Isabel Ermelita – Timor-Leste's government has welcomed the conciliation commission's decision to proceed with the case involving a dispute with Australia over maritime boundaries in the resource-rich Timor Sea.

Spokesperson for the government, Minister of State Agio Pereira said the government considered it a very positive decision. "This process is an opportunity to set a good example in our region," he said in a press statement.

"We will engage with respect for the commission and its recommendations, ever conscious of the importance of maintaining the best possible relationship with our close neighbor Australia."

Meanwhile, Timor-Leste's Chief Negotiator, Minister Xanana Gusmao, thanked the efforts of the commissioners for their ruling.

"Just as we fought so hard and suffered so much for our independence, Timor-Leste will not rest until we have our sovereign rights over both land and sea," said Gusmao.

At a two-and-a-half-hour hearing on August 29 at the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague in the Netherlands, Australia argued the commission had no jurisdiction to hear cases related to maritime boundaries.

The commission will now proceed as described in annex V of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to hear and examine the claims of both parties and their objections, with the view to reaching an amicable settlement in the case.

National MP Arao Noe Amaral said the conciliation process was based on an agreement between Timor-Leste and Australia under international law. However, he said was concerned that Australia only started to question the commission's legality when it was about to make a decision in the case.

"This is not fair, how come they (Australia) didn't raise their concerns from the start when the commission was created?" he said. "Australia's decision isn't fair, if we agree to form this commission from the start and then we go back [on this agreement], this isn't fair."

However, he was optimistic the commission would find in favor of Timor-Leste. "Sooner or later Timor will win, [we will] win our rights, not because they are other people's rights," he said.

Meanwhile, President of the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOTT) Juvinal Dias Marcal called on both parties to respect the process and let the commission lead the hearing independently.

"This is a better way to prevent political intervention and pressure and to ensure the decision is based on the facts that the commission finds during this judgment process," he said.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/news/14072-timor-leste-welcomes-conciliation-commission-s-decision-on-timor-sea-boundary-dispute

The Hague revives maritime border dispute between Timor-Leste and Australia

CNBC - September 27, 2016

Nyshka Chandran – A 14-year old border conflict between Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, and Australia was revived by The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on Monday.

Around 3,000 nautical miles separate Australia and Timor-Leste, an island in the Indonesian archipelago. Between the two countries lie the Timor Sea, home to the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) that is rich in oil and natural gas deposits. Next to the JPDA are the Sunrise and Troubadour gas fields, collectively known as Greater Sunrise, that are worth an estimated $40 billion.

These fields are at the heart of the maritime dispute that has weighed on bilateral relations and holds the potential to accelerate the nascent Timorese economy.

Background

Under the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty, the Southeast Asian island receives 90 percent of revenues from the JPDA's energy resources, with the remainder going to Australia.

However, only 20 percent of the Greater Sunrise fields lies inside the JPDA, according to the 2006 International Unitization Agreement on Sunrise (IUA), which allotted the remaining 80 percent to Australia.

Subsequently, a separate 2006 agreement [the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea, or CMATS] was signed to divide revenues from the Sunrise fields 50-50. CMATs also stipulated a 50-year freeze on both countries from negotiating a permanent maritime boundary.

In 2013, the Timorese government accused Canberra of espionage to gain commercial advantage during CMAT's negotiations, claiming that such a move invalidated the agreement.

In April this year, Timorese Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo initiated formal conciliation proceedings by invoking the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He aims to establish an exclusive economic zone, including a permanent boundary, one that will allow the island to gain control of the entire lucrative Greater Sunrise fields.

Australia has argued that the Hague's international arbitration court does not have jurisdiction over the dispute as per CMATsa response that bears striking similarities to China's viewpoint when the same court ruled on the South China Sea dispute. In an effort to appeal to the U.S. for help earlier this year, PM Araujo also accused Australia of behaving like Beijing.

On Monday this week, the court refuted Canberra's claims, announcing that it was indeed competent to hold a conciliation. Talks between the two countries will now continue over the next year.

Activists attend a rally outside the Australian embassy in Dili, capital of Timor-Leste, on February 23, 2016. Hundreds called on the Australian government to negotiate for the establishment of permanent maritime boundaries between Australia and Timor-Leste.

Implications

Home to a population of 1.2 million, Timor-Leste relies on oil and gas revenues from the JPDA for the majority of its state budget, and the World Bank has long warned the middle-income country to diversify its economy away from energy.

The country was a Portuguese colony until pro-independence fighters declared victory in 1975. Shortly thereafter, Indonesia claimed the region as its 27th province, paving the way for a violent conflict between the Indonesian military and separatist forces. It was only in 2002 that East Timor became a sovereign state once Jakarta relinquished control.

"Development of the Greater Sunrise gas field is the key to the economic future of Timor-Leste," Rebecca Strating, lecturer at Melbourne's La Trobe University, argued in a note last week.

PM Araujo is using the conciliation as part of a broader diplomacy strategy to pressure the Turnbull government, using activist-style rhetoric that positions the dispute as the final stage of Timor-Leste's sovereignty, Strating explained.

But the island is running out of time. It's estimated that the Bayu-Undan oil field, one of the government's biggest income generators located in the JPDA, will stop producing in 2022, Strating flagged. Moreover, the country's $16 billion sovereign wealth fundknown as the Timor-Leste Petroleum Fundcould be depleted by 2025, she noted.

The fund was among the top five best performers in the 2013 Resource Governance Index, a ranking developed by the non-profit Natural Resource Governance Institute.

"Even if Timor-Leste wins the conciliation, it will mean going back to square one with Greater Sunrise negotiations. It is difficult to see how this presents a practical, long-term solution for resolving the dispute," said Strating.

On Monday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop noted the current arrangements were hugely beneficial to the former Portuguese colony but said her government would engage in good faith during the conciliation process.

"There is an inescapable perception that Australia is denying its tiny, impoverished neighbor its sovereign birthright to determine its boundaries, control its own resources, and shape its own destiny," Ben Saul, Challis chair of international law at the University of Sydney, wrote in an August note.

"Australia should stop obstructing Timor and help it to secure its borders and its future. This week's conciliation gives Australia a new chance to do the right thing."

Legal experts say July's South China Sea ruling could offer insight into the final verdict on the Timor Sea matter.

By denying China's territorial claims, the tribunal raises the prospect that Timor-Leste might successfully initiate an arbitration against Australia, corporate law firm Gilbert + Tobin explained in a report.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/27/the-hague-revives-maritime-border-dispute-between-timor-leste-and-australia.html

Australia loses attempt to knock out East Timor's maritime boundary complaint

Sydney Morning Herald - September 26, 2016

Daniel Flitton – Australia has lost in its claim that an international commission has no jurisdiction to hear a complaint by East Timor in the bitter dispute over undersea oil and gas riches.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier this year knocked back a call for fresh negotiations on the maritime boundary in the Timor Sea, but the decision released on Monday from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague opens the way for talks between the two countries.

East Timor remains incensed by allegations that Australian spies bugged the cabinet office of its tiny neighbour during negotiations for a 2006 treaty to divide oil and gas revenue.

In a statement on Monday, the commission at The Hague ruled it had the jurisdiction to hold a "conciliation" under a never-before invoked article of the international law of the sea. The decision was handed down on September 19, but kept under wraps until this week.

East Timor wants a greater slice of revenues and now argues the resources fall within its territory, triggering the conciliation claim. Independence hero Xanana Gusmao welcomed the decision, linking the dispute with East Timor's long struggle against Indonesian occupation.

"Just as we fought so hard and suffered so much for our independence, Timor-Leste will not rest until we have our sovereign rights over both land and sea," Mr Gusmao said in a statement.

But Australia challenged the legal basis of the commission to hear the case during at times tense closed-door proceedings last month, insisting East Timor should respect the existing treaty – which has delivered $16 billion in revenue to the fledgling nation.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was also quick to note the conciliation process invoked by East Timor is not binding. Australia has already withdrawn from the compulsory arbitration rules for drawing up maritime boundaries under international law.

The commission rejected Australia's argument that the existing treaty, which includes a 50-year moratorium on maritime boundary negotiations, meant there were no grounds for conciliation. East Timor argued the exiting treaty – known as Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea – was "null and void".

The dispute has become a rare example of a foreign policy difference between the major parties in Australia, with Labor pledging at the last election to return to the negotiating table with East Timor. Labor's Penny Wong said in light of the ruling, the government should settle the dispute with East Timor "in fair and permanent terms".

Bec Strating from La Trobe University warned last week ahead of the conciliation was unlikely to change Australia's approach, and East Timor was "running out of time" to fix a rapidly declining economy.

East Timor specialist Michael Leach from Swinburne University of Technology said conciliation would still be important politically, even though it will not be binding legally.

Professor Leach said the decision suggests Australia's obligation under international law to negotiate a maritime boundary in good faith has survived the treaties with East Timor.

But Professor Leach said Australia could circumvent the legal process altogether by agreeing to border negotiations – "and settle this irritant in the relationship for good."

The conciliation was invoked in April, and is now expected to run for the next year, at least. Fairfax Media has sought comment from the Australian government.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australia-loses-attempt-to-knock-out-east-timors-maritime-boundary-complaint-20160926-grooik.html

Australia fails in attempt to block Timor-Leste maritime boundary case

The Guardian (Australia) - September 26, 2016

Timor-Leste will have its case against Australia over a disputed maritime boundary heard by the permanent court of arbitration in the Hague after the court rejected Australia's claim that the court had no jurisdiction.

Timor-Leste asked for the process which could decide on which side of the border lies a large oil and gas field over which the two countries have a revenue-sharing agreement.

Australia has resisted negotiating a permanent border until 2056 at the earliest. The conciliation process will now take place behind closed doors over the next year, the court said.

Xanana Gusmao, the former Timor-Leste president, welcomed the decision. "Just as we fought so hard and suffered so much for our independence, Timor-Leste will not rest until we have our sovereign rights over both land and sea," Gusmao said in a statement.

Labor frontbencher Penny Wong also welcomed the ruling and said the dispute had gone on too long.

"Labor committed in February this year to reaching a binding international resolution with Timor-Leste, either through bilateral negotiation or international arbitration," Wong said.

"In light of this ruling, we call on the government to now settle this dispute in fair and permanent terms; it is in both our national interests to do so."

The long-running dispute centres upon the maritime boundary between Timor-Leste and Australia, most pointedly over control of the area where an estimated $40bn worth of oil and gas lies beneath the sea.

Timor-Leste argues the maritime boundary between it and Australia should be a median line equidistant between the two countries, putting the vast majority of the exploitable area in its territory. This position is supported by international law, the UN convention on the law of the sea, which Australia signed and ratified in 1994.

But Australia says a 2006 temporary revenue sharing agreement (known as CMats) that divides the revenues – significantly in Timor-Leste's favour, it argues – is valid, and should be honoured.

Timor-Leste argues that treaty should be scrapped because, six years after it was signed, it was revealed Australia had bugged the Timor-Leste government's cabinet room, with listening devices implanted by Australian Security Intelligence Service agents pretending to be aid workers renovating the office.

Australia's forced appearance at the permanent court of arbitration in The Hague is the first time any country has been brought for "compulsory conciliation". Timor-Leste says the action was necessary because of Australia's consistent refusal to negotiate on a permanent maritime boundary.

The dispute over the Timor Sea – more specifically the wealth that lies under it – has pre-empted and then shadowed all of the short and chequered history between the independent Timor-Leste and Australia.

In 1975, as Portugal moved towards decolonisation, the resistance movement Fretilin delcared Timor-Leste independent. Nine days later, the newly free nation was invaded by Indonesia's military in breach of international law, and to widespread international condemnation.

In 1979 Australia became the only western nation to offer de jure recognition of Indonesia's forced annexation, so the two countries could begin negotiations over the Timor Sea's resources.

The Timor Gap treaty was signed – the then foreign ministers Gareth Evans and Ali Alatas famously clinking champagne glasses in a plane above the Timor Sea – between Australia and Indonesia in 1989. That treaty did not establish a maritime boundary but provided for shared exploitation of petroleum resources in the part of the seabed claimed jointly by both countries.

Australia was Timor-Leste's saviour in 1999, leading the Interfet force which restored order in the country after the vote for independence and retribution by pro-Indonesia militias.

But in 2002, just two months before Timor-Leste became independent, Australia secretly withdrew from the maritime boundary dispute resolution procedures of the UN convention on the law of the sea, and the equivalent jurisdiction of the international court of justice, so that it could not be compelled into legally binding international arbitration. (Parliament was only told after the withdrawal had occurred.)

Timor-Leste's first treaty – the Timor Sea treaty – signed in 2002, gave a 90-10 split, in Timor-Leste's favour, of revenues from a joint development zone in the Timor Sea.

The second, CMats treaty – certain maritime arrangements in the Timor Sea – was signed in 2006, with both sides agreeing to impose a 50-year moratorium on negotiating a permanent maritime border. CMats gives Timor-Leste 90% of the current oil revenues from the joint petroleum development area, and Australia 10%, but a further treaty (Sunrise IUA) gives Timor-Leste only limited claim over future exploitation of the larger Greater Sunrise field.

It was during the negotiations over CMats that Australia bugged Timor-Leste's cabinet room. Australia has not admitted to the espionage, though it did raid the Canberra offices of Timor-Leste's lawyer Bernard Collaery, and seized the passport of the intelligence agent who blew the whistle on the spying operation.

Timor-Leste say the spying voids the treaty, which, it argues, was not negotiated in good faith.

[Reporting by Ben Doherty, Reuters and AFP.]

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/26/australia-fails-in-attempt-to-block-timor-leste-maritime-boundary-case

Fledgling Timor-Leste demands 'cheating' Australia respect law in maritime

Xinhua - September 8, 2016

Beijing – The fledgling Southeast Asian nation of Timor-Leste has taken its big neighbor Australia to a UN conciliation commission at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague in a bid to settle their maritime boundary dispute.

Canberra, brandishing existing treaties it signed with Dili, has refused to engage in bilateral talks for the demarcation of a permanent boundary in the Timor Sea, and argued that the conciliation commission handling the case has no jurisdiction.

Yet Dili called the validity of the treaties in question, noting that the Australians played dirty tricks and gained unfair advantages in the negotiations. It urged Canberra not to turn its back on the law.

Timor-Leste: Not asking for favors

At the opening session of the compulsory conciliation on Aug. 29 in The Hague, Timor-Leste insisted that it only wants what rightfully belongs to it.

"We have not come to The Hague to ask for favors or special treatment. We have come to seek our rights under international law," Xanana Gusmao, Timor-Leste's independence hero and first president, told the five-member commission, which was formed under the auspices of the PCA.

Gusmao, who also served as Timor-Leste prime minister, said his country is willing to negotiate with Australia, but the latter "turns its back on the law" by having refused to do so.

In March, more than 1,000 people gathered in front of the Australian embassy in Dili, protesting Canberra's refusal to hold bilateral discussions over the maritime boundary.

To further strengthen its position in the hearing, the Timor-Leste government has also launched a Policy Paper on Maritime Boundaries, which reiterates its stand that the maritime boundary should be a median line equidistant between the two countries, which would give Dili much larger oil- and gas-rich areas of the Timor Sea.

If Timor-Leste and Australia cannot reach any agreement, the conciliation commission will provide a report to the UN secretary general with recommendations to assist resolution, and the two sides will then be obliged to negotiate in good faith on the basis of the commission's report, according to the Maritime Boarder Office of Timor-Leste.

Australia: PCA decision not binding

Australia, however, insists that the PCA commission has no jurisdiction over the case, and that even if it rules it has, its decision will not be binding.

"The Commission does not have jurisdiction to conduct hearings on maritime boundaries," said a joint statement of Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Attorney-General George Brandis issued on Aug. 29.

"If the Commission ultimately finds that it does have jurisdiction to hear matters on maritime boundaries, then its final report on that matter is not binding," they added.

Australia claims that the existing treaties between Canberra and Dili are reasonable and should be respected. Some have also alleged that a formal demarcation would not be as generous to Timor-Leste as the existing deal.

A treaty in particular is the 2006 Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), which provides for an equal distribution of revenues from the Greater Sunrise oil and gas deposits, a joint development area in the Timor Sea where the two sides have overlapping claims. It also imposes a 50-year moratorium on claims to sovereign rights and demarcation of maritime boundaries.

Canberra has fixed its eyes on Timor Sea oil and gas resources for long. It endorsed Indonesia's 1975-1999 occupation of Timor-Leste to facilitate its exploitation. It was the only Western nation to recognize Indonesia's annexation of Timor-Leste.

Bugging, bullying, cheating

Yet the validity of the CMATS is now under question, after revelations in 2012 that Australian agents, posing as aid workers, bugged Timor-Leste's cabinet room and gained unfair advantages in the negotiation process that led to the 2006 treaty.

"When this came to light, we were shocked and appalled," said Gusmao, who now serves as a minister in the Timor-Leste government, at the PCA hearing.

In an article published on Aug. 28 on British daily The Guardian, Ben Saul, an international law professor at the University of Sydney, noted that the espionage claims have painted Australia "as the neighborhood cheat and bully."

Two months before Timor-Leste's independence, Australia cunningly excluded itself from the compulsory settlement of maritime boundary disputes at the International Court of Justice and under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

On the very day of Timor-Leste's independence on May 20, 2002, Canberra and Dili signed the Timor Sea Treaty, which largely inherited a 1989 treaty between Australia and Indonesia and set the temporary sea boundary line much closer to Timor-Leste than to Australia.

After Timor-Leste initiated an arbitration in 2013 following the bugging revelations, Australian agents raided the office in suburban Canberra of a lawyer representing Dili in the case and seized a trove of documents. The lawyer is a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer.

Such sly and high-handed behavior has prompted accusations that Canberra exploited its small neighbor's most vulnerable times to gain self-interests.

Speaking at the PCA hearing of the Timor Sea Treaty, Gusmao said, "on the very day of the restoration of our independence, we were faced with the indignity of having to sign" the deal. "At the time Timor had nothing. Our land was scorched, our people killed... We had no money, forcing us to beg," he added.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-09/08/c_135673209.htm

Timor praises Indon over sea border talks

Australian Associated Press - September 2, 2016

East Timor has reflected on the goodwill of its former invader as it seeks to settle sea borders with both Indonesia and Australia.

A conciliation hearing in The Hague this week between Australia and East Timor has wrapped up. The United Nations commission is expected to announce whether it has the power to proceed with the process in a fortnight.

Australian officials made the case to shut the process down arguing the commission didn't have jurisdiction.

East Timor Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo has compared Indonesia's willingness to bilaterally negotiate a permanent sea boundary according to international law with Australia's refusal to do likewise.

"Timor-Leste and Indonesia have become close friends and remain a global model of reconciliation," he said in a speech.

"Australia, however, has refused to negotiate with us, despite our invitations. The developing nation's "struggle for sovereignty is not over".

At the heart of the boundary dispute are oil and gas reserves worth an estimated $53 million. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop insists Dili got a fair deal with sea border treaties of 2002 and 2006 and they are consistent with international law.

But East Timor is unhappy with the temporary sharing arrangements for the reserves because Australian spies allegedly bugged the East Timor negotiators in 2004.

Source: http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/09/02/15/56/timor-praises-indon-over-sea-border-talks

Special commission quizzes Australia and East Timor in bid to broker sea dispute

Melbourne Age - September 2, 2016

Daniel Flitton – A ruling could be delivered within the month on Australia's claim that a special international commission has no jurisdiction to hear a complaint by East Timor.

East Timor has sought a "conciliation" with Australia under a never-before invoked article of the international law of the sea in a bid to win a greater slice of oil and gas revenue from the Timor Sea.

The move is the latest in what has become a bitter dispute, amid allegations Australian spies bugged the negotiations for an existing treaty that divides billions of dollars in undersea resources between the neighbours.

In at times tense, closed-door sessions that followed an initial public hearing at The Hague this week, Australia challenged the legal basis of the commission to hear the case.

East Timor has threatened to tear up a 2006 deal, known as the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea, or CMATS, and wants fresh negotiation on a final maritime boundary.

Australia disputes the spying allegations and told the hearing they are being examined in a separate case lodged by East Timor also under way in the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague.

The conciliation commission – made up of five international legal experts – is understood to have asked representatives from both countries for responses to more than 20 questions during the three days of hearings.

The commission quizzed the representatives about the interpretation of CMATS, the conciliation process, and the relationship between the existing treaty and the law of the sea.

The conciliation is seen as historic, and comes after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in March knocked back a request from his East Timor counterpart, Rui Maria de Araujo, for fresh negotiations. But Australia has been quick to emphasise the outcome of any conciliation is not binding.

The commission is expected to decide within weeks on Australia's challenge to its jurisdiction, but may chose to also push ahead on the main issues in a case that could run up to two years.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop defended the existing treaty as a fair deal that has delivered a $16 billion windfall to East Timor.

Labor has criticised the government's position, having pledged at the last election it would negotiate a new maritime boundary with East Timor. Shadow Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said this week a settlement "in fair and permanent terms is long overdue".

The 2006 treaty put a 50-year freeze on negotiations over a final maritime boundary, but East Timor now claims the resources fall within its territory.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/special-commission-quizzes-australia-and-east-timor-in-bid-to-broker-sea-dispute-20160902-gr7bmr.html

Human rights & justice

Survivors of past crimes encouraged to contribute to development

Dili Weekly - September 29, 2016

Paulina Quintao – Women's activist and survivor Maria Domingas "Micato" Alves has encouraged other survivors of past crimes to be active and creative in contributing to the national development process.

She said survivors had managed to save themselves in difficult situations, including floods, earthquakes and crime.

"In the past I cried, but now after independence I don't want to cry anymore. I found a job, I studies and learned how to fulfill democracy and development," she said at a national survivors' conference at Joao Paulo II in Comoro, Dili.

"Many people died for independence, therefore those who survived should not ask for help, but use their 10 fingers to work, use their brain to think and learn to be good and responsible citizens," she said.

Many Timorese were killed and also experienced sexual violence and torture during Indonesian occupation between 1975 and 1999.

Alves called for the civil societies not to mix past and present survivors (of violence) because the past survivors had a clear objective to gain independence, which has been recognized by the state.

During the struggle for independence, she said all people, both men and women, experienced some form of torture and violence, but the violence faced by women was different. "This was something different which affected women's dignity, it was sexual violence," she said.

Although female widows now receive $253 monthly from the government, Alves said this doesn't change the fact that their husbands died for independence. Therefore, she considers female survivors as heroines because of their contribution to the struggle for independence.

Meanwhile, Craras survivor Beatriz Miranda said Chega ba Ita (ACBIT) and Timor-Leste Women's Communication Forum (FOKUPERS) have provided training to female survivors on leadership and management skills.

Women's groups also receive funds from both organizations to run their activities. "We weave tais and baskets, make chips and raise animals like pigs and chickens in our sukus (villages)," she said.

She said they sold their products at the local market and at exhibitions held by women's organizations in Dili. She said the money they made was used for developing their groups and to sustain their families.

FOKUPERS Director Marilia Alves said the training provided was to help survivors transform their lives. "It (training) is about advocacy [and] leadership so they can be brave and share their inspiration [with other women]," she said.

She also acknowledged that there was still stigma and discrimination in society against survivors of past crimes and some still experience trauma because of their experiences.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/gender/14056-survivors-of-past-crimes-encouraged-to-contribute-to-development

Freedom of information & press

RI Press Council to help its new counterpart in Timor Leste

Jakarta Post - September 10, 2016

Jakarta – The Indonesian Press Council has agreed to help the Timor Leste Press Council build up its newly created institution. The two bodies signed a cooperation agreement in Jakarta on Monday.

Virgilio da Silva Guterres, president of the council, told The Jakarta Post that an agreement signed with Indonesia's Press Council last week would help strengthen the new council by, among other things, assisting in the formulation of complaint and mediation mechanisms.

"We hope the Indonesian Press Council can help us, as a new institution, in creating policies," Guterres said. The Timor Leste Press Council members were appointed by parliament in March, with Guterres as their leader. Guterres previously led the Radio and Television of Timor Leste (RTTL).

Following a referendum in 1999, the former Indonesian province became independent in 2002.

Guterres said the press council was formed to promote press freedom and the freedom of speech as well as to increase the professional standards of journalists. The council is also authorized to deal with complaints from the public in regard to journalistic reports.

Guterres said the main challenge the council faced was to improve the qualification of journalists in the country.

"It can be said that, since the year 2000, our reporters can write everything about the president and government officials. The press council's concern now is the quality of the news, whether the journalists are able to exercise that freedom to provide quality information to the public," he said.

Guterres and four other members of the Timor Leste Press Council visited Indonesia from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2.

Besides meeting their peers at the Indonesian Press Council, they also visited the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute, the Alliance of Independent Journalists, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission and the Communications and Information Ministry.

Yosep Stanley Adi Prasetyo, who heads the Indonesian Press Council, said on Wednesday it was important for journalists of the two neighboring countries to work together in maintaining good relations.

"We have the chance to push better relations between [our] two countries," Yosep said during a dinner that was also attended by Timor Leste Ambassador to Indonesia Alberto XP Carlos.

The diplomat said he was open to building a bridge of good relations between the two institutions. "If you need our help, we are ready," he said. (vny)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/10/ri-press-council-help-its-new-counterpart-timor-leste.html

Health & education

1,904 children suffer from malnutrition

Dili Weekly - September 30, 2016

Paulina Quintao – Research conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Alola Foundation in 2015 showed that 1,904 children under six years old were suffering from wasting, a type of malnutrition.

This research was conducted in Dili, Covalima and Oecusse by going house-to-house tomeasure the upper arm circumference of children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers to check for wasting.

WFP's Country Director in Timor-Leste, Stephen Kearney, said the objective was to check the nutrition status of households in the municipalities.

"This screening is important to detect who is malnourished and where they live, so we can support the Ministry of Health to provide treatment," Kearney said at a press conference.

According to the data, 2,431 women showed signs of wasting. He said wasting was a form of malnutrition where a person's weight is too low for their height.

He said it was important to identify cases of malnutrition as early as possible, particularly for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. He said the first 1000 days of a child's life was critical for their physical and mental development.

To respond to this issue, he said WFP distributed Timor Vita supplement, consisting of corn, soya flour and vitamins, to ensure that pregnant and breastfeeding women had a good nutrition intake.

Meanwhile, Alola Foundation Program Manager Maria Imaculada Guterres said the research only covered a few sukus (villages) in the three municipalities.

"Because we work with the xefe suku (village chief) – they take the sample [and] then our team does the screening and asks some questions about their nutrition status," she said.

There were 16,931 households involved in the research project, with the sample group comprising babies up to six months old and breastfeeding and pregnant women.

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Alola Foundation is a local organization which fights for women's rights and also works to improve maternal and child health in Timor-Leste.

The research program was led by WFP in partnership with the Alola Foundation and World Vision-Timor-Leste, with funding from the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/children-youth/14070-1-904-children-suffer-from-malnutrition

Project urges women to seek proper health care during childbirth

Dili Weekly - September 29, 2016

Paulina Quintao – The Mobile mother's project has made significant progress in terms of the number of pregnant women accessing health facilities and receiving assistance from qualified midwives at home during childbirth.

Health Alliance International (HAI) Director Paul Vasconcelos said that data from a 2012 survey conducted before the program's implementation showed that 48% of pregnant mothers who gave birth at home had assistance from qualified health personnel. However, that figure increased to 62% after the program's implementation in 2015.

The data also showed that only 32% of pregnant women gave birth at a health facility prior to the program's implementation, although that figure has since increased to 49% due to the good relationship with local health personnel.

"We would like to establish a good connection between them (women) and health personnel so that if they have any problems [or] questions they can contact health personnel for quality maternal care," he said.

He said the program had helped contribute to a reduction in maternal and child mortality in Timor-Leste.

However, he said it took time to convince pregnant women to access health facilities as they still relied on traditional home delivery with an unqualified birth attendant.

He said HAI will continue to make efforts to raise awareness and encourage women to give birth at health facilities so that they could have access to trained midwives.

The Mobile Mother's Project is a health promotion program implemented by HIA and Catalpa International, with funding from the Timor-Leste government, USAID and Australian Aid.

The project aim to improve maternal and child health in Timor-Leste by educating women about the importance of good nutrition and encouraging them to access health facilities for safe and quality treatment.

Meanwhile, Catalpa International Program Manager Gabriela Leite Soares acknowledged that more women were now accessing health facilities.

As part of the project, women are registered via an online system at their local health facility and receive a monthly text message before and after delivery about nutrition and healthy lifestyle habits.

"What we want is for health personnel to help them (pregnant women) when they give birth, especially if there are some complications," she said.

The project was first implemented in 2013 in Manufahi municipality and has since expanded to include Liquisa, Aileu, Ermera and Manatuto. There are also plans to establish the program in Ainaro.

As patients are registered using an online system, the unreliable phone and internet connection in rural areas remains a major problem for the team during implementation.

Ermera midwife Eva Soares said many pregnant women in rural areas still give birth at home due to the long distances from health facilities. "Many pregnant women now come to health facilities for consultations, but they still face a lot of obstacles and need more support," she said.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/gender/14066-project-urges-women-to-seek-proper-health-care-during-childbirth

Mother's program helping to reduce maternal and child mortality

Dili Weekly - September 29, 2016

Paulina Quintao – The Mother's Support Group (GSI) program implemented by the Alola Foundation has been recognized by the Health Ministry for its efforts to reduce maternal and child mortality in Timor-Leste.

Health Program Manager Maria Imaculada Guterres said based on 2013 national research conducted on food and nutrition the program had been successful in improving child and maternal health at a grassroots level.

"The Ministry of Health, with funds from UNICEF, wants Alola Foundation to nationalize this program across the whole country," she said in Comoro, Dili. Guterres said the foundation was happy with the recognition received from the government and is making plans to implement it at a national.

In preparation, she said the Health Ministry and Alola had developed national guidelines for the program and had provided training to health personnel in the municipalities and at suku (village) level.

"The training is about nutrition, maternal and child health and other diseases like malaria and dengue, including the immunization program," she said.

She said the program was initially established in 2003 by communities on a voluntary basis, with the aim of raising awareness among families in the sukus and educating mothers on the importance of breastfeeding.

She said at the time there was a lack of awareness about health issues and therefore maternal and child mortality rates were high. Since 2003, 138 groups have been established in 11 municipalities, with more than 2000 members.

Meanwhile, Director of the National Health Institution (NHI) Antonio Bonito said they had worked with Alola to provide training to health personnel in order to help community groups to implement the program.

He said health personnel, including doctors, midwives, nurses and nutritionists, would be responsible for managing the program in the municipalities and the sukus.

"They will establish mother's support groups in the areas they work to share information about nutrition [and] hygiene, including the immunization program for children," he said.

Midwife Eva Soares said although higher numbers of pregnant women were accessing health facilities for consultations, the long distances remained a big challenge and many still gave birth at home.

She said the GSI was a great program as it was established by mothers and supported and encouraged women to access health facilities.

She acknowledged that the program had made significant progress at a grassroots level, particularly in increasing women's understanding of maternal health issues.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/gender/14064-mother-s-program-helping-to-reduce-maternal-and-child-mortality

Teachers tested to assess Portuguese language ability

Dili Weekly – September 9, 2016

Paulina Quintao – The Ministry of Education has conducted Portuguese language testing for pre-school, secondary and vocational school teachers to assess their ability.

Director of the National Institute for Training of Teachers and Education Professionals (INFORDEPE) Deolindo da Cruz said the lack of proficiency in Portuguese language was major problem, even though the government had allocated significant funding for a training program.

The results will be used to determine the level of teachers and to develop a Portuguese course manual. "We will put them in separate levels – basic with [other] basic and advanced [speakers] with advanced," he said.

Da Cruz said the training program implemented a few years ago had been ineffective as teachers had not been classified according to their level.

The latest exam involved 1,410 teachers and was the second time they had been tested. The first examination was held in 2015 and involved 12,344 teachers. Da Cruz said both the first and second examinations showed that teachers were mostly at the basic level.

Teacher Manuel Verdial said it was important that the government make a more effective plan for teacher training. To ensure funding wasn't wasted, he said the government should allocate a clear amount in the budget to the teacher training program to help develop quality and improve school standards.

Meanwhile, President of Commission F (responsible for health, education, culture, veteran affairs and gender equality) MP Virgilio da Costa Hornai acknowledged that Portuguese language was a major obstacle for teachers.

"We want Portuguese in every school, but our teachers are not able to speak Portuguese, [so] how they can deliver this knowledge to the students?" he said. "Not being able to speak Portuguese means that [teachers] have not mastered the knowledge."

He said the national training program remained inadequate and therefore urged the government to increase language skills in schools by providing scholarships to new teachers.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/education/14027-teachers-tested-to-assess-portuguese-language-ability

Refugees & asylum seekers

Indonesian minister hands over compensation to ex-East Timor families

Antara News - September 24, 2016

Jakarta – The Indonesian Minister of Social Affairs Khofifah Indar Parawansa handed over the compensation amount to 24 families of former of East Timorese but currently residents of Kediri, East Java.

"The compensation amount that was disbursed reflects the fact that the central government cares for the East Timorese people in Indonesia," the minister said in a written statement received here on Friday.

Disbursement of such compensation funds in Kediri comes in pursuance of the Presidential Decree No. 25 of 2016 on Granting of Compensation to Former Residents of East Timor, domiciled outside the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province.

Compensation of Rp 10 million is allocated for each family, and is provided through a direct assistance mechanism in accordance with Article 2 paragraph (2, 3) of presidential regulation.

The minister explained to the former East Timorese people that the cash assistance will continue even in case of demise of the head of a beneficiary family. The compensation can be given to the beneficiaries in accordance with legislative provisions. "The beneficiaries are entitled to such compensation given by the government," she added.

In East Java alone, the Social Affairs Minister said Rp30.8 billion worth of funds would be distributed among the formerly East Timorese people living in 38 districts.

The minister also inaugurated a Mutual Cooperation Electronic Warung (E-Warong/E-shop). She will also disburse funds under the Family of Hope Program (PKH) in Kediri and Madiun, planned to be held on Saturday.

The E-Warong has been set up in an effort to implement the program to reduce poverty in Indonesia. Through the E-Warong, recipients of the Family Hope Program are encouraged to become independent.

Source: http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/106876/indonesian-minister-hands-over-compensation-to-ex-east-timor-families

Land disputes & evictions

2000 people paying taxes for living on state-owned land

Dili Weekly - September 30, 2016

Venidora Oliveira – The General Director for National Directorate for Land and Property (NDLP), Romao Guterres, has called on communities living on state-owned land to pay taxes.

Although 2000 people were paying taxes as required, he said many communities in Dili were occupying state-owned land and should pay monthly tax to the state through the NDLP.

Between 2000 and 2014 the NDLP was able to raise $26,884,669 in state revenues. In 2015 the total was $3,750,403 and from January to July this year the figure was $2.68 million. He said the NDLP was continuing to carry out land evaluations, but many people still did not pay taxes.

"We need to recruit 12 new staff to help conduct the surveys in Dili and we have already started doing Indonesian residences in Surikmas, Osindo, Delta and Perumnas [areas]," he said.

Most state-owned properties are leased to companies to run their businesses and foreign governments to construct residences for their ambassadors.

Communities are obligated under law to pay taxes every month to the state, even though the government could resume the land at any time for development or public interest. Under law no. I/2003 and law decree no. 18/2004, the government has a responsibility to collect tax revenues.

Meanwhile, national MP Josefa Alvares Soares said she appreciated the efforts of the NDLP to raise state revenues. She was also pleased that some communities were collaborating with the government to benefit the country's development.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/capital/14074-2000-people-paying-taxes-for-living-on-state-owned-land

Foreign affairs & trade

Timor-Leste launches process of joining AIIB

Macauhub.com - September 13, 2016

A meeting of the Timor-Leste (East Timor) cabinet Ministers authorized the Ministry of Finance to start the process of joining the Asian Investment and Infrastructure Bank (AIIB), according to a press release published on the official government website.

The AIIB, based in Beijing, was established in December 2015 following a proposal from China, which is the largest shareholder of the bank. The financial institution started operating in January this year.

The AIIB has an authorised capital of US$100 billion and gives priority to investment in energy, transport, rural infrastructure, environmental protection and logistics.

Brazil and Portugal are among the 57 founding members of the financial institution led by China. (macauhub/CN/TL)

Source: http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/2016/09/13/timor-leste-launches-process-of-joining-aiib

Struggle for independence

Timor-Leste founders talk nation-building

The Brown Daily Herald - September 28, 2016

Rachel Gold – In the 1990s, Brown's campus was a hotbed of activism on behalf of Timor-Leste, the Southeast Asian island then occupied by - and subject to human rights violations committed by - Indonesia. Over 15 years later, the leaders of what is now the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste arrived in Providence to reflect on the transition from a political movement to a sovereign nation.

In a roundtable hosted by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs titled "Back to Brown: Reconnecting with Timor-Leste," Edward Steinfeld, director of the institute, and Robert Blair, assistant professor of political science and international and public affairs, were joined in dialogue by Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo and founding father Xanana Gusmao.

Perhaps more than anyone else, Gusmao's life is intertwined with that of his young nation. Gusmao organized the resistance movement against the Indonesians, working from his jail cell after being sentenced to life in prison in 1993. When the country was born in 2002, he was elected its first president. Gusmao was later elected prime minister and is now minister of planning and strategic investment, as well as international emissary for his country, development and democracy.

It is this spirit of internationalism that brought the envoy from Timor-Leste to Providence. "There has always been a special connection between Rhode Island and Timor-Leste," Araujo said. "It is embodied by professors and students here at Brown who fought and fought to put Timor-Leste on the national consciousness of the (United States) during the years when we were under occupation."

During the peak of the tiny island's resistance - which displaced about one third of Timor-Leste's population - Timorese leaders were aware of the expressions of concern surfacing around the world, Araujo said. This solidarity movement took hold in Rhode Island, where then-U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-RI, and then-U.S. Rep. Jack Reed, D-RI, advocated for the United States to lend its muscle to the restoration of Timor-Leste's independence.

"Early this year, when I finally had a chance to thank... Reed in person, he told me the story of how he first heard about Timor-Leste's struggle when a group of students and professors from Brown came to see him at his little district office in Cranston," he said. "So let me at last say, as the prime minister of free Timor-Leste, thank you, Brown University."

The nation - which was declared independent after a 1999 referendum, placed under a U.N. transitional government that year and officially established as a constitutional government in May 2002 - is nearing its 15th birthday. But given the rapid growth of the country's budget and the success of its democracy, Timor-Leste shows that "the age of a country doesn't have anything to do with wisdom that country can pass on to us," Steinfeld said.

Today, the nation faces a myriad of challenges, including "crippling uncertainty for the economy," which is extremely dependent on oil reserves in the surrounding waters; a lack of critical infrastructure, largely due to the slash-and-burn wrought by the Indonesians before relinquishing control and a conflict with Australia over maritime borders, which will be mediated by The Hague in the upcoming year, according to a decision announced this week. But as evidenced by the Hague intervention, international systems have been and must remain invested in the nation, Araujo said.

Many in the post-Cold War world questioned the relevance of international institutions, Araujo said, offering the words of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan as a rebuke to these doubts: "Never before has the world united with such firm resolve to help one small nation reestablish itself," Araujo said.

Yet scholars are hesitant to label the Timor-Leste intervention a complete success. There have been only a few other instances where the United Nations has "exercised such a heavy hand," Blair said, noting that the United Nations failed to adapt to indigenous institutions - particularly when it came to traditional systems of adjudication - and that the U.N. peacekeeping mission did not end until 2012.

Under a certain light, the U.N. forces could be seen as an extension of the legacy of occupation, Gusmao said. "Yes, it was the first time that (the United Nations) played this kind of role in a nation," he said. "In the beginning we were making noise - 'are you coming to colonize us?' There was a group of (East) Timorese (citizens) who said, 'We kick out the Portuguese, (who occupied the nation for over 200 years,) we kick out the Indonesians, and now we are going to be colonized by (the United Nations).'"

But the nation's first president - whose serious reflections turn animated when he speaks to the future, becoming especially fiery when he exhorts young people to action - is a believer in the necessity of internationalism and the potential for peace.

"When South Sudan, now the youngest state in the world, got independence, we sent a mission to participate in celebrations," Gusmao said. Once South Sudan started to see violence, Gusmao himself visited the country to offer counsel. "When (Timor-Leste) came in 2006 to a crisis, we did everything to avoid it. They didn't. Now it is a mess with one million refugees."

Throughout a day of discourse - which included a lunch discussion among the visitors, University faculty members, graduate students and undergraduates - the ideals of diplomacy, peace and international institutions poured forth.

"These are the values (that) animate my young country," Araujo said. "I am here speaking for not just a young country, but a young democracy that wants to move from being a post-conflict state to being a successful state; a country that wants self sufficiency, not charity; a country that believes in the rule of law."

"Your actions bear all of our hopes and aspirations for what development can deliver and what justice can deliver," Steinfeld said. Speaking to students as he left the room, Gusmao said: "The world's future is in your hands and in your brains."

Source: http://www.browndailyherald.com/2016/09/28/timor-leste-founders-talk-nation-building/

Timor-Leste marks 17th anniversary of historic independence vote

Dili Weekly - September 14, 2016

Paulina Quintao – At the commemoration of popular consultation day on August 30, the President of National Parliament, Aderito Hugo, called on the country's sovereign bodies to be responsible and treat people with dignity according to the constitution.

He said the country's independence was bought with people's suffering, hardship, blood and bones. Although Timor-Leste was a small country and only gained independence 17 years ago, Hugo said it had made significant progress compared to some other countries.

"Even though they (other countries) gained independence more than 30 years ago, they [still] do not enjoy the democracy and freedom that Timorese people do," he said at the 17th anniversary celebrations of popular consultation day at the Dili convention center.

He said Timor-Leste's most significant achievements since independence had been in the areas of democracy, justice and human rights. "As a Timorese, I invite everyone here and out there to be proud of their work and own contribution [to the country]," he said.

As a result of its successful history, he said Timor-Leste was known around the world. In 2014, Timor-Leste through the Secretariat for Technical and Electoral Administration (STAE) assisted the people of Guinea Bissau to register to vote in the elections.

"I encourage our friends in Guinea Bissau to try to free themselves from this situation where they don't have liberty and democracy [and] where people [still] do not enjoy their life after 40 years of independence," he said.

He also thanked Timor-Leste's international friends and partners for their support in helping Timor-Leste become a success.

Popular consultation day marks the country's historic referendum on August 30, 1999 in which the Timorese people voted overwhelming in favor of independence from Indonesia.

Meanwhile, UN resident coordinator Knut Ostby said Timor-Leste's development was much more advanced than many other countries in South East Asia. Since independence, he said the most significant progress in the country had been in peace-building and improving people's prosperity.

"On this day I would like to recognize and applaud Timor-Leste for its commitment to sharing its experiences with other countries that still face the same problems," he said.

"The government of Timor-Leste has led the G7+ group for fragile states and its advocacy role for the implementation of the objectives for sustainable development in fragile countries has been very good," he said.

He added the UN continued to support the country through the promotion of inclusive and sustainable development.

However, local resident Julio Anes Padua was upset that this year's annual celebrations did not include more ordinary Timorese people. "It should be a day for all Timorese people, not only government employees because this is the day that the Timorese determined our independence," he said.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/capital/14042-timor-leste-marks-17th-anniversary-of-historic-independence-vote

Analysis & opinion

The precedent-setting Timor-Leste and Australia UNCLOS case

The Diplomat - September 29, 2016

Hao Duy Phan – On April 11, 2016, Timor-Leste initiated compulsory non-binding conciliation proceedings against Australia under Annex V of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). On September 26, 2016, the Conciliation Commission published its decision on competence. This is the first time the conciliation procedures in UNCLOS have been invoked. This article aims to provide the background necessary to understand the case and its significance.

Background

Timor-Leste and Australia are separated by the Timor Sea at a distance of approximately 300 nautical miles. Since Timor-Leste's independence in 2002, Australia and Timor-Leste have signed a number of agreements on joint development of resources, including the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty, the 2003 Agreement relating to the Unitization of the Sunrise and Troubadour Fields, and the 2006 Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS). The two states, however, have not been able to agree and establish a permanent maritime boundary.

UNCLOS entered into force as a multilateral treaty on November 16, 1994. Australia ratified UNCLOS on October 5, 1994, and Timor-Leste on January 8, 2013. The Convention entered into force between Australia and Timor-Leste on February 2, 2013.

Under Article 298 of the Convention, a state party may make a formal declaration excluding from the compulsory and binding arbitration or adjudication procedures in UNCLOS any disputes concerning the interpretation or application of Articles 15, 74, or 83 relating to maritime boundary delimitation. Such disputes may nevertheless be subject to the compulsory non-binding conciliation procedures in Annex V, on the two conditions that the disputes arose "subsequent to the entry into force of this Convention" and the parties could not negotiate an agreement "within a reasonable period of time." Under Article 281 of the Convention, such compulsory conciliation may be barred if the state parties have agreed on another means of settlement.

Australia made an Article 298 declaration on March 22, 2002, stating that it does not accept arbitration or adjudication procedures with respect to maritime delimitation disputes.

On April 11, 2016, Timor-Leste initiated the compulsory non-binding conciliation proceedings with Australia by way of a "Notification Instituting Conciliation under Section 2 of Annex V of UNCLOS." After Australia submitted its response on May 2, each state appointed two conciliators. Those four conciliators, in turn, appointed the chairman from a shortlist of candidates accepted by both states.

On June 25, the five-member Conciliation Commission was constituted: Commission Chairman H.E. Ambassador Peter Taksøe-Jensen (Denmark), Dr. Rosalie Balkin (Australia), Judge Abdul G. Koroma (Sierra Leone), Professor Donald McRae (Canada and New Zealand), and Judge Rüdiger Wolfrum (Germany).

By agreement of the states, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (which is an administrative body rather than a court) acts as Registry in the proceedings.

The conciliation commission's decision on competence

Australia objected to the competence of the Conciliation Commission on three main grounds. Australia relied on Article 281 of UNCLOS to argue that compulsory conciliation under UNCLOS is precluded by Article 4 of CMATS bewteen Australia and Timor-Leste, which imposes a moratorium on the utilization of dispute settlement mechanisms that "would raise or result in, either directly or indirectly, issues or findings of relevance to maritime boundaries or delimitation in the Timor Sea."

Australia also submitted that the first condition of Article 298 of UNCLOS – that the relevant dispute must arise subsequent to the entry into force of UNCLOS – is not met because the maritime boundary dispute dates to 2002, which is prior to the 2013 entry into force of the Convention as between Australia and Timor-Leste. Nor, argued Australia, is the second Article 298 condition met, because there were not "negotiations on the maritime line" before Timor-Leste initiated compulsory conciliation. Timor-Leste contested each of Australia's objections.

The Commission held a hearing from August 29-31. In less than a month, the Commission issued its unanimous Decision on Australia's Objections to Competence on September 19, 2016 (embargoed until September 26).

In that decision, the Commission substantially agreed with Timor-Leste's submissions. The Commission acknowledged that Article 4 of CMATS does establish a moratorium on claims to sovereign rights and jurisdiction and maritime boundaries for the period of that treaty, but found that CMATS is not an agreement "to seek settlement of the dispute by a peaceful means of [the Parties'] own choice" as required by Article 281 of UNCLOS. Therefore, Timor-Leste is not precluded from recourse to compulsory conciliation under Article 298 and Annex V.

The Commission also found that the requirements for competence under Article 298 are met. First, upon examining the language of UNCLOS and the negotiation history of the Convention, the Commission interpreted Article 298 to require only that a dispute arise after the initial entry into force of the Convention in 1994, as opposed to the 2013 entry into force as between Australia and Timor-Leste. Second, the Commission found that the states had not reached an agreement on their maritime boundary dispute by negotiations within a reasonable period of time.

The decision of the Commission might have important implications for future UNCLOS dispute settlement as it opens the door to compulsory conciliation between UNCLOS states parties on their post-1994 maritime disputes, even if the concerned states have made an Article 298 declaration and concluded a treaty foreclosing all possible avenues to resolve the disputes.

Next steps: Outcome of the conciliation proceedings and its significance

The Commission will next hear the states' positions on the maritime boundary, examine their claims, and make proposals to the states for an amicable settlement. If Timor-Leste and Australia can reach an amicable settlement, they can agree to terminate the conciliation proceedings.

Within 12 months of its decision on competence, or by September 19, 2017, the Commission is to issue a report recording any agreements reached by Australia and Timor-Leste or, failing an agreement, the Commission's conclusions on all questions of fact and law relevant to the dispute as well as appropriate recommendations for an amicable settlement.

This report of the Conciliation Commission, including its conclusions and recommendations, will not be binding on Timor-Leste and Australia. This distinguishes this UNCLOS proceeding from the Judgment of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the Bay of Bengal case between Bangladesh and Myanmar and the Award in the South China Sea case between the Philippines and China.

The two states, however, are obliged to attempt to negotiate an agreement on the basis of the Commission's report. If the negotiations fail, they "shall, by mutual consent," submit their maritime boundary dispute to binding adjudication or arbitration.

To conclude, although conciliation proceedings cannot result in legally binding decisions resolving maritime boundary disputes, the Conciliation Commission is assisting Australia and Timor-Leste to find a resolution, thereby contributing to promoting peace, cooperation, development, and the rule of law in the region.

[Hao Duy Phan is a senior research fellow at the Center for International Law, National University of Singapore.]

Source: http://thediplomat.com/2016/09/the-precedent-setting-timor-leste-and-australia-unclos-case/

East Timor's development dilemma

Nikkei Asian Review - September 25, 2016

Hamish McDonald, Gleno, East Timor – As we drive along a potholed road leading out of this little town into the cool highlands of East Timor, Peter Dougan stops to look at coffee berries laid out to dry on tarpaulins by local growers.

Dougan, an Australian agriculturalist, points to the variety of colors, from green to reddish, among the berries – a sign of unselective picking that includes fruit not yet ripe enough to give the best coffee from the bean inside. The colors also indicate poor soil nutrition around bushes that have been allowed to grow untrimmed and unfertilized.

Dougan points out that in 1974, the last full year that Portugal ruled this country as the furthest flung point of its empire, East Timor produced 40,000 tons of fine Arabica coffee. Now, after 24 years of Indonesian rule, a three-year United Nations interregnum, and 14 years of independence, it produces just 10,000 tons.

"The quality is the worst in the world," he adds, although Timorese coffee has acquired a certain cachet because of its freedom from artificial fertilizers and its sale through "fair trade" networks. "You can sell a lot of bad coffee if it is certified organic and fair trade," he said.

Having moved to Gleno in 2013 to set up a business called FarmPro, Dougan is working with small farmers around this highland region to improve the yield and quality of their coffee outputs, as well as their fruit and vegetables, which he sells for them to supermarkets, restaurants and hotels down in Dili.

A typical coffee grower has a half-hectare of bushes, from which he gets about 100kg of berries and earns about $150. "The potential is for yields of 1,000kg a hectare," Dougan said, implying that these farmers could be earning five times what they are getting.

This is an example of what many analysts see as an alarming trend in this fledgling nation's economic development: While the government in relatively affluent Dili is obsessed with large-scale projects, it is neglecting the patient micro-work that could uplift the impoverished rural bulk of the population through programs like education for coffee growers and repairs to their roads.

East Timor got off to a good start at independence in 2002, channeling revenues from two oil and gas fields off its south coast into a Petroleum Fund invested in New York whose value has hovered around $16.5 billion in the last two years, about eight times the level of gross domestic product and 40 times non-oil GDP.

Yet in recent years, under the leadership of former anti-Indonesian guerrilla leader Jose Xanana Gusmao and then Rui Maria de Araujo, the current prime minister, the government has put substantial funds into a large-scale petroleum-based industrial project along the rugged south coast, named the Tasi Mane scheme.

The project is premised on natural gas being piped onshore from a large undersea deposit called Greater Sunrise that was discovered by a consortium led by Australia's Woodside Petroleum.

Yet the consortium has baulked for years at the technical difficulties of a pipeline across a seabed that plunges to a 3,000-meter deep trench between the field and East Timor's coast. Following the collapse in oil prices since late 2014, Woodside has in any case lost interest in new gas projects.

Maritime politics

Adding to the difficulties facing the project, Gusmao, a former president and prime minister who remains in government as minister for planning and strategic investment, has recently reignited a simmering dispute with Australia about a 50-year temporary maritime boundary agreed in 2006 that puts 80% of Greater Sunrise in Australia's resource zone.

In August East Timor triggered a conciliation hearing at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, in an effort to reopen boundary negotiations. So far, however, Canberra's conservative government is continuing to insist that the 2006 treaty is a good deal for Dili, since it concedes 50% of future Greater Sunrise revenue to East Timor regardless of the boundary.

The dispute could get even more complicated: Some analysts say that a transfer of jurisdiction over Greater Sunrise would have to involve Indonesia, which occupied East Timor when Portuguese administrators departed, because Australia has already transferred fishing rights to the waters above the gas field to Jakarta.

In spite of these uncertainties, East Timor's government continues to bank on gas coming onshore. In July, Araujo added $391 million to the government's planned spending for 2016, bringing the total to $1.953 billion, including $193 million for Tasi Mane.

By contrast, spending on health, education, and agriculture totals a little over $200 million – for an extremely poor population likely to grow from the present 1.2 million to about 2.1 million by mid-century. Many now endure three months of food shortages between crops, according to the Dili-based non-government analysis group La'o Hamutuk.

"Petroleum is the future, agriculture is the past," is how La'o Hamutuk researcher Niall Almond explains the political thinking.

The draw-down on the Petroleum Fund this year will be $1.675 billion, more than three times the "estimated sustainable income" of $545 million based on investment returns and revenue inflows from the existing oil fields, which are approaching depletion in about six years.

"It's beyond anything we've seen so far," said Almond. "It has so blatantly ignored the guideline on sustainable income."

La'o Hamutuk thinks the fund could be exhausted in less than the 10 year period it forecast only last year. Mari Alkatiri, who set up the Petroleum Fund as East Timor's first prime minister, gave the Nikkei Asian Review an even starker warning.

"With the high level of spending, we do believe that without a clear policy to govern the country, seven years from now we will have nothing in the oil fund," he said.

Work has already started on a $1.5 billion motorway and an $860 million marine supply base at Suai to support the liquefied natural gas plant, oil refinery and petrochemical works that are envisaged along the south coast as part of the Tasi Mane dream.

Two other big projects are also contentious. One is a new container port at Tibar, currently an inlet with a tiny jetty 15km west of Dili, where Bollore Africa Logistics, a French company, is to spend $378 million in return for 30 years of operating rights with state-guaranteed returns. The government is contributing $129 million, plus roads and other services.

Alkatiri, though out of government and critical of high public spending, is nevertheless directing another ambitious scheme to develop Timor-Leste's Oecusse enclave, on the northern coast of Indonesia's western half of the island, as a regional hub. This project includes an airport, resorts, medical center and enhanced hinterland agriculture, with government funding of $280 million over five years.

These big projects are increasingly contentious. President Taur Matan Ruak, a revered former guerrilla leader, tried to veto this year's budget but was overruled by parliament, where Gusmao's CNRT party now rules in coalition with its former rival Alkatiri's Fretilin. In February he accused the parties of uniting to divide up the spoils of government.

"They do not use unanimity to solve issues; they use it for power and privilege," Taur said. "Brother Xanana takes care of Timor while Brother [Alkatiri] takes care of Oecusse."

The Nobel peace laureate and former president Jose Ramos Horta also doubts merits of the Tasi Mane project. "I would agree, support and applaud such projects if we knew beyond any doubt that we had 10, 20 oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea, that the Timor Sea was teeming with rigs," he said in an interview.

Ramos Horta thinks his country would be better off with an alternative development strategy. "I would have favored faster development of our tourism sector – not with major five-star hotels, but more tapping into eco-tourism, to bring young tourists," he said.

"Many people have misgivings about backpackers. But they are the ones who really spend money in the poor communities because they stay in basic guesthouses, they eat whatever is there in the small restaurants, and they eat things that are produced locally, while [at] the high-end, five-star level, almost everything is imported."

Araujo, who responded to questions by email, says the high capital spending this year is "front-loading" for strategic investment in human capital and basic infrastructure. Withdrawals from the Petroleum Fund would fall to the level of estimated sustainable income by around 2020. "If no public investment is done now to leverage private investment, there will be no economic transformation and diversification," he said.

The thinking puzzles international aid donors. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are understood to oppose Tasi Mane. La'o Hamutuk and other critics say the Tibar container port is unnecessary, since the existing port in Dili operates only a few hours a day, far below capacity.

Alkatiri seems to be still looking for investors in Oecusse, though he says he has rejected an offer from China to take over the whole project, as well as a casino proposed by a European group.

The election factor

The arguments will surface in parliamentary elections due around May next year. Taur, who frequently tours the country's 13 districts and is officially non-partisan, looks to be preparing to enter electoral politics when his presidential term ends in February, under the flag of the People's Liberation Party, started by Aderito Soares, a former anti-corruption commissioner.

That would create a three-way contest with Gusmao's CNRT and Fretilin. Alkatiri, who is Fretilin's secretary-general, says the party will go all out to win an absolute majority "to protect the oil fund." Any coalition talk would happen after the election.

Alkatiri thinks that Gusmao will use the theme of Australia's alleged robbery of East Timorese maritime resources strongly in his campaign. "Xanana has been telling this: 'If you trusted me before, trust me now because I will bring the median line for you.'"

This would be politics presented as a continuation of the liberation struggle, as if no country was complete without permanent maritime boundaries, Alkatiri said. "This is the kind of politician that we have here," he said. "They know what the people like to hear, and if you go publicly against this you will be finished...."

La'o Hamutuk fears that time is running out for a debate. Unless public spending is scaled back to sustainable levels, the country faces an economic crisis in less than 10 years if, as seems likely, Greater Sunrise gas is not flowing before the existing oil fields are depleted and the Petroleum Fund is run down for stranded projects that will be expensive to maintain. Non-oil GDP is largely derived from public spending, which comes from oil.

Almond, the La'o Hamutuk analyst, says there is a feeling of "stability" and "progress" in Dili, where well-dressed workers crowd the Timor Plaza mall, hotel and office complex built by Darwin-based property entrepreneur Jape Kong Su, an ethnic Chinese trader who was among the refugees from civil strife as Portuguese rule ended in 1975.

"But that will crumble pretty soon after the oil is gone, unless other employment is there," Almond said. "I try to tell my young Timorese friends about it, but they don't grasp the urgency of the situation at all."

In the hills at Gleno, Dougan also frets that a crunch is coming in a few years for the government spending in Dili that indirectly feeds demand for his farmers' produce, while investment in skills, farm support, roads and shipping services to markets like Singapore is lagging. "We are running out of time," he said. "The window is closing."

Source: http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/East-Timor-s-development-dilemma

Time to draw the line

New Mandala - September 21, 2016

Australia must meet Timor-Leste halfway over their disputed sea border and the lucrative oil and gas reserves that lie beneath, writes Ines de Almeida.

In The Hague a United Nations Conciliation Commission has begun its work to help settle a long-running dispute between Timor-Leste and Australia - a dispute over where the sea border between our two nations should be.

International law of the sea states that where the coastlines of neighbours are less than 400 nautical miles apart, the sea border between nations should start halfway. This is a simple principle, easily understood and defined clearly.

But this principle has been opposed, ignored and discarded by Timor-Leste's neighbour and friend Australia for more than 50 years, and there is a plain and obvious reason for this: wealth from oil and gas in the Timor Sea.

In the 1960s, well before any sea border between Australia and Indonesia, long before Timor-Leste's former colonial ruler Portugal took Australia to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Timor Gap, and before Indonesia invaded East Timor, private companies, licenced by the Australian government, were exploring and confirming the presence of vast oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea. Portugal objected.

Some of these resources are currently being tapped, but other oil and gas reserves known as Greater Sunrise - valued at more than US $50 billion - are yet to be exploited. It's this oil and gas beneath the Timor Sea that is driving the Australian government's treatment of Timor-Leste.

If the sea border between Australia and Timor-Leste started at the median line, consistent with international law, then the oil and gas reserves would be the property of the people of Timor-Leste.

That is why Australia has no interest in discussing a fair sea border with Timor-Leste, and instead clings to a joint provisional arrangement, the Treaty of Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), which Timor-Leste says is void, dead, and has not worked. CMATS corrals the oil and gas reserves in a "shared" zone, but in reality resources are far closer to the shores of Timor-Leste than they are to Australia.

When independence was restored for the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in 2002, our new state was not just struggling to find its feet after Indonesia's brutal 24-year military occupation - as a people, we were gasping for air.

What Timor-Leste needed most was full nationhood with undisputed national borders – both land and sea – so like other countries, we had sovereignty over our natural resources and the opportunity to commence rebuilding a secure, healthy and prosperous nation.

This, however, was not a common goal. Leading up to our independence, Australia made it clear to Timor-Leste where it wanted the sea border. The Australian position was unacceptable to Timor-Leste.

Laying the groundwork for what was to follow, in March 2002, Australia quietly withdrew from the binding dispute resolution mechanism under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), specifically on the delimitation of maritime boundaries.

On the very day of the restoration of our independence, we were faced with having to sign the Timor Sea Treaty, the near mirror image of the 1989 Timor Gap treaty struck by Australia and Indonesia over our sea territory when we were illegally occupied.

Signed in May 2002 and valid until 2057, and covering joint petroleum development in Greater Sunrise, the Timor Sea Treaty served to maximise Australia's advantage and commercial interests and to keep its foothold in maritime territory that was not theirs.

It's now clear this was the plan all along. When you add together all of the Australian government action on this over the years, it is difficult to conclude otherwise.

First, there is Australia's longstanding refusal to negotiate a fair, median line border, despite Timor-Leste's justified protestations. The history demonstrates this refusal.

Australia's insistence instead on the Sunrise International Utilization Agreement and then CMATS, which deals Australia into oil and gas income from reserves in the Timor Sea far closer to Timor-Leste than Australia and, tries to stop us from having our maritime borders.

Then there's Australia's premeditated withdrawal from the dispute resolution mechanisms of UNCLOS and the ICJ in March 2002. Australia was vulnerable to the risks implicit in UNCLOS and the ICJ from its experience in 1989 when Portugal took Australia to the ICJ.

And of course, the Australian Government's decision to spy on Timor-Leste's officials during critical commercial, intergovernmental negotiations on the Timor Sea – a sinister miscalculation and a step too far.

In the years since securing independence, the people of Timor-Leste have worked hard to develop our economy and to lift health, housing, and education standards. But it takes time to rebuild a country after 24 years of war and occupation.

Timor-Leste is one of the youngest and poorest nations on earth, still receiving massive amounts of international aid each year and where 41 per cent of people live on US $1.25 a day.

By initiating the conciliation process now under way in The Hague, Timor-Leste is seeking to bring Australia to the negotiating table so that we can settle our dispute and agree on a sea border starting halfway between our two nations.

This stand-off is painful. Many Timorese have deep ties and love for Australia, despite their resources grab.

[Ines de Almeida is the Campaign Director for Time to Draw the Line.]

Source: http://www.newmandala.org/time-draw-line/

Time running out for Timor-Leste

Policy Forum - September 19, 2016

Development of the Greater Sunrise gas field is the key to the economic future of Timor-Leste, but an almost two-decade-long maritime territorial dispute with Australia could see ordinary Timorese people pay a high price for policy failure, Bec Strating writes.

On 29 August, UN conciliation processes began in The Hague between Timor-Leste and Australia in an effort to resolve the long-running dispute over maritime territory in the Timor Sea.

While Timor-Leste hopes this will solve the impasse, the conciliation process is limited in what it can achieve. A panel of five independent conciliators will offer non-binding recommendations, which are unlikely to substantially change Australia's approach.

Timor-Leste's overarching interest is in securing ownership of the lucrative Greater Sunrise gas field and developing an export pipeline to support its oil industrialisation ambitions. The conciliation is part of a broader public diplomacy strategy designed to pressure the Turnbull government to either negotiate permanent maritime boundaries or submit to an international tribunal on boundary delimitation.

In 2002, Australia withdrew from the relevant United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea arbitration instruments, which forced Timor-Leste to negotiate bilaterally within a context of significant power asymmetry.

However, Timor-Leste's strategy of taking it to The Hague fails to circumvent the key impediments and intractable disagreements preventing it from achieving its Greater Sunrise goals.

The real policy challenge for Timor-Leste is its heightened vulnerability caused by a rapidly declining economic situation. To put it bluntly, Timor-Leste is running out of time.

Around 95 per cent of Timor-Leste's state budget is derived from oil and gas revenues from the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA), which constitutes around 80 per cent of Timor-Leste's entire GDP. Economy monitor La'o Hamutuk estimates that the Bayu-Undan oil field will stop producing in 2022 and the country's $16 billion sovereign wealth fund could be depleted by 2025.(Click here to see map of Timor Sea Treaty arrangements).

Without recourse to a third-party arbitrator for the purposes of delimitation, Timor-Leste's significant oil dependence creates a vulnerability that has been exploited by successive Australian governments. This should not be surprising: it is consistent with Australia's historically realpolitik approach to the Timor Sea and questions of East Timorese self-determination.

Timor-Leste's rejuvenated bid for permanent maritime boundaries has been supported by activist-style rhetoric from government leaders that positions maritime boundary delimitation as the 'final stage' of Timor-Leste's achievement of sovereignty. While the Turnbull government has refused to enter discussions about permanent maritime boundaries – supporting instead the current, legally-binding treaties and moratorium on boundary delimitation – many supporters of Timor-Leste's claims are dissatisfied with these treaty arrangements.

Timor-Leste views the 2006 Treaty of Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS) as invalid due to alleged Australian spying during the 2004 negotiations. The spying allegations were not new, but seemingly dug up as a deliberate tactic designed to disentangle Timor-Leste from the CMATS. An International Court of Justice case to determine the validity of the CMATS is currently pending.

If Timor-Leste wins, it will mean going back to square one with Greater Sunrise negotiations. It is difficult to see how this presents a practical, long-term solution for resolving the dispute.

Despite the symbolic rhetoric about boundaries and sovereignty, the real contest around permanent maritime boundaries concerns where those boundaries should be drawn. This relates to Timor-Leste and Australia's differing interpretation of international law, specifically the guidelines provided by UNCLOS in boundary delimitation.

One misleading claim that recurs in commentary on this issue is that Timor-Leste would own the Timor Sea oil and gas if boundaries were settled according to UNCLOS principles of the median line.

It is true that the median line is supported by contemporary treaty law, state practice and international jurisprudence. However, the crucial line in determining ownership of Greater Sunrise specifically is not the median line, but the eastern lateral boundary.

Establishing a median line would give the JPDA to Timor-Leste, but it already receives a 90 per cent share of those depleting resources. For Timor-Leste to take possession of Greater Sunrise, the eastern lateral boundary that bifurcates it would need to shift substantially to the east.

Problematically for Timor-Leste, this interim eastern lateral boundary was drawn according to principles of 'simple equidistance'. Timor-Leste would need to prove why the boundary should be shifted east (eg 'adjusted equidistance'). Timor-Leste's leaders rely upon the 'Lowe Opinion' commissioned by an oil and gas company that was given original explorations rights by the Portuguese Timor administration in the 1970s. Other legal opinions, however, have supported Australia's 'simple equidistance' argument.

International law is not clearly defined: UNCLOS provides little guidance here beyond the requirement of equity in drawing boundaries. Timor-Leste appears confident that it would win in a court of law, but Australia's intransigence renders this an increasingly moot point. It seems unlikely that this conflict will be resolved in the future without either state compromising their respective claims.

The Timor Sea dispute increasingly resembles a game of brinkmanship, one that may prove disastrous for Timorese statehood. Australia can afford to prolong the dispute, and history tells us that it will continue to protect its national interests. But how will Timor-Leste furnish its state budget if an exploitation plan for Greater Sunrise is not agreed upon by 2025? Even if Timor-Leste could convince Australia to resolve the boundary in the ICJ, a resolution would be years away. Whether the court could even treat this as a bilateral dispute is questionable as Indonesia looms in the background as a potential third claimant.

The activist rhetoric of political leaders has inflamed the nationalist passions of the Timorese community about the Timor Sea, which renders it increasingly unlikely that leaders will be able to compromise without public backlash. Yet the dispute will remain unresolved as long as Timor-Leste continues to pursue its uncompromising and unrealistic foreign policy strategy.

Most troublingly, it will be ordinary Timorese citizens – not Dili elites – who will ultimately bear the cost of policy failure.

[This article is published in collaboration with New Mandala, the premier website for analysis on Southeast Asia's politics and society.]

Source: http://www.policyforum.net/time-running-timor-leste/

Australia's double standard over territorial disputes

China Daily - September 9, 2016

Wang Hui – The disputes between Australia and its smaller neighbor East Timor over maritime boundaries could serve as a useful lens for others to see through the double standard of some Western countries.

On Aug 29, Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and the Attorney General George Brandis said in a joint statement that Australia will argue that an arbitration body in The Hague has no jurisdiction to settle a dispute with East Timor over their maritime boundary, adding that Australia did not consider its final report would be binding.

The statement was issued the same day a conciliation commission was due to hear an arbitration case initiated by East Timor against Australia in The Hague over the disputed Timor Sea.

To cut a long story short, the feud between Australia and East Timor stems from the latter's attempt to renegotiate maritime boundaries with Australia in the Timor Sea, which is abundant in oil and natural gas reserves. Over the years, Australia has allegedly resorted to malpractice, such as spying, to gain commercial profits from a bilateral gas deal.

It is not uncommon for countries to have maritime demarcation disputes. Yet, what is uncommon in the Australia-East Timor dispute is the sharp difference between Australia's attitude towards its own maritime dispute and toward the territorial dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

Soon after an arbitral tribunal in The Hague handed down its ruling in favor of the Philippines in the South China Sea arbitration case on July 12, Australia joined a chorus led by the United States to press China to accept the ruling, giving a deaf year to China's stance that the arbitral tribunal had no jurisdiction over the case.

The two sets of disputes bear a lot of similarities: Both involve a big country with a smaller neighbor; the two smaller countries have unilaterally brought the disputes to arbitration; there is a bilateral agreement in place in both cases which shores up peaceful resolutions to maritime disputes.

The first two are clear, but more might need to be explained about the third similarity. While Australia and East Timor agreed a treaty in 2006 to shelve their border dispute for 50 years, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which the Philippines is a member, issued a Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in 2002, pledging that the parties concerned should resolve their dispute through negotiations.

Nonetheless, Canberra has let hypocrisy play an upper hand and employed a double standard in the two sets of maritime disputes. On July 25, the foreign ministers of Australia, US and Japan issued a trilateral statement in Vientiane, Laos, urging China to respect the international arbitration ruling.

Canberra has also claimed it will continue to exercise the freedom of navigation under the international law in the South China Sea.

"Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you." This is a simple doctrine in international relations, which Australia has apparently ignored when it insisted the conciliation commission has no jurisdiction over its own maritime disputes with East Timor but insisting the arbitral tribunal does have over the dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

Such a practice of double standard will only erode Australia's own credibility and fuel suspicions about Australia's sincerity about maintaining sound and robust ties with China.

As a non-party to the South China Sea disputes, Australia should not meddle in the troubled waters. Canberra needs to understand an objective, independent and impartial stance towards the disputes not only serves its own interests but the larger picture of China-Australia ties.

[The author is a senior writer with China Daily.]

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2016-09/09/content_26745815.htm

Commentary: Timor Sea needs good-faith talk, not double-faced bully

Xinhua - September 8, 2016

Wu Qiang, Beijing – The still fledgling Southeast Asian nation of Timor-Leste has taken Australia to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague over their maritime boundary dispute.

Dili resorted to PCA compulsory conciliation on April 11 after Canberra had refused to engage in direct talks over the demarcation of a permanent boundary at the Timor Sea between the two neighbors.

Among others at stake is an oil and gas field known as Greater Sunrise and estimated to contain 40 billion U.S. dollars' worth of resources. It lies closer to Timor-Leste.

Timor-Leste wants to formally establish its sea border with the big southern neighbor along the median line equidistant between the two countries, which would place Greater Sunrise within its embrace.

Yet Australia, which has fixed its eyes on Timor Sea resources for long, has apparently pre-empted its young and small neighbor at every move, with means both high-handed and below-the-belt.

According to Xanana Gusmao, Timor-Leste's resistance hero and first president, on May 20, 2002, the very day of his country's independence, Canberra forced newborn Dili to sign the Timor Sea Treaty, which largely inherited a 1989 treaty between Australia and Indonesia, the then occupier of Timor-Leste, and set the temporary sea boundary line far north of the median line.

In 2006, the two countries inked a treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS). It provides for an equal distribution of revenues from the Greater Sunrise deposits, but also imposes a 50-year moratorium on claims to sovereign rights and demarcation of maritime boundaries.

Yet the validity of the CMATS was called into question after it emerged in 2012 that Australian agents, posing as aid workers, bugged Timor-Leste's cabinet room and enabled Canberra to gain unfair advantages in the negotiations that led to the 2006 treaty.

After Dili initiated a PCA arbitration in 2013 following the espionage revelations, Australian agents raided the office in suburban Canberra of a lawyer representing Timor-Leste in the case and seized a trove of documents.

And Dili has also found out that two months before its independence, Australia cunningly excluded itself from the compulsory settlement of maritime boundary disputes at the International Court of Justice and under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

As for the ongoing PCA compulsory conciliation, Australia has insisted that the commission handling the case has no jurisdiction, and that even if it rules it has, its final report will not be binding.

Such domineering behavior makes a mockery of Canberra's holier-than-thou rhetoric just two months ago when it condemned China's "bullying" and preached international law over the South China Sea disputes.

Even if Canberra has a thick skin, its refusal to conduct direct talks with Dili, mixed with contempt of international norms and lapses of moral integrity, is a recipe for trouble.

If history is any guide, direct negotiation based on good faith is the best way to settle border disputes. It is high time that Australia heeded the historical lesson.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-09/09/c_135673361.htm

Australian hypocrisy on full view in UNCLOS case

Global Times - September 6, 2016

Callum Smith – Commenting on a certain international maritime dispute, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said, "this is an important decision, it is one that has been made in accordance with international law and it should be respected by both parties, and indeed by all parties and all claimants."

It's a shame his foreign minister doesn't seem to agree. Following the announcement of The Hague ruling on the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines, Australia was all too quick to condemn what it regarded as regional "bullying" in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and urged China not to pursue bilateral treaty agreements in lieu of a multilateral resolution.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop also reaffirmed Australia's commitment to exercising its rights to freedom of navigation. In her own words, to ignore the ruling would be a "serious international transgression," and that Australia would stand with the international community in calling for both sides to treat the arbitration as final and binding.

That opinion might have been taken more seriously if Australia followed up on its hollow commendation for multilateralism and international law with adherence to those ideals itself.

Australia has had its eye on Timorese oil for a while. Having endorsed the 1975-99 Indonesian occupation of East Timor during which up to 180,000 soldiers and citizens were killed, Australia was complicit in atrocities, and the only Western nation to recognize Indonesia's annexation of Timor-Leste – a means to an end, ensuring the ratification of the 1989 Timor Gap Treaty.

This treaty, famously celebrated with an in-flight champagne toast between then Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans and Ali Alatas, the Indonesian foreign minister and representative of "friend of the West" president Suharto, opened the Timor Gap to Australian and Indonesian exploitation. This left Timor-Leste without a permanent maritime border.

Most recently, the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), which Australia argues is the legal basis for its claims, was signed in 2006. This treaty is virtually equivalent to the 1989 treaty, except that the ratio of revenue distribution in the Joint Petroleum Development Area was changed in favor of East Timor to 90:10. On these grounds, Australia argues that its bilateral treaty with Timor-Leste is "fair."

This ratio is, however, based on a disputed definition of Australian borders which places the bulk of the Greater Sunrise gas field – 450 kilometers north-west of Darwin, or 150 kilometers south-east of Timor-Leste – in Australian territory. Amid tensions over the distribution of revenue, it was revealed that Australia had spied on treaty negotiations in 2004 under the guise of an aid program. It is yet to be tested whether this espionage is legally equivalent to fraud, a ruling which would invalidate the treaty.

The father of East Timorese independence, Xanana Gusmao, urged his Australian counterparts to "sit down as friends and negotiate," while the Australian government has explicitly rejected any ruling that may result from the arbitration that Timor-Leste has called for on the grounds of Australian fraud, and refused to participate in any such negotiations.

Australia argues that the commission does not have jurisdiction to conduct hearings on maritime boundaries. And, technically, it doesn't.

Australia lodged a declaration in 2002, just months before Timor-Leste declared its independence, stating that it does not accept the procedures provided in UNCLOS for resolution of maritime disputes. In other words, Australia does not recognize the legitimacy of any Hague ruling, nor is there any mechanism for implementation of any recommendations that may arise as a result of the arbitration.

Sound familiar? Like the South China Sea arbitration, there is an existing agreement that a single party retrospectively disputes. In 2006, China made a similar statement excluding itself from dispute settlement procedures, pursuant to Article 298 of UNCLOS.

Concurrent to its condemnation of China's preference for bilateral negotiations with the Philippines, and its criticism of Japan for withdrawing from UNCLOS in order to allegedly pursue whale slaughter, Australia exempts itself from the very conventions it cites in denouncing other nations' supposed violations of "international law."

Unfortunately, Australia's regional bullying and the embarrassing revelation of covert spy operations overshadow its otherwise admirable aid efforts in Timor-Leste.

What's more perplexing is Australia's brazen hypocrisy, reflected in its blatant double standards on international law. Bishop previously cautioned China on the "reputational cost" of ignoring the Hague ruling, a ruling that Australia does not recognize itself. Perhaps Australia should heed its own advice before calling the kettle black.

[The author is a Shanghai-based Australian scholar and commentator.]

Source: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1005032.shtml

Canberra should ditch double standards over maritime law

Global times - September 6, 2016

Su Hao and Wang Zheng – The South China Sea disputes should be resolved between China and other claimants, but countries from outside have intervened, making the regional situation more sophisticated and strained.

Around the announcement of arbitration tribunal over the South China Sea, Australia, as a country outside the region, called on China and the Philippines to abide by the award "which is final and binding on both parties," and claimed that it will continue to exercise the freedom of navigation under the international law. Canberra later released a joint statement with Washington and Tokyo, urging Beijing to respect the award. Australia attempts to perform "decently" by firmly supporting the international tribunal's ruling however absurd it is. But apparently, Canberra has adopted double standards.

The Australia-East Timor disputes over maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea have been simmering for a long time, and the case is being heard at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague at present.

But in the meantime, Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and the Attorney General George Brandis issued a joint statement: "In line with our pre-existing, legally binding treaties, which are in full accordance with international law, we will argue that the commission does not have jurisdiction to conduct hearings on maritime boundaries." This means Australia will not accept the tribunal's award on the disputes.

The border disputes between Australia and East Timor date back to the colonial age. East Timor was once colonized by Portugal and then controlled by Indonesia, but local people insisted on building an independent and sovereign state. The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste was officially founded on May 20, 2002 and was the first new-born nation of the 21st century. Although East Timor shared the Timor Sea with Australia, the maritime boundaries have not been settled between the two states. A number of agreements were reached between Australia and Indonesia over maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea in the 20th century, but they have not been recognized by the East Timorese government and people.

The Timor Sea Arrangement was signed between Australia and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) in July, 2001. The Timor Sea Treaty between Australia and East Timor took effect in April, 2003, and two sides reached consensus on the exploitation of resources. Australia and East Timor clinched the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea in January, 2006. They agreed to shelve the border disputes for 50 years and make a 50-50 split on the profits in the disputed Greater Sunrise.

However, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), most oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea fall within East Timor's territory, and thus the East Timorese government attempts to settle border disputes with Australia via negotiation or law, which was later turned down by the Australian side. Canberra's spying scandal in 2012 has intensified the maritime disputes. East Timor protested in March to demand negotiations with Australia, but the latter has not agreed to settle the disputes via bilateral talks. Australia refused to accept the PCA arbitration case initiated by East Timor in April.

The Australian foreign minister has shifted her attitude to the South China Sea arbitration within less than two months. It is ironic that Australia refuses to accept the Timor Sea arbitration but meanwhile urges China to abide by the South China Sea award.

Bishop claimed earlier that China should respect the South China Sea award that is "final and binding." Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne reached a consensus with his Japanese counterpart Tomomi Inada in August that China should abide by the South China Sea award. It puzzles the international community that the Australian government has adopted a totally different attitude on the Timor Sea arbitration, which was heard through the same system as in the South China Sea case.

Having denied the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal over maritime demarcation on its own account, Australia should not force other countries to accept the tribunal's award. Australia will lose its credibility over its "double standards." It should not involve itself in the South China Sea arbitration while challenged by the maritime boundary disputes itself.

It is power politics when Australia, with its own disputes unsettled, deploys military force to safeguard the so-called maritime orders in the waters of other countries. The Australian government should not do what it would not like the international community to do to itself.

[Su Hao is director of the Center for Strategic and Conflict Management at China Foreign Affairs University. Wang Zheng is a PhD candidate at China Foreign Affairs University.]

Source: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1005033.shtml

Overlapping claims in the Timor Sea

The Interpreter - September 5, 2016

Stephen Grenville – Senator Wong urges the Australian government to commit to an international process of dispute resolution to settle the maritime border between Australia and Timor Leste. The conciliation process currently underway in The Hague goes quite some distance in this direction, providing each side with the opportunity to set out its case. You can listen to the streaming of the opening public session here . It's a reminder of how complex this issue is.

The 2.5 hour opening session is a fascinating summary of the tragic history of Timor Leste and the series of negotiations and treaties, including Australia's ham-fisted spying efforts. If you just want an update on the rival border claims (which I looked at in detail here), start about 50 minutes in for the Timor Leste argument. For the Australian argument, start around 140 minutes in.

The commission can't determine the outcome of the dispute, but if it judges itself as competent to act in this case, it is likely to offer guidance on how the parties should negotiate a settlement. This guidance will not be binding on the parties, but will carry considerable weight. Finding an arrangement that both sides find equitable would challenge the Wisdom of Solomon.

Let's look at some possible outcomes:

If the 2006 CEMATS Treaty is valid, this would leave Timor unhappy, as its position is that 'CEMATS must go'. Timor has the option of terminating CMATS, but this opens up a can of worms, with uncertainty as to whether earlier treaties apply and how revenue would be divided. The border would still be unsettled.

If the commission suggests that the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) should belong to Timor (which might be the most straight-forward interpretation of a median boundary), this not only excludes most of Greater Sunrise gas field, but probably leaves Timor with significantly less revenue in the long run: it would get 100% of the JPDA revenue instead of 90%, but only 20% of Sunrise instead of 50%.

To put Sunrise in Timor territory, Timor would not only have to own the JPDA, but as well the eastern lateral boundary has to be further eastward than the edge of the JPDA, which would take the boundary into waters currently administered by Indonesia. If Indonesia becomes involved it might raise two matters: Indonesia's belief that it was 'taken to the cleaners' in the 1972 Treaty, which might lead it to demand a renegotiation, on the same basis as Timor's claim that it negotiated CMATS under duress. Indonesia could also point out that most of Sunrise is closer to Indonesia than it is to Timor.

What would Solomon do? His solution to the earlier overlapping claims was to offer to cut the disputed baby in two, which brought the disagreement to an equitable conclusion. Maybe the equivalent shock-judgment in this case would be for the commission to recognise that there are three countries – Australia, Timor and Indonesia – with valid interests in the Timor Sea. Neither Australia nor Timor would welcome this (as most of Sunrise might well end up belonging to Indonesia), but if the key element of UNCLOS is equity, Indonesia should be there.

Source: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2016/09/05/Overlapping-claims-in-the-Timor-Sea.aspx

East Timor deserves a fair hearing on maritime boundary

Melbourne Age Editorial - September 4, 2016

Australia and East Timor are at loggerheads over drawing a maritime boundary to finally and permanently resolve the division of undersea oil and gas resources. What might ordinarily be regarded as a quarrel between otherwise close friends has slowly festered into a toxic dispute, and now presents a serious obstacle to cordial neighbourly relations.

Trust has seemingly evaporated, in large part because of the extraordinary allegation that Australia spied on its tiny neighbour during its first days of independence to win commercial advantage. There is also a vexed history of Australia's dealings with Indonesia during the years of occupation. It is a notable sign of how prickly relations have become that no senior Australian politician, other than deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek, has visited East Timor since 2013, shortly after the spying claims first came to light.

The allegation is that Australian intelligence agents, under the guise of aid workers, bugged the cabinet office in Dili in 2004 during negotiations for a deal to share undersea resources, known as the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea. The treaty included a 50-50 split for resources in a rich gas field known as Greater Sunrise, but put off final negotiations on a maritime boundary for 50 years.

East Timor declared the treaty invalid in 2013 and instigated proceedings against Australia in The Hague in a bid to resolve the dispute. It is true Dili's hopes of developing Greater Sunrise have long been frustrated. It wants a pipeline to the south coast of East Timor for processing the resources, rather than proposals to use facilities in Darwin or a floating processing platform. But the cloak-and-dagger suspicions swirling around this case have fuelled a not unreasonable perception of bullying by the larger neighbour.

Shortly before the arbitration was to begin, ASIO raided the home and offices of an Australian lawyer working on the case. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has also confiscated the passport of a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer, known as "Witness K", which has prevented him from travelling to the arbitration hearing to testify. Australia disputes the spying allegation, and has every right to defend its conduct.

But the view that Australia has acted unreasonably is compounded by the otherwise inexplicable decision in 2002 to exempt itself under the law of the sea from any arbitration proceedings to resolve maritime boundaries. This exemption was announced just before East Timor formally won its independence.

East Timor has now turned to a never before invoked "conciliation commission" provision in international law in a bid to force negotiation. Dili claims the Greater Sunrise deposits fall entirely within its territory, and the existing arrangement was unfairly forced upon a new nation desperate for income but poorly equipped to negotiate. The first hearing was broadcast live from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague last week. Former guerrilla and independence hero Xanana Gusmao told of being "shocked and appalled" when he first heard of the alleged espionage.

This is an appeal to Australians' sense of fairness. Australia's stubborn response is disappointing. The government chose to reject the jurisdiction of the conciliation commission. Should its challenge fail, it has said it will participate in the process, but made a point of stressing before the hearing had even got under way that any outcome is not enforceable.

When friends fall out, it can sometimes take an independent mediator to make a judgment about who stands on the side of right. Australia should see conciliation as a chance to move this bitter dispute towards a resolution.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/east-timor-deserves-a-fair-hearing-on-maritime-boundary-20160902-gr7tv7.html