revealed new details surrounding the Australian operation to bug East Timor's Cabinet rooms in 2004. We've heard about dissatisfaction among high-ranking officers in the Australian secret intelligence service about the incident. We exposed an extraordinary tale of diplomatic bungling where Australia sent the person involved in the original operation back to Dili to meet with Xanana Gusmao in an attempt to smooth things over with Timor's then Prime Minister and we've heard from East Timorese leaders past and present who believe the bugging was immoral and criminal.

Mari Alkatiri, former East Timor Prime Minister: I have no doubt on this. This kind of thing, even in international law it's a crime.

Xanana Gusmao, former East Timor President and Prime Minister: Australia would not allow it would be under then security act it will be criminal act, no?

Emma Alberici: Today, South Australian Independent Senator Nick Zenophon stood side by side with the former New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, and Bernard Collaery, the lawyer for Witness K. They're calling for a Royal Commission into the bugging scandal.

Nick Xenophon, independent senator: We know this week that ABC TV's Lateline program has revealed anger within Australian intelligence circles and that senior ASIS officers are very concerned that intelligence resources have been misused. This is the biggest intelligence scandal in this country in the past generation. It warrants a Royal Commission. It warrants a judicial inquiry.

Nicholas Cowdry, former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions: I support an inquiry, yes. Whether you call it a Royal Commission or independent judicial inquiry or whatever, I think it would need to have the powers of a Royal Commission in order to be effective. I think it would need to include investigation into the question of whether or not criminal offences had been committed.

Bernard Collaery, lawyer for Witness K: The Royal Commission has to boost plural in our services and has to free ASIS, which is a very professional organisation, from the shackles of commercial boardrooms. They should not be acting to the dictates of commercial boardrooms by proxy through managing Ministers.

Emma Alberici: Independent Senator Nick Zenophon joins me now from Adelaide. Nick Zenophon, many thanks for joining us. What is it exactly that you'd like a Royal Commission to explore?

Nick Zenophon, independent senator: A Royal Commission needs to look at the – whether intelligence resources were being misused. I believe they were and let's put this in context – this is a massive scandal in our intelligence services.

It affects our reputation internationally, not just with East Timor but in the entire region, that if Australia resorted to dirty tricks of this nature for what appears to have been a commercial operation in order to benefit oil companies, then that to me appears to be an abuse of resources. The others issue here is that the mob of – there are a number of questions to ask.

The first is the relationship between the department and commercial firms, for instance, Dr Ashton Calvert, former head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and trade, after retiring, went to the board of Woodside within a matter of weeks if not months.

The second issue is volunteers were – aid workers were used as the cover for the espionage. That puts every Australian volunteer – magnificent ambassadors, each and every one of them, for the work they do on behalf of Australia overseas – under suspicion and so that's a real concern.

And the third issue is that if precious intelligence resources were used in this way, particularly in had the wake of the Bali terrorist attacks and the fact that Jemaah Islamiah was very active in Indonesia, perpetrated bombings in 2005, 2009 involving Australians at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta to what extent were precious intelligence resources shifted away from dealing with murderous terrorist groups like Jemaah Islamiah and, rather, were used in what appears to be for the benefit of commercial firms? That to me is doubly scandalous.

Emma Alberici: Let's unpack that and first of all, I guess, step back. In dispute here is a treaty governing oil and gas revenue-sharing agreements signed with Australia shortly after East Timor gained Statehood in 2002.

Nick Zenophon: Yes.

Emma Alberici: You'd be aware that the ASIS national security remit is a fairly broad one and it includes, to quote the act, "Foreign intelligence work related to Australia's economic wellbeing."

Nick Zenophon: Well, section 11 of the Intelligence Services Act must be read, in my view, in the context of our national security, protecting Australians from acts of terror and our national economic wellbeing must be read quite broadly, not for the economic wellbeing of a particular company and even if you accept that proposition I know professor Ben Sol whom had that respect for, seemed to take that view on your program last night, the argument is Australia being involved in espionage of this type would actually be damaging our economic wellbeing much more broadly in the region than if we're prepared as a nation to be involved in dirty tricks against one of the most poorest and vulnerable nations in the world in order to secure a commercial advantage over them, to bug their Cabinet room during the sensitive negotiation then that surely can't be good for our reputation or our economic wellbeing in the longer term.

Emma Alberici: During your first answer you mentioned the name Ashton Calvert, who was, I understand, the former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Are you suggesting he did something improper in leaving the department and going to work for Woodside Petroleum?

Nick Zenophon: Well I'm suggesting it is extraordinary that you have the secretary of the department of foreign affairs and trade under whom ASIS, the intelligence agency, sits because it's within that department, they were responsible for the bugging operation and for that person to then go to the board of Woodside within a matter of weeks or months of retiring I think raises legitimate questions. That is something that ought to be looked at, as to whether there should be some real barriers between someone going from a senior position – the most senior position in the department to a company that appears to have been arguably a potential beneficiary of the bugging operation.

Emma Alberici: Negotiations over drilling in the East Timor Sea involved future earnings in the potentially tens of billions of dollars. The then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the 'Four Corners' program that the Australian Government unashamedly should be trying to advance the interests of Australian companies.

Nick Zenophon: And Alexander Downer should be ashamed of himself if he thinks it's fair game to be bugging the offices of the East Timorese Cabinet room using precious...

Emma Alberici: I must make the point of course that he didn't make any acknowledgment that indeed his Government did do this or in any way sanctioned it.

Nick Zenophon: But it's fair to say that his view of national economic wellbeing appears to be incredibly broad.

The fact is we just don't know who authorised what. I mean clearly, based on material from Witness K, that something did happen, that there was bugging, that Witness K has had his passport seized. It was seized on 2 December, 2013. He cannot appear, it appears, as a witness in the international Court of Arbitration in the Hague. I understand never before in the history of this court – and it's been going for well over 100 years – has there ever been a situation where there has been a case of treaty-related fraud which is the case that East Timor has brought against Australia in this case.

Emma Alberici: And in fact East Timor wants the Maritime Treaty terminated on the grounds that Australia illegally bugged its Cabinet rooms in Dili during those negotiation. That action, should it proceed, in itself arguably is against Australia's economic interests?

Nick Zenophon: Well, let's look at the broader Australian economic interests. Firstly, do we want to be known as a nation that is involved in extraordinary dirty tricks and it's also the cover-up here but I think it's legitimate to ask were precious intelligence resources being used for effectively commercial espionage, as is the allegation, when those resources ought to have been used to protect Australians from terrorist acts from Australian lives being at risk because Jemaah Islamiah, in 2004, 2005 and subsequently, was incredibly active, putting Australian lives at risk.

I mean, these are issues where our resources, intelligence resources, should be used to protect Australians from terrorist acts not being involved in dirty tricks in the commercial negotiation.

Emma Alberici: The strength of the East Timorese case in the Hague rests with Witness K, whose evidence won't be able to be presented unless his passport is returned. Now, have you spoken to the Government about this and queried why they continue to hold his passport two years after the ASIO raids?

Nick Zenophon: Emma I can only just direct you to Senate Estimates Hearings where I've attempted to raise this and I get shut down very quickly. It's quite extraordinary. I will pursue it again with the supplementary estimates in February of next year and I suggest to you, just wait and see what the response from the Government will be.

I suggest it will be one that they will not talk about it in any way but how can this enhance Australia's international reputation, a reputation in the region, the reputation of our aid workers who do magnificent work around the world if aid workers were used as a cover for this espionage and I can't see how this would be in our long-term economic interests or our national security interests at all.

Emma Alberici: What are the prospects for a Royal Commission going ahead?

Nick Zenophon: Well, if you don't ask you don't get and I think this issue won't go away.

Emma Alberici: Presumably – pardon the interruption we are running out of time – presumably, the Government isn't receptive of the suggestion of a recognition into this matter given many in the Coalition now, including Malcolm Turnbull, were members of the Howard Government in 2004 who ordered the spying operation in East Timor?

Nick Zenophon: And I would like to think the Turnbull Government will want to clear this enormous stain on Australia's international reputation once and for all. The best way to do this with an independent judicial inquiry, a Royal Commission to get to the truth of what occurred.

Emma Alberici: Nick Zenophon, I appreciate the time you've taken to speak to Lateline tonight.

Nick Zenophon: Thanks, Emma.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2015/s4361657.htm

Nick Xenophon calls for royal commission into East Timor spying scandal

ABC News - November 27, 2015

Steve Cannane, Sashka Koloff and Brigid Andersen – Independent senator Nick Xenophon has called for a royal commission into the spying scandal in which Australian intelligence officers bugged East Timor's cabinet office.

The call comes after the ABC's Lateline revealed new details about the 2004 spying operation and one of Australia's most senior lawyers, Nicholas Cowdery QC, said there is a criminal case to answer.

In 2004, ASIS officers snuck into East Timor's cabinet office and installed listening devices. The operation gave Australia the upper hand in negotiations over the treaty to divide the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field in the Timor Sea, worth an estimated $40 billion.

Senator Xenophon said a royal commission was needed to examine whether intelligence resources were misused. "This is the biggest intelligence scandal in this country in the past generation," he said.

"It warrants a royal commission, it warrants a judicial inquiry, a forensic examination of what occurred here because this has damaged Australia's reputation."

Senator Xenophon said a royal commission would examine weaknesses in the current system of oversight for intelligence services. "We have a situation here where the inspector-general of intelligence and security, that office, many would consider it to be a toothless tiger," he said.

He said a royal commission was "absolutely essential" to restore Australia's reputation in the region.

Mr Cowdery, former New South Wales director of public prosecutions, said in his legal opinion the bugging of the cabinet office was a crime under Australian law. He was engaged to provide a legal opinion for Bernard Collaery, the former legal adviser to East Timor.

Mr Cowdery supported the call for a judicial inquiry. "It would need to include an investigation into the question of whether or not criminal offences had been committed," he said.

Mr Collaery said it should also look at whether ASIS should operate within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

"The royal commission has to boost morale in our services and has to free ASIS, which is a very professional organisation, from the shackles of commercial boardrooms," he said. "They should not be acting to the dictates of commercial boardrooms by proxy through managing ministers."

In 2013, East Timor notified Australia that it was taking the case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Later that year, ASIO officers raided Mr Collaery's Canberra office and the home of a key witness in the case, a former senior intelligence officer known as Witness K.

Witness K's passport was seized, meaning he was unable to travel overseas to The Hague to give evidence and to this day he is unable to leave the country.

Mr Collaery said it was disgraceful conduct by the Australian Government. "Because it created national security risk not only for Witness K, who had had a distinguished career, but it created risks for my chambers and my staff," he siad.

"To publicly identify my practice and my staff, several of whom have young families, as being associated with intelligence operations, was reprehensible, most reprehensible to place my staff at risk, because intelligence operations in this day and age extend to the very proper conduct of operations against terrorism."

Attorney-General George Brandis has previously said he is confident intelligence agencies are compliant with Australian law.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-27/xenophon-calls-for-royal-commission-east-timor-spying-scandal/6981084

Nick Xenophon urges inquiry into bugging of Timor oil and gas treaty

The Guardian (Australia) - November 27, 2015

Paul Farrell – The independent senator Nick Xenophon has called for a royal commission into Australia allegedly bugging Timor-Leste's cabinet room during trade negotiations.

Timor-Leste has been in dispute with Australia after allegations by a whistleblower from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (Asis) – known as witness K – that the country's cabinet room was bugged during negotiations for an oil and gas treaty in 2004.

The ABC revealed on Thursday that a representative sent to Dili in 2012 to deal with the dispute had been involved in the alleged bugging operation, causing further diplomatic concerns. The ABC also reported senior intelligence officials had raised concerns about the operation.

On Friday Xenophon appeared with the former NSW director of public prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery – who said he believed the operation may have breached Australian law – and said further inquiries into the Asis operation were needed.

"If in fact Asis was used solely for the purpose of getting a commercial advantage for Australian companies over East Timor and its oil resources that is undoubtedly scandalous," Xenophon said. "The only way we can get to the truth of this is through a royal commission."

Intelligence officers who had behaved appropriately "should not have their home raided", Xenophon said, in reference to raids carried out in December 2013 to seize documents about the international dispute.

The raids on witness K's residence and the offices of East Timor's lawyer, Bernard Collaery, were authorised by the Australian attorney general, George Brandis.

Timor-Leste is involved in international legal action against Australia over the raids. However, Australia recently agreed to return documents relating to the dispute after a series of appeals in the international court of justice.

The Australian federal police has prepared a brief of evidence in relation to the disclosures made by witness K, who could potentially face prosecution under Australia's sweeping disclosure laws. The Asis agent, whose identity remains secret, has also had his passport seized.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is expected to make a decision next week on whether to reissue Witness K's passport.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/27/nick-xenophon-urges-inquiry-into-bugging-of-timor-leste-oil-and-gas-treaty-talks

Top lawyer says Australia has criminal case to answer over Timor spying

ABC News - November 26, 2015

Steve Cannane, Sashka Koloff and Brigid Andersen – One of Australia's most senior lawyers believes there is a criminal case to answer over an Australian spying operation in East Timor and that senior intelligence officers, even a former cabinet minister, could face prosecution.

Former New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery QC told Lateline it is his legal opinion that the bugging of an East Timorese cabinet office by Australia's foreign intelligence service (ASIS) was a crime under Australian law.

"My preliminary advice is that there is a case of conspiracy to defraud that could be mounted against those responsible for the planning and the direction and indeed some of those responsible for the execution of the bugging in East Timor," he said.

The 2004 spying operation gave Australia the upper-hand in negotiations with East Timor over a treaty to divide the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field, worth an estimated $40 billion.

Mr Cowdery said if the case went before the Australian courts, senior ASIS officials could face prosecution, and the foreign minister at the time, Alexander Downer, could also be included if he was the one who ordered the bugging.

"That would require some further investigation of the primary evidence that would be available, but it seems pretty clear that the Director-General of Intelligence at the time, David Irvine, his deputy and a number of other senior officials who were involved in the planning and the direction of the bugging operation would certainly be liable," Mr Cowdery said.

"Whether the relevant minister at the time had any direct involvement in the matter? That's something that I'm not clear about."

Mr Cowdery was engaged to provide a legal opinion for Bernard Collaery, the former legal adviser to East Timor.

"It's potentially very serious because this is a relationship between a relatively large, progressive wealthy country, Australia, and its small impoverished, new neighbour," Mr Cowdery said.

"A situation where if a prosecution of that kind can be mounted, then it would demonstrate that Australia was seeking to use its might to secure advantage for itself over its smaller and weaker neighbour."

But Ben Saul, Professor of International Law at Sydney University, does not think the case would stack up in an Australian court.

"I think courts would generally accept that bugging is something in the exercise of the proper performance of an intelligence agency. It's core business," he said.

"Just because it's against a poorer neighbour, just because it's directed towards ripping off a country that needs the money more than we do, doesn't mean that it's somehow improper or that it's not potentially in Australia's national economic interests."

'Extraordinary spying shenanigans'

If a prosecution was launched, it is likely there would be two key defences: That ASIS was operating in the interests of Australia's national security or Australia's national economic well-being.

But a defence based on national security could prove interesting, considering many in Australia's military have been angered or surprised by the spying operation.

In 1999 Admiral Chris Barrie as then chief of the Defence Force planned, directed, and commanded the operation to secure East Timor after widespread militia-led violence. He was surprised by the decision to bug East Timor's cabinet rooms.

"It's a bit extraordinary isn't it? On one hand you conduct a security operation to establish a new country in this part of the world and then a few years later you're up to these sort of shenanigans," he said.

Retired Major-General Peter Phillips, the former national president of the RSL was appalled by Australia's actions. "Well frankly, I was horrified. I just couldn't believe we would do that to a neighbour that meant so much to us," he said.

"In terms of bugging the Timor cabinet office, I thought that was way beyond what we would expect of our intelligence services. I can't, still can't see what it has to do with national security." 'I have never seen the US do this'

The bugging operation took place under the guise of an Australian aid project, with ASIS spies sneaking into the cabinet room where the East Timorese negotiating team held meetings, to install listening devices.

Peter Galbraith is a former American diplomat and was the lead negotiator for East Timor during the treaty talks with Australia.

He told Lateline the case should be tested in an Australian court. "I'm not an expert on Australian law, but what is clear is Australia was not doing this for national security reasons, it was doing it for its commercial interests, to help the oil companies and to secure additional revenue for the Treasury," he said.

Mr Galbraith was shocked that Australia would do something as brazen as to bug the cabinet office of a friendly country.

"I spent much of my career as an American diplomat and I can tell you that of course we engage in a lot of espionage, but I have never seen the United States do this for a commercial advantage," he said.

"It's always been for things that fall within what I think almost everybody would agree was national security, combating terrorism, understanding what the Soviets are doing."

East Timor is taking another case over the bugging operation back to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, in a bid to have the oil and gas treaty torn up.

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer and former ASIS Director General David Irvine declined to comment to Lateline.

In a statement, Attorney General George Brandis said "the Australian Government does not comment on the operations of our intelligence agencies... Australia's intelligence agencies operate within a robust legal framework under Australian law, and I am confident that they are compliant with those obligations."

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/australia-has-case-to-answer-over-east-timor-spying-cowdery/6973920

Key Timor spying witness awaiting passport

Australian Associated Press - November 26, 2015

Australia's foreign affairs department is expected to make a decision next week on whether to reissue a passport to a key witness in spy allegations concerning oil and gas treaty negotiations with East Timor.

East Timor has recommenced legal action against Australia in the UN's International Court of Justice in The Hague over claims that spies bugged their cabinet room in 2004 during talks over the reserves worth $40 billion.

"It's an issue of justice that Witness K provides the evidence so that everybody know whether or not the claim that Timor-Leste made was right," Prime Minister Rui Araujo told ABC TV.

Senator Nick Xenophon, who has been outspoken on the issue, said East Timor had one hand tied behind its back because Witness K could not appear before the arbitration.

"The fact that... Witness K came forward as a whistleblower, his home was raided by ASIO and his passport has been confiscated and he can not travel to give evidence on this issue... is an act of bastardry," he told reporters in Canberra.

Source: http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/11/26/06/48/key-timor-spying-witness-awaiting-passport

We need to hold East Timor spies to account

Crikey.com - November 26, 2015

To date, no one – in politics or the bureaucracy – has been held accountable for bugging the East Timor cabinet room. Well, this is embarrassing.

Former East Timorese president Xanana Gusmao has revealed that when he raised the issue of Australia's spying on East Timor during oil and gas negotiations with Tony Abbott last year, the former PM shrugged off the scandal and made an awkward gaffe. On ABC Lateline, Gusmao recounted:

"I was with [former East Timor prime minister] Mr Mari Alkatiri in Boao in a conference in China and we met the former prime minister Tony Abbott.

"Mr Mari said to him 'look I'm very, very sad knowing that you spy on us, on our meetings and conversations'.

"And you know what Mr Tony Abbott said? 'Don't worry my friend, [the] Chinese are listening to us.'"

On instruction from the Howard government and under the guise of an aid project to help renovate East Timor's Palace of Government, Australian spooks snuck into the government building in Dili in 2004 and installed listening devices. The information gathered allowed Australia to gain the upper hand in negotiations over an oil and gas treaty between the two countries.

While Australia's spying on the former Indonesian president and his wife became a huge media-fed scandal when it was revealed two years ago, our bugging of an East Timorese cabinet meeting to gain commercial advantage over our poverty stricken northern neighbour – and subsequent efforts by the federal government to prevent the truth of the operation coming out – has been met with a relatively muted response here in Australia.

To date, no one – in politics or the bureaucracy – has been held accountable for this illegal act. It is a scandal of the highest order, and the disdain shown by successive Australian leaders on the issue is an international embarrassment.

Source: http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/11/26/we-need-to-hold-east-timor-spies-to-account/

Interview with Peter Galbraith on Australian spying against East Timor

ABC Lateline - November 25, 2015

Tony Jones speaks with Peter Galbraith, who was part of the UN transitional administration in East Timor in 2000 and 2001 and a cabinet member in the fledgling nation's first transitional government. He was also the lead negotiator for East Timor during the talks with Australia, aimed at producing a new oil and gas agreement to replace the Timor Gap treaty.

Transcript

Tony Jones, presenter: Our guest is Peter Galbraith, a former American politician and diplomat who also served as a United Nations envoy to Afghanistan from 2000 to 2001. He was part of the UN transitional administration in East Timor. He served as a cabinet minister in the fledgling nation's first transitional government. Peter Galbraith was the lead negotiator for East Timor during the talks with Australia aimed at producing a new oil and gas agreement to replace the Timor Gap Treaty. He joins us now from Boston, Massachusetts.

Thanks for being there, Peter Galbraith.

Peter Galbraith, former lead negotiator for East Timor: Good to be with you.

Tony Jones: Now do you have a view as to whether the Australian operation to spy on your negotiating team was a crime?

Peter Galbraith: Well clearly it was a crime under East Timor law. Obviously it's a crime to break into the offices of the Prime Minister and the cabinet and to place bugging devices. It's a crime to commit espionage. So a crime under East Timor law. I can't say whether it would have been a crime under Australian law, but clearly a crime under East Timor law.

Tony Jones: Well you've just heard a prominent Australian lawyer, Nicholas Cowdery QC, says there's a prima facie criminal case under Australian law of conspiracy to defraud the East Timorese Government. Do you think that case should be tested?

Peter Galbraith: Well, I certainly think it should be tested. There are really two issues here. First, under Australian law, can Australians send agents into the cabinet offices of a friendly country? That may or may not be the case. But there's really a separate issue, which is: do you use your intelligence services for the purposes of spying on what were essentially commercial negotiations, basically serving the interests of the Australian Treasury, but also of the oil companies, as part of a complex negotiation. I was the lead negotiator on all of this and what's critical in these negotiations – I get my instructions from the Prime Minister – I get to know what East Timor's bottom line is. What is the minimum that they will agree to settle for? And if the other side knows that, it has incredibly valuable information. It knows that it doesn't need in its negotiations to go beyond that bottom line.

Tony Jones: Any potential criminal prosecution in Australia would hinge on whether ASIS, the spy agency, acted improperly. Their key defence would be that their action was in the national interest. Is it conceivable, given the huge amounts of revenue that were involved there, that this could be construed as being in a nation's national interest?

Peter Galbraith: Again, I don't know Australian law. I don't know what Australia defines as national interest. But I spent much of my career as an American diplomat and I can tell you that of course we engage in a lot of espionage, but I have never seen the United States do this for a commercial advantage. It's always been for things that fall within what I think almost everybody would agree was national security, combating terrorism, understanding what the Soviets are doing. So, you know, I would say that this might well be illegal, but again, I don't know – I'm not an expert on Australian law, but what is clear is Australia was not doing this for national security reasons, it was doing it for its commercial interests, to help the oil companies and to secure additional revenue for the Treasury.

Tony Jones: It sounds like from what you're saying that in diplomatic circles in the United States, potentially at high levels, since I imagine you have moved at quite high levels in the United Nations as well and possibly in the security agencies in the States, that there must have been a degree of shock that Australia would do this.

Peter Galbraith: Well I don't know how closely people have followed all this, but I think Americans and the intelligence services would find it surprising that Australia, which is thought of as a – well, frankly, along with the Scandinavian countries, as one of the good government countries in the world, a country that engages in economic development, that has stood for fair play, that has been a proponent of international law, would engage in this kind of espionage. And incidentally, this wasn't just intercepting emails and cell phone conversations. Frankly, I assumed Australia was doing that. But actually to engage in a break-in in the cabinet offices and the Prime Minister's offices of a friendly country, you know, that really is – that's not something the United States would do, and again, we have undoubtedly the most significant – significantly-funded intelligence service in the world.

Tony Jones: Now, you do know quite well the Foreign Minister at the time, Alexander Downer. You would have had direct meetings and negotiations with him, no doubt. He actually maintained that it would have been a dereliction of the Australian Government's duty if it didn't support the interests of its major companies and the Government should be trying unashamedly to advance the interests of Australian companies. He said that openly in a documentary about this subject.

Peter Galbraith: Well, and that's exactly how Alexander Downer and his negotiating team behaved both in the first round of negotiations over the – what was the Timor Gap in 2000-2001 and again in the CMATS negotiations in the period 2004 to 2006. The Phillips Petroleum, now ConocoPhillips, Woodside, basically dictated the Australian agenda. So, one had the feeling when one was negotiating with Australia, particularly with Alexander Downer and in the first round with Nick Minchin, who was the Industries and Natural Resources Minister, that you were negotiating with the representatives of the companies. And one of the arguments they had for trying to deprive East Timor of the revenues that it was entitled to under international law was that putting this area under East Timor jurisdiction would mean higher taxes on the companies. Frankly, that was their number one concern, because for Australia, the amount of additional revenues isn't really that important. I mean, Australia's a very rich country and, you know, a few hundred million a year more or less is not making that much difference to Australia, but to the companies it was very important and that was what always struck me was at the top of Alexander Downer's agenda in these negotiations.

Tony Jones: Now, Peter Galbraith, do you understand how this whole spying operation worked? Because we've been told, for example, that one key player delivered transcripts of the bugged conversations from the embassy in Dili straight into the hands of Australia's negotiating team?

Peter Galbraith: Well, if you're going to be bugging the cabinet offices for the purposes of finding out what was going on in the negotiations, of course you would want to deliver, you want to hear what was going on, make transcripts, and then, in order for them to be useful, they'd have to go to the negotiating team. So, I'm not sure quite how it would have worked mechanically. I imagine there were transmitters from the cabinet offices. The embassy has listening devices around it so you pick up the signals. They're probably sent onto Canberra and transcribed by your equivalent of the National Security Agency and then delivered to the people to whom they're useful.

Tony Jones: Were you aware at any time or did you suspect that the people sitting across the negotiating table had that kind of advantage, that kind of information?

Peter Galbraith: I was deeply suspicious of what Australia was doing, and of course, because of my own experience, I knew what the capabilities were, particularly with regard to cell phones and electronic communications. So when I had meetings with my negotiating team, I made everybody not only turn off their cell phones, but put them in a separate room. I said that we can't discuss this stuff by email, so it required me to make many trips from the United States, where I was living, to East Timor as part of the process of planning for the negotiations. So I assumed Australia was spying in more or less the conventional way, but of course I had no idea that Australia would go to the extreme of a burglary, a break-in and then planting bugging devices.

Tony Jones: Were you surprised at all to hear in our story just past that the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, on receiving information, receiving in fact a letter from Xanana Gusmao, who was then Prime Minister, because this all came out some years later, saying that – or issuing a serious complaint about the nature of this: sent to talk to him, someone who had been involved in the operation and that he knew that? Were you surprised by that?

Peter Galbraith: No. I think this is how intelligence services behave. The Prime Minister learns that some misconduct took place. They of course say, "Madam Prime Minister, no it didn't," and she wants to send a delegation, so of course they will choose the person who was actually involved in the action. I think that's just how they behave. It's the mentality that whatever we're doing is right and it's – they're also extremely defensive about their personnel.

Tony Jones: We're just about out of time, so a quick answer to this one, but obviously this is now going back to The Hague, to the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Do you – does the court have the power to cause the treaty to be renegotiated and do you think it should be?

Peter Galbraith: Well I think the treaty actually represented a reasonably good deal for Timor – East Timor, but they could have done better. I think there's one other part of this negotiation though that is worth noting, which is the Australians, when they broke into the – Bernard Collaery's office, they seized East Timor's documents for the arbitration. Now of course they claim that they aren't looking at them, but if you believe that, I'll sell you shares in the Brooklyn Bridge. Of course they've looked at them, of course they would have been shared with the legal team handling the arbitration and so that's an additional element of unfairness to this whole process.

Tony Jones: Peter Galbraith, we're out of time. We'll have to leave you there. Thanks very much for getting up so early to speak to us.

Peter Galbraith: Well, thank you.

Tony Jones: And we did request interviews with David Irvine, Alexander Downer, John Howard, Julia Gillard and former Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane. None of them was available.

[The original title of this article was: "Interview: Peter Galbraith, former US politician and diplomat, who also served as a United Nations envoy to Afghanistan".]

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2015/s4359818.htm

Espionage in East Timor and Australia's diplomatic bungle

ABC Lateline - November 25, 2015

Steve Cannane, Sashka Koloff and Brigid Andersen – East Timor's most senior leaders have accused Australia of committing a crime and acting immorally after a spying scandal that rocked the relationship between the two countries.

The ABC's Lateline can reveal new details about the bugging of an East Timor cabinet office during negotiations over an oil and gas treaty worth an estimated $40 billion.

In a diplomatic bungling of the highest order, after the scandal came to light in 2012, the Gillard government sent a representative to Dili to deal with the fallout but former East Timorese president Xanana Gusmao has told Lateline that person had been directly involved in the operation, causing further offence to East Timor.

Lateline has also been told there was concern in senior Australian intelligence circles that the operation was a misuse of intelligence resources.

East Timor's prime minister Rui Maria de Arauj has called it a moral crime. "Having that as an advantage for you to negotiate something that is a matter of death and life for a small country, I think it's – at least morally – it's a crime," he said.

Mr Gusmao said he considered it a criminal act. "Australia would not allow it. Under the Security Act it will be a criminal act? No? For us we believe it should be considered like this," he said.

And East Timor's resources minister Alfredo Pires said Australia would not stand for such behaviour from another state. "If I was to do a similar thing in Canberra I think I would be behind bars for a long time," he said.

Australian spies bugged government building

It all began in 2004, when under the guise of an aid project to help renovate the Palace of Government in Dili, spies from Australia's foreign intelligence service ASIS snuck in and installed listening devices.

They were targeting East Timor's prime minister at the time, Mari Alkatiri, and his negotiating team, who were in talks with the Australian government over a treaty dealing with oil and gas deposits in the Timor Sea.

The Greater Sunrise oil and gas field in the Timor Sea is worth an estimated $40 billion and the treaty would map out how it was divided between East Timor and Australia.

East Timor is one of the poorest nations in the region; 50 per cent of children under five are malnourished and only half the homes have electricity.

Australia is East Timor's richest neighbour and the bugging operation gave the government the upper hand in the multi-billion-dollar talks.

Mr Alkatiri has described it as a crime. "I have no doubt about this, even in terms of international law it's a crime," he said.

When the operation came to light in 2012, Mr Gusmao, who was then prime minister, sent a letter to his Australian counterpart Julia Gillard, seeking an explanation. Her response shocked him.

Lateline understands that Ms Gillard denied the substance of the complaint and sent a representative to meet Mr Gusmao, but that person had played a key role in the undercover operation. "I was, what? Sending me the person that I know was participating in this? Well!" Mr Gusmao said.

Lateline understands the representative's role in the operation included delivering transcripts of the bugged conversations from the embassy in Dili straight into the hands of Australia's negotiating team. Lateline cannot name that person because of strict provisions in the Intelligence Services Act.

Bernard Collaery was East Timor's legal adviser at the time and said it was almost comical if it had not been such a tragic affront to the young nation. "It deeply aggrieved Prime Minister Gusmao," he said.

"His reaction was he was grieving over the knowledge that someone he thought he trusted had been involved.

"Then to have Prime Minister Gillard send that very person to Timor as it were to discuss the matter to try and resolve it as Prime Minister Gillard put in her letter was very, very worrying.

"It meant that the Prime Minister of a modern democracy on Timor Leste's doorstep did not know what her intelligence service was doing."

Ms Gillard declined to comment.

Witness K tells of anger among spies

Appalled by how the Gillard government had handled the matter, in 2013 East Timor notified Australia that it was taking the case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

The East Timorese had an ace up their sleeves. Mr Collaery happened to have as a client the agent who ran the bugging operation in 2004.

He became known as Witness K. Witness K is a former senior ASIS officer. Lateline cannot identify him without risking prosecution.

Witness K and other senior ASIS officers were concerned intelligence resources had been misused in the bugging of the East Timorese government.

The Dili bugging operation began 18 months after the Bali bombing terrorist attacks that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. ASIS was at the time focused on preventing further terrorist attacks in the region.

Mr Collaery said ASIS operatives were angered when instead they were given directions to spy on impoverished East Timor.

"When you have such dedicated veterans involved who might see the relative priorities of following up on the Bali bombing, the Marriot Hotel issues, and find themselves taken off duties to bug this poverty stricken state's cabinet room so a trade deal can get over the line, if you were part of that, staff might wonder about priorities," he said.

Mr Collaery said it was also a moral issue for Witness K. "It was a squalid operation and indeed I recall in my instructions mention being made of [East Timor's] infant mortality rate," he said. "So this was a morally based grievance."

In 2013, Witness K was all set to give evidence in the Permanent Court of Arbitration when ASIO raided his home and seized his passport. To this day he is unable to leave the country.

Abbott accused of shrugging off scandal

In East Timor, anger has only grown over Australia's refusal to acknowledge the bugging operation. Mr Gusmao accused former prime minister Tony Abbott of shrugging off the scandal when they met in China last year.

"I was with [former East Timor prime minister] Mr Mari Alkatiri in Boao in a conference in China and we met the former prime minister Tony Abbott," he said.

"Mr Mari said to him 'look I'm very, very sad knowing that you spy on us, on our meetings and conversations'. "And you know what Mr Tony Abbott said? 'Don't worry my friend, [the] Chinese are listening to us.'"

East Timor is now recommencing its action against Australia in the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

For the East Timorese, it will be crucial that Witness K's passport is returned so he can travel to The Hague to testify in the case. Mr Collaery said he had written to ASIO's new director-general Duncan Lewis and said he was optimistic that he would get an answer in the next week.

"Mr Lewis has responded quite properly in my view, putting the issue back to the relevant department, the Department of Foreign Affairs. It issues passports," he said. "I've gained no information from Mr Lewis that there's a national security objection to K giving evidence."

A history of treaties in the Timor Sea

In 1989 Australia and Indonesia signed the Timor Gap Treaty when East Timor was still under Indonesian occupation.

East Timor was left with no permanent maritime border and Indonesia and Australia got to share the wealth in what was known as the Timor Gap.

In 2002 East Timor gained independence and the Timor Sea Treaty was signed, but no permanent maritime border was negotiated.

East Timor has long argued the border should sit halfway between it and Australia, placing most of the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field in their territory.

In 2004 East Timor started negotiating with Australia again about the border.

In 2006 the CMATS treaty was signed, but no permanent border was set, and instead it ruled that revenue from the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field would be split evenly between the two countries.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-25/east-timor-greater-sunrise-spy-scandal/6969830

East Timor appeals to Australian public in border dispute

Reuters - November 17, 2015

Rodney Joyce, Singapore – East Timor is seeking Australian public support to try to persuade Canberra to settle a longstanding maritime border dispute over the oil and gas rich waters that lie between the two countries, a senior minister told Reuters.

Development Minister Xanana Gusmao – a former rebel leader and president of the impoverished, tiny state – told Reuters that East Timor would appeal to Australians' sense of fair play to push their government into meaningful talks.

"If we go to the media and if we raise awareness, it is not because we want people to be against Australia but just to say 'oh yes, it is unfair'," Gusmao told Reuters in an interview.

The Timorese struggle for independence from Indonesia was a celebrated cause for Australian activists and Gusmao hopes to win their sympathy, along with support from Australian soldiers who had served as peacekeepers there.

East Timor has sought for years to renegotiate a treaty governing oil and gas revenue sharing arrangements that was signed with Australia soon after it gained statehood in 2002.

"From the beginning we asked Canberra to talk. They wouldn't want to blow up all of these issues. We are neighbours, we have problems, we sit down, we talk – but nothing," Gusmao said.

East Timor argues the sea border, undefined since it was a Portuguese colony, should fall halfway between it and Australia – which it says would put several oil and gas fields in its territory.

Under the treaty, East Timor shares revenues from these fields – from a mooted half share of the as-yet undeveloped Greater Sunrise fields to 90 percent of the currently producing Bayu-Undan and Kitan fields.

Allegations that Australian spied on Timorese negotiators fueled controversy over the treaty. The issue was taken to the International Court of Justice before the two sides settled.

But, East Timor is still pursuing international arbitration over both the maritime border dispute and a tax case involving a pipeline from the existing fields to Australia.

Australia warns that defining the border the way East Timor wants may prompt Indonesia to also seek to shift its sea border – and thus gain ownership of disputed oil fields.

An Australian government map shows most of the Greater Sunrise fields in its waters, but with a warning they could be claimed by Indonesia if the border moves. East Timor's map shows the fields within its claimed share of the Timor Sea.

Greater Sunrise is 33 percent owned by Woodside, the operator. Its co- owners are ConocoPhilips, Royal Dutch Shell and Japan's Osaka Gas Co Ltd.

Greater Sunrise contains an estimated 5.1 trillion cubic feet of gas and 226 million barrels of condensate, although the border dispute, and low gas prices, means development is on hold.

[Reporting by Rodney Joyce; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore.]

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/11/17/east-timor-australia-idUKL3N13B3LX20151117?rpc=401&

Health & education

Over 12.000 Timorese women receive family planning services

Dili Weekly - November 10, 2015

Paulina Quintao – The Deputy Program Manager of International NGO Marie Stopes International Timor-Leste (MSITL) Juliao da Silva said that over 12,000 women so far have received Family Planning services from January to July 2015.

He added that Family Planning (FP) does not limit a woman's ability at having a baby but that instead it provides adequate and safe spacing between childbirths so that women can recuperate their bodies after giving childbirth and also to allow them to adequately look after their children's health.

"This year from January to July MSITL offered the Family Planning service to over 12,000 women in MSITL's clinics and in health facilities where MSITL is posted to," said Deputy da Silva from his office in Vila Verde, Dili.

He added that MSITL has run the FP program and delivered services across eight municipalities, in Dili, Baucau, Viqueque, Lautem, Ermera, Ainaro, Same and Bobonaro and that the program hasn't yet been implemented in the other municipalities due to budget limitations.

He said also that MSITL presents several options on family planning including modern contraceptive methods – injections, tablets, implants, IUD and natural methods – to mothers and to couples who are then able to choose freely any of the methods they wish to use.

MSITL is confident that the number of families choosing to family planning will increase given that many Timorese are now familiar with the advantages of the program.

Member of the Women Parliamentary Group (GMPTL) MP Josefa Alvares Pereira Soares said she is aware that the Ministry of Health and its partners are promoting family planning to families and that many more people are able to better plan how to constitute their families.

"This program should not stop and but be extended because it allows families to plan better," said MP Soares.

The MP added that family planning is not about preventing or stopping women from having children but that it helps to manage the number of childbirths through the use of contraceptives and allows new mothers to recuperate after having a child and look after him or her more adequately.

"Parents need to be able to look after their children's health, their education and to provide moral support so they become good citizens that are able to contribute towards national development," said also MP Soares.

She urged the Ministry of Health and its partners to promote both modern and natural methods that women can then freely choose because with modern methods, Timorese women may forget how to use them adequately which can then have an impact on their health.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/gender/13314-over-12-000-timorese-women-receive-family-planning-services

MSITL delivers family planning services through mobile clinics

Dili Weekly - November 5, 2015

Paulina Quintao – The Deputy Program Manager of Marie Stope's International Timor-Leste (MSITL) Julio da Silva said the NGO has established mobile clinic units across the municipalities of Timor-Leste to provide rural families with the Family Planning (FP) services.

DPM da Silva said the initiative of developing mobile clinics aims to facilitate communities in particular women who want to make manage their pregnancies through family planning and so they do not have to walk a long way to access a clinic.

We thought about establishing the Marie Stope's mobile clinics to provide medical service to communities in villages and sub-villages so it's easy for them to access health services without having to walk long distances," said da Silva in Vila Verde, Dili.

The mobile clinic consists of four rooms where health staff provide adequate services that ensure the confidentiality of patients so they fell encouraged to visit health facilities and undertake regular medical check- ups.

"It's comfortable and confidential because the mobile clinic has four rooms for expecting women, for family planning, communicable diseases including sexually transmitted illnesses and so forth," said da Silva.

The team offering medical services to the community include staff from MSITL and also staff from the public health sector through a cooperation agreement between MSI and the Ministry of Health through the municipal health services.

Marie Stopes is currently engaged in raising awareness and providing medical services to eight municipalities Dili, Baucau, Viqueque, Lautem, Same, Ainaro, Bobonaro and Ermera.

Member of Parliament MP Josefa Alvares Pereira Soares said she is pleased with MSI's initiative but added that it is also important to engage public health staff as providing the communities with health services is part of their professional duties.

"The mobile clinics have to be assisted by public health staff and don't let [MSI] organisation staff work alone because health professionals have an obligation and the methods used will also have an impact in the health sector," said MP Soares

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/health/13312-msitl-delivers-family-planning-services-through-mobile-clinics-in-the-municipalities

MSITL raises awareness on reproductive and sexual health to students

Dili Weekly - November 5, 2015

Paulina Quintao – The Deputy Program Manager of Marie Stopes International Timor-Leste (MSITL), Juliao da Silva, said the MSITL team has been raising awareness to students in basic and secondary schools across Dili about the importance of reproductive and sexual health.

He said reproductive and sexual health are very important topics so that everyone especially the youths can make positive decisions in their lives because too often there are unwanted pregnancies and there has been a rise in the number of unsafe abortions and in the cases of babies getting abandoned.

"We share information about the importance of reproductive and sexual health across the schools in Dili especially to grade 9 students up to university level," Program Manager da Silva said in his office, in Vila Verde, Dili.

He added that nowadays young girls fall pregnant early and they have no idea about reproductive health and this can impact on their future.

"Some of the fall pregnant and come to us wanting an abortion but we refuse to do so, rather we provide the with counselling and then tell them to return home," he said also.

MSITL also provides a free phone line service to youths so they can contact and ask information about the reproductive health and also about sexually transmitted illnesses (STIs).

Meanwhile Member of the National Parliament MP Eladio Faculto said this information is very important but needs to be shared sensitively so that children do not get affected.

"We should be able to look at the positives and negatives and move forward," said MP Faculto.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/education/13308-msitl-raises-awareness-on-reproductive-and-sexual-health-to-students

Sexual & domestic violence

AFM: raising awareness about children' rights in the community is key

Dili Weekly - November 11, 2015

Paulina Quintao – The President of Women's Association for Manatuto Municipality (AFM) Clara de Carvalho Ximenes said its members are working with municipal based child protection officials to deliver an awareness raising campaign about children' rights in the community.

She added that violations of children' rights in rural area is high, children are not being adequately protected by the government, and communities lack knowledge and are poorly coordinated.

"We work with local government, with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Community Police to spread information about the child protection to communities," said women's representative Ximenes in Dili.

She is greatly concerned with the violence against minors that takes place in rural areas and that is often dealt with the traditional justice system.

"There should be a law that ensures that these types of cases are not dealt with using the informal justice system because this only benefits those who have power and so they can keep on repeating these actions against vulnerable people," she said.

Meanwhile the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Socio-Economy for Women (SEM) Veneranda Lemos Martins urged the Manatuto Municipal Administrator to work with the women' associations because it was established to promote the women' participation in rural areas and to advocate for children's rights.

She also called on the administrators and the municipality secretaries to work with the municipality women's association to promote greater gender equality, address domestic violence issues and other violence committed against children.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/children-youth/13331-afm-raising-awareness-about-children-rights-in-the-community-is-key

ALFeLa trains lawyers to defend victims of gender based violence

Dili Weekly - November 5, 2015

Paulina Quintao – The Director of the Legal Assistance for Women and Children (ALFeLa) Program Merita Correia said they have prepared five lawyers to provide assistance to victims of gender based violence in the courts.

The five Timorese lawyers have completed their judicial course at the Judicial Training Centre in Dili and have already been assigned to the Courts of Dili, Baucau and Suai to provide legals assistance and to defend the victims of gender based violence in these three courts.

"We have five lawyers who have gained qualifications from the judicial training centre and we have sent them to the courts of Suai, Baucau and Dili," said Director Correia, in Vila Verde, Dili.

The director added ALFeLa would make an effort to develop the institutional capacity and human resources to provide proper legal services to the victims, in particular helping women and children to have access to the formal justice system.

ALFeLa has provided legal assistance to 513 victims of gender based violence and most crimes are domestic violence and incest cases.

Meanwhile Member of the Parliamentarian Women's Group MP Josefa Alvares Pereira Soares hopes the Timorese lawyers prepared by ALFeLa will be able to defend the victims in the courts so that justice is served.

"Having our own lawyers is much better so they can help the victims to raise concerns and defend the victims in a court room," said MP Soares.

MP Soares added the government needs to strengthen the ability of NGOs to provide adequate and effective legal assistance to women and vulnerable children who become victim of any types of violence.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/gender/13310-alfela-trains-lawyers-to-defend-victims-of-gender-based-violence

Land disputes & evictions

Rede ba Rai: Land disputes remain source of social conflict

Dili Weekly - November 11, 2015

Venidora Oliveira – The Coordinator of Rede ba Rai (Network for Land) organization Roberto Aleixo da Cruz said land disputes continue to be a source of social conflict because a land law has not yet been passed.

Coordinator da Cruz alleges the government, in the name of development, has been taking land and property without a legal basis for it.

"Where you agree or not, believe it or not, sooner or later land disputes will become a serious social issue in Timor-Leste," said the Coordinator of Rede Rai in Farol, Dili.

He added Timor-Leste's Constitution states the government has to pay fair compensation to the community if it takes land to use.

"In Oecusse some land belonging to the community was taken by the government without compensation. What was this based on?" asked Coordinator da Cruz.

He added the national parliament approved a Land and Property Law in 2002 but that then President of the Republic Jose Ramos-Horta refused to promulgate it and it was resubmitted to the Ministry of Justice for further discussion.

Meanwhile Member of Parliament MP Duarte Nunes said it takes time to approve legislation on land and property and that it needs careful discussion. "We have to discuss the law carefully again," said MP Nunes.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/news/13329-rede-ba-rai-land-disputes-remain-source-of-social-conflict

Governance & administration

Timor Leste urged to diversify economy

Radio New Zealand International - November 24, 2015

Timor Leste's government will have to think long and hard about diversifying its economy, Prime Minister John Key says.

New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) information shows the country is in danger of running out of money due to the decline of its oil industry and government overspending. Similar warnings have come from Timor-based NGO La'o Hamutuk.

Timor Leste, formerly called East Timor, was ushered into independence by New Zealand's biggest military effort since the Korean War. But a generation on, it is running out of money, thanks to a declining offshore oil industry.

It has not exhausted its finances yet but there is a risk, Mr Key said. "They have got a petroleum fund, I think that has been running down. They have certainly been spending more. We need to work with them as best as we can to help them diversify their economy."

Timor Leste has no real cash economy and over 90 percent of state revenue comes from petroleum royalties.

Seventy five percent of oil and gas reserves have been used up, royalty payments from energy companies were falling and the government was overspending its income, according to MFAT.

"I think there is still the better part of $17 billion in that fund, so I don't think they are broke yet," said Mr Key. "But they are certainly spending more than they are earning so they will have to think long and hard about how they can diversify further in their economy."

New Zealand supports Timor Leste with aid worth about $7 million a year, helping boost the country's oil revenue. But the money Timor received was still badly spent, according to La'o Hamutuk's Charles Scheiner.

"The major investments should be made in the people, primarily in education and health care but the government thinks that building very large infrastructure projects is a different way to go."

Timor still hoped to spend some of its diminishing income on building a huge petrochemical plant on the south coast to process natural gas from offshore.

This has been criticised as an expensive and unwise move considering two of Timor's three petroleum fields are running dry and a third has been held up by a jurisdictional dispute with Australia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade papers hint at disapproval of this, without formally saying so.

The Timor government had its priorities wrong, Mr Scheiner said. "The normal expectation would be that about 30 percent of the government budget would be spent on education and health," he said.

"In Timor Leste it will be about 13 percent and that is less than last year, and last year was less than the year before. It is certainly going in the wrong direction."

Long time Timor supporter Maire Leadbetter said New Zealand needed to help the country deal with its problem.

"We still have to remember our deep personal responsibility for Timor Leste, and do everything we can by way of educational scholarships, by way of supporting fledgling industries, perhaps the coffee industry. The fact that they are over-reliant on one resource is something that has to be changed."

Meanwhile the Timorese government will continue to address the issue, and a parliamentary vote is expected on its latest budget within the next few months.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/290400/timor-leste-urged-to-diversify-economy

Timor Leste's money drying up

Radio New Zealand International - November 23, 2015

Timor Leste is running out of money due to the decline of its oil industry and government overspending.

The country, formerly known as East Timor, was brought into independence by a huge New Zealand and Australian effort, that cost five New Zealand lives and hundreds of millions of dollars. But the country risks economic collapse, a generation after it was set up.

Timor was colonised by Portugal for centuries and occupied by Indonesia for 24 years. It was delivered into independence by armed intervention led by New Zealand and Australia.

But Timor Leste never had a proper cash economy. Apart from some coffee grown in the hills, its only real source of revenue comes from two offshore oil fields, Bayu-Undung and Kitan.

Oil companies drilling in these fields paid most of their royalties to the Timorese Government and the money went into a special petroleum fund.

But documents from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade show this fund is extremely precarious. The oil fields are being depleted and the low price of oil is reducing the level of royalty payments by energy companies.

A third problem is the Timorese Government's practise of spending more money than the fund is earning. "More than 75 percent of the resource in the Bayu-Undung and Kitan fields has been exhausted," the ministry document said.

"Since 2012 (oil and gas revenues) have been in decline. In 2014, oil and gas revenues presented 40 percent less revenue to the government of Timor Leste than in 2013."

In 2014, the petroleum fund made up 93 percent of total state revenue, but the government had been spending twice the actual earnings of the fund every year since 2008.

Similar criticism comes from Timorese NGO La'o Hamutuk. "Total oil and gas reserves are only enough to support half the current level of state spending," it said. This could empty the Petroleum Fund by early 2022."

Timor Leste's ambassador to New Zealand Cristiano da Costa agreed this was a serious problem. Despite the troubles, the current state budget had just a small spending cut of 1.5 percent, and a bigger cut was on hold pending a vote by parliament, he said.

"This is a very challenging situation. It should encourage the Timorese ruling elite to start to think about how to manage this situation very quickly, because it is not sustainable.

"We need to speed up economic reforms and start to diversify our economy. We have to do it now otherwise we may run out of money in five to 10 years from now."

A complicating factor was a third oil field, Greater Sunrise, which could provide some relief to Timor Leste. But this was lying idle, because of a commercial and jurisdictional dispute with Australia.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/290289/timor-leste%27s-money-drying-up

MP hits at government for not taking into account MP's monitoring duties

Dili Weekly - November 11, 2015

Paulina Quintao – National Member of Parliament MP Francisco da Costa said the public's money is going to waste because the government does not consider the monitoring results provided by MPs following municipal monitoring visits.

MP da Costa from Commission A (for constitution, justice, public administration, local role and anti-corruption affairs) said the government is not using the results of their monitoring to improve the delivery of the government's program.

"I don't think we need to go out and monitor because they don't listen to us. We are just wasting people's money," said MP Costa at the National Parliament, in Dili.

"For instance in Becora, vendors are selling their products on the bridge making it difficult for traffic to flow. This issue has been raised by MPs since 2005 and there has been no change," he said.

Meanwhile the Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs Maria Terezinha Viegas said she appreciated the MPs words so the government can make improvements.

She added that parliamentary monitoring is an important role for the legislative body that serves as a reminder to the government that it needs to improve people's lives. "The monitoring is worth it, it is the government that needs to have more consideration," she added.

Regarding to the vendors in Becora she said the government has standards and guidelines in place but vendors have not consideration and refuse to cooperate.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/capital/13326-mp-hits-at-government-for-not-taking-into-account-mp-s-monitoring-duties

Development & infrastructure

Government to begin big projects payments

Dili Weekly - November 10, 2015

Venidora Oliveira – The government of Timor-Leste through the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communication (MPWTC) has made the commitment to pay companies who completed urgent projects dating back to 2013.

Minister of MPWTC Gastao de Sousa said the National Development Agency (ADN) has submitted survey reports to the ministry and that payments are pending.

The minister added though that the surveys have only been conducted in three municipalities of the 12 municipalities of the country.

"I received the report from ADN and was told that three municipalities have been surveyed. We just have to determine payments now," said Minister Gastao in Kaikoli, Dili.

He added that prior to honouring the payments; his ministry will take the reports to the National Parliament in particular to Commissions E and C and to the Council of Ministers so that contracts can be prepared.

"We want to ensure we only pay work that was completed with quality," added Minister Sousa. He added the emergency projects began in 2013 under the mandate of then Secretary of State for Public Works Luis Vaz Rodrigues.

Emergency requests were sent to companies to fix roads and bridges that had been destroyed by natural disasters in Covalima, Viqueque, Manufahi, Manatuto and Ainaro municipalities and companies worked on a total of 152 projects priced at $74,448,748.11.

However most of the companies worked without proper contracts and as such the State was not able to pay companies even though some completed 100% of their projects.

Member of Commission E (for infrastructure, transport and communication affairs) Member of Parliament Manuel Castro said he appreciated the government's commitment to pay the companies for urgent projects.

The MP added though those payments will have to depend on the government's monitoring of the quality of projects and that those companies that delivered good quality at the end of the project deserve to get paid while those whose quality is not good should not get paid.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/capital/13320-government-to-begin-big-projects-payments

Police & law enforcement

UNDP: PNTL makes significant progress

Dili Weekly - November 10, 2015

Venidora Oliveira – The Security Sector Project Manager of the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) Naldo Rei said the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) has made significant progress in the undertaking of their duties since 2013.

UNDP has supported the institution from 2013-2014 with international experts to provide support in the areas of Information Technology (IT), human resources, strategic plan implementation and public relations and the results demonstrate substantial positive progress.

"The progress has been significant, even beyond our own expectations in terms of the amount of progress that could have been achieved in only two years," said Manager Rei. He added that UNDP hopes to be able to continue this fruitful partnership with PNTL and continue to build the capacity of police officers into the future.

"We have to work hard to strengthen PNTL given it has professional oversight of internal security and it ensures stability in the country" said the manager.

One area that needs improvement though, he added, relates to more adequate and routinely vehicle management so officers can perform their duties more efficiently in future.

The General Commander of PNTL Commissioner Julio Hornai acknowledges the support provided by UNDP. "UNDP has contracted experts to help the PNTL and we have had many opportunities to learn from them," said the Commissioner.

Commissioner Hornai appreciated the recommendation to improve vehicle management at PNTL and that the force needs to learn more about database management, vehicle maintenance and fuel control.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/news/13316-undp-pntl-makes-significant-progress

Foreign affairs & trade

Timor Leste belongs in ASEAN

Jakarta Post - November 21, 2015

Shane Rosenthal, Dili – The impending launch of the ASEAN Economic Community is being marked this week at a summit in Kuala Lumpur. It should also be the time for ASEAN to consider opening the door to a new member.

Timor Leste is Asia's youngest country – a stable democracy at the crossroads of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Acceptance as a member country would enhance its prospects for economic development, while further strengthening the organization's centrality and relevance.

Timor Leste has made remarkable progress since gaining independence in 2002. Its infrastructure was in disrepair, social services absent, and government institutions at their inception. Despite brief periods of instability, the country now has a well-functioning government and is using its modest petroleum wealth to foster long-term economic growth.

Gaining membership has been a priority for Timor Leste throughout its short history. Successive governments have made the case through diplomatic efforts such as signing onto the ASEAN Regional Forum in 2005, and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia two years later. By next year Timor Leste will have embassies in the capitals of every ASEAN member country.

These are impressive achievements for a young country, but not surprising to development partners that are helping rebuild its infrastructure and develop the skills needed for the economy to continue expanding.

Newly paved roads now connect Timorese with their Indonesian neighbors, and electricity reaches almost every corner of the country. Deregulation has transformed mobile telecommunications to such a degree that companies from two member countries – Vietnam and Indonesia – are now competing for a growing and increasingly connected customer base.

While many of Timor Leste's nearly 1.2 million people remain poor, huge strides have been made to improve living conditions and increase life opportunities. Infant mortality has halved since independence, and the incidence of malaria has fallen by 95 percent. Primary school enrollment rose from 65 percent in 2001 to 92 percent in 2013, and the proportion of parliamentary seats held by women stands at 38 percent, the highest in Asia.

The ASEAN Charter sets out four criteria for membership, three of which are met by Timor Leste: It is located in Southeast Asia, is recognized by the 10 ASEAN nations, and would agree to be bound and abide by the organization's charter.

The fourth requirement, demonstrating an "ability and willingness to carry out the obligations of membership", is for ASEAN's members to judge. Concerns have been raised about its readiness to participate in the organization's economic, political-security, and socio-cultural communities, given the hundreds of meetings it holds each year.

Timor Leste's track record on governance suggests it would be a worthy member. The country has held three open elections without incident, and participates actively in international organizations such as the G7+ group of post-conflict states and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. Timor Leste represents a model for managing natural resources wealth, ranking near the top of the international Resources Governance Index, ahead of several ASEAN members.

ASEAN members appear open to Timor Leste's application. The country's ambassador to the Jakarta-based Secretariat was accredited in 2011, the same year the ASEAN Coordinating Council established a working group that commissioned studies on what it would mean for Timor Leste to join.

Membership is a win-win proposition. It would help Timor Leste to attract investment, develop trade links, and diversify its economy. It already has one of the most open trade policies in the region, but joining such a high-profile organization would send a powerful signal to investors and help to accelerate integration with the rest of Southeast Asia.

ASEAN, too, would benefit from the young population and strategic location of Timor Leste. The inspirational story of Timor Leste and its impressive development would be a shining example for all member states. It would give added meaning to the grouping's members as they journey toward its Vision 2025, which calls for a "politically cohesive, economically integrated, socially responsible" ASEAN.

Timor Leste has emerged as an able and willing member of the community of nations. The time has come for this country to take the next step on its road to prosperity.

[The writer is country director at ADB's resident mission in Timor Leste.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/11/21/timor-leste-belongs-asean.html

Invasion & occupation

Australia received East Timor 'hit list' before Indonesian invasion

ABC Radio Australia - November 27, 2015

Sue Lannin – A recently re-discovered document given to the Australian Embassy in Jakarta suggests Australia may have been aware of Indonesian plans to execute East Timorese independence leaders after the 1975 invasion.

A think tank close to Indonesian intelligence agencies gave the Australian Government a 'hit list' of East Timor independence leaders before Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975.

The handwritten document from August 1975 has been unearthed from Australia's National Archives by Peter Job, a PhD student at the University of New South Wales, who is researching his doctorate on Australia-Indonesia-East Timor relations.

The document, Steps to Prevent Communist Agitators to Escape, accuses Fretilin leaders like former East Timorese president Dr Jose Ramos-Horta and former prime minister Dr Mari Alkatiri of being 'communist agitators' that should be arrested by Indonesia.

Their names were included on a list of 19 people handed to the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in September 1975 by Harry Tjan, the Indonesian adviser who told Australia that Indonesia was planning to invade East Timor.

Tjan was a founder of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Jakarta-based think tank. Several people on the list were executed after Indonesia invaded East Timor on 7 December, 1975.

Tjan gave the document to Alan Taylor, counsellor at the Australian Embassy and deputy to the ambassador, Richard Woolcott. Taylor sent a confidential memo to the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra on 23 September, 1975.

'Attached for your information is a paper entitled Steps to Prevent Communist Agitators to Escape – given to us by Mr Harry Tjan of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Tjan would not say who wrote the paper,' Taylor stated in the memo.

According to Peter Job, the document was a 'hit list'. 'It has a list of 19 prominent members of Fretilin, the independence political party of East Timor,' he says.

'The list includes Jose Ramos-Horta, who managed to survive because he left East Timor. It also includes people who we know were killed by the Indonesians.'

The former ambassador, Richard Woolcott, however, says he only vaguely remembers the document and it was not a death list. 'Very few people on the list died,' he says.

But former Australian consul in Dili and adviser to United Nation missions in East Timor, James Dunn, says the document is 'very disturbing'.

'It was, I'm afraid, a death list. That's what's worrying. It's not that they should be expelled from Timor, but they shouldn't be allowed to escape,' Dunn says.

'What they wanted to make sure that the Fretilin leaders didn't escape, that they were caught and presumably executed, as some of them were later.

The five handwritten pages accused Portugal of spreading communism in East Timor by financing Timorese student leaders returning from studying in Lisbon.

The Fretilin leaders were accused of supporting communism and establishing links with former Portuguese colonies and like-minded regimes in Mozambique, Cuba, China, Russia, Guinea-Bisseau and Angola and 'other communist countries including the heads of Portuguese Communist Party'.

'The Communism adopted by Fretilin is the same kind of that one developed in Mozambique by Peking-man, Samora Machel,' claimed the report. Fretilin was also accused of having links to PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party.

The paper misspelled independence leader and eventual East Timorese PM Mari Alkatiri's name as 'Mary', and said he was 'signaled as the man who have [sic] obtained contacts for Fretilin and PKI'.

'Jose Gusmao', a possible reference to eventual president and prime minister Xanana Gusmao, is noted as making special attacks against Indonesia through the press. Gusmao was a former journalist who became Fretilin's deputy director of information.

Fretilin leader Roque Rodrigues, who later became defence minister and was found to have illegally transferred weapons to civilians during the political crisis in 2006, was also singled out as 'the top man [who] started up the communization of Fretilin'.

'Under the cover of "progressive" teachers they were able to communize Dili schools, mountain people, etc,' the paper alleged.

The paper urged the Indonesian military to immediately take note and called on Indonesia to 'take the necessary steps to avoid the top people of Fretilin... to escape out of Timor'.

'We do believe that their arrest will be quite important as we can afterwards find out what are the links between Fretilin and PKI and even to establish the whole Communist affair to inside ASEAN area,' the document said.

At least six people on the list were executed, killed in combat, or disappeared during the Indonesian occupation.

Fretilin women's movement leader Rosa Muki Bonaparte was last seen alive at the Dili Harbour wharf, where Indonesian forces executed people on 8 December 1975.

Fretilin president Nicolau Lobato was killed during fighting with Indonesian security forces in December 1978. He was later declared a national hero.

Fretilin minister of education and culture Hamis Basarewan Bin Umar either surrendered or was captured, and disappeared in the first half of 1979.

Leopoldo Joaquim, a member of the Fretilin Central Committee, surrendered in 1978 to Indonesian forces. He and his niece, Maria Gorete Joaquim, disappeared in March or April 1979 after being taken from their homes by the Indonesian military.

Vice-president of Fretilin and justice minister Antonio Carvarino, also known as Mau Lear, was captured in February 1979 and killed soon after while in the custody of the Indonesian military.

His wife, Maria do Ceu Carvarino, or Bi Lear, a Fretilin political adviser, disappeared after surrendering to Indonesian forces.

James Dunn says the document was a deliberate fabrication in parts and the list of 'communist agitators' was nonsense.

'I think its absurd. I don't know any of them who I would class as a communist,' he says. 'I can't believe they had any information suggesting that level of communism in East Timor.'

Dunn says he believes the document was written by CSIS, which he said was close to BAKIN, Indonesia's main intelligence agency at the time. 'My suspicion is it was written to circulate among other ASEAN countries, where of course there was a lot of anti-communism, to strengthen support for what Indonesia was about to do.'

Former ambassador Richard Woolcott says the document by was prepared by CSIS and reflected their thinking.

Harry Tjan, now 82, says he does not remember the document or giving it the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. He says he did not write the document, as his English handwriting was not good enough, but he denies the document came from CSIS.

Peter Job, who re-discovered the document, says the list of Fretilin leaders provides more evidence of a deliberate campaign by Indonesia to target pro-independence groups and individuals in East Timor after the invasion.

That was also the conclusion of the Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), which was set up to investigate conflict- related deaths from 1974 to 1999.

Job, however, says there is no evidence the document had any impact on Australian government policy towards East Timor. '[There is] very little evidence from the documents that human rights were a consideration at all, so nothing I can tell was ever done about this document,' he says.

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Fretilin's unilateral declaration of independence in East Timor. Jose Ramos-Horta said he was too busy to be interviewed and Mari Alkatiri did not respond to an interview request.

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2015-11-27/australia-received-east-timor-hit-list-before-indonesian-invasion/1519450

The interview that changed a nation: 1990 meeting with Xanana Gusmao

ABC News - November 12, 2015

Sashka Koloff, staff – When Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, they effectively sealed off the country to the outside world. No outsider made the perilous journey inside, propagating Indonesia's claim that East Timor's resistance had been crushed.

That was until 1990, when the ABC's Background Briefing radio program arranged for Robert Domm to be smuggled into the jungle to record the first ever interview with a little known guerrilla commander and leader of the resistance, Xanana Gusmao.

Operating out of their mountain hideout, Mr Gusmao and the resistance forces seemed like a lost tribe. Background Briefing producer Mark Aarons arranged Robert Domm's mission.

"Under the Indonesians, it was far too dangerous for me or any journalist to report from East Timor," he told Lateline. "Robert Domm wasn't a journalist and when Indonesia re-opened the country to outsiders we hired him as a freelancer to interview Xanana."

Twenty-five years on from that interview, Lateline has accompanied Mr Domm and Mr Aarons as they trekked into the East Timorse jungle to meet with the man who became president, Xanana Gusmao.

These days, Mr Domm is a hero to the East Timorese for risking his life to listen to them when their country was isolated. "It was hugely significant for them which is why they took the extreme risks that they did," he said.

"It was a very costly exercise in human terms and it was an extremely risky exercise, but as Xanana said to me at the time, if we don't do these things, if we don't take advantage of the reopening of East Timor, to get our voice heard, we're just going to go under and no-one will know."

During the 24 years Indonesia occupied East Timor, nearly a third of its population was killed. It was one of the largest genocides per capita of the 20th century. In 1990 there were 10,000 Indonesian troops stationed in Indonesia.

Mr Domm spent much of the 12 hour journey from the capital Dili, into the countryside, slumped down in the back of a four-wheel-drive.

In the towns and villages along the way, hundreds of people were involved in the operation, scouting ahead and guiding Mr Domm and his escorts.

The journey involved a 20-kilometre hike through rugged mountains and jungle. Mr Domm said the Indonesians had spotters posted all through the mountains.

"We had to move so fast to get under thicker forest," he said. "But I had confidence in them, I had confidence in the soldiers who were sent to escort us and ironically, the whole three weeks I was in Indonesia and East Timor on that trip, the safest I felt was up in Xanana's camp."

Mr Domm said it was a surreal moment when he, hot and exhausted, finally arrived at the rebels' base.

"I do remember that moment, or that whole 18 hours in the camp vividly, but I certainly remember that moment, all the guerrillas laughing at me, this white man sweating profusely, and they've been laughing at me ever since for the difficulties I experienced on that trip!" he said.

Today, the Timorese are still grateful. "For me as Timorese I feel so proud to see him here again. At that time the situation was very difficult, but he managed to come and meet with Xanana and get the information out. That made it possible to become what we are today," one man said.

The 1990 interview helped change the course of history for East Timor. It catapulted their struggle for independence onto the world stage and for the first time it gave a voice to the resistance.

Mr Gusmao paid tribute to Mr Domm for helping the resistance movement. "The first thought, courage; second, solidarity. Because we knew that it was dangerous to come so far and we said yes, it is a real friend of Timor Leste," he said.

After the interview was broadcast, Indonesia launched a huge military offensive in East Timor and Mr Gusmao said many of the guerrillas lost their lives.

"I was crying almost every day until my guerrillas told me: 'Don't cry. They did their job. Now take care of us. And after that we didn't cry again'," he said.

"We just feel that we were losing the best soldiers, the best commanders but we didn't cry. We only say we will continue your job. We will continue our duty."

Mr Domm said he is still amazed by the resilience of the young nation. "They faced some of the worst most difficult conditions of any guerilla army in the world during that 24 years," he said.

"They still sit and tell jokes about how they narrowly escaped death, or got shot and they will laugh about it and they have an amazing attitude to life and they managed to prevail over these situations."

Twelve years after the interview in his jungle hideout, Mr Gusmao was elected president of a newly independent East Timor.

For their roles in East Timor's independence struggle, Mr Aarons and Mr Domm were awarded the Order of Timor Leste.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-12/25-years-since-interview-that-changed-east-timor/6931254