The Wire

Negotiations between East Timor and Australia over who has the right to mine oil fields in the Timor Sea ended last week with neither country budging from their positions. Against the wishes of East Timor, Australia is mining oil a field known as Greater Sunrise. Australia maintains it has the right to do this because in 2003 Australia and Timor Leste signed the Greater Sunrise Unitisation Agreement which handed 80% of the field to Australia, a deal worth $8 billion dollars. While Australia insists it negotiated in good faith and so expects the deal to be ratified, East Timor has stressed that it won’t ratify the deal until a maritime boundary dispute between the two nations resolved. International Maritime law would most likely hand the territory to East Timor. The East Timorese government has pledged to keep diplomatic channels open, however, there is growing resentment amongst ordinary Timorese citizens. Erica Vowles spoke to Dr Christopher Henry Samson, representing the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea, which has conducted several protests on the issue outside the Australian embassy in Dili. She also spoke to Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, Minister for Foreign Affairs in East Timor’s Transitional Administration, and Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown.

East Timor Action Network
Timor Sea Justice