Australia and East Timor appear to remain at loggerheads over multi-billion dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, with no resolution announced at the end of three days of talks.
But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer maintained Australia was not ripping off East Timor over the joint oil treaty and said the federal government wanted to help its tiny neighbour.
Malcolm Brown – Fifty East Timorese who came to Australia 10 years ago or more as refugees, settled in the country and sent their children to school, have now been told they are no longer wanted here – and have just 28 days to get out.
Lisbon – East Timor's government and the nation's powerful Roman Catholic Church have settled a dispute over an end to compulsory religious classes in state schools, East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatari said Thursday.
The latest TV ads about the Timor Sea dispute, financed by Australian businessman Ian Melrose, have been refused approval by the Commercials Advice Division (CAD) of Free TV Australia.
The ads feature World War Two veterans, who fought in East Timor, attacking John Howard over his Government's unilateral depletion of gas and oil fields in the Timor Sea.
Reporter: Tony Jones
Tony Jones: Sister Susan Connolly is one of Australia's best-known and longest-serving advocates for the East Timorese people. She's the Assistant Director of the Mary MacKillop Institute for East Timor Studies in Sydney and she joins us now. Thank you for joining us.
Sr Connolly: Thank you, Tony.
Tom Allard – Australia and East Timor are close to a historic agreement on sharing the revenue from the lucrative gas and oil fields in the Timor Gap after a multibillion-dollar offer by Australia to help develop the fledgling nation.
Jon Lamb – A series of rallies organised by the Catholic Church in East Timor is another sign of the simmering discontent and frustration held by many East Timorese.
Max Lane, Sydney – On April 26, a new round of negotiations will start between the Australian and East Timorese governments over the maritime boundary between the two countries.
The results of the most recent negotiations held last March in Canberra-Australia, spoke about the establishment of a Resources Sharing Agreement or an agreement which favours a "legal framework" for a "creative solution".
Australia has warned that East Timor could lose some revenue if it insists on drawing a permanent seabed boundary in the Timor Sea. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer issued the caution as boundary negotiations resumed in Dili today.
Sydney – Australia "isn't just a charity" and would protect its own interests in a territorial dispute with East Timor involving potentially billions of dollars from oil and gas reserves, the foreign minister said Tuesday.
Yemris Fointuna, Kupang (West Nusa Tenggara) – The West Nusa Tenggara provincial administration called on the central government to hold talks with the East Timor government to ensure a thorough investigation into the recent shooting of an Indonesian Military (TNI) soldier on the border between the two countries. The move was necessary to avoid security instability in the area.
With high hopes for a compromise, Australia and East Timor are to resume talks over multi-billion dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
The talks, drawn out over the past year, have stalled repeatedly over the disputed maritime boundary between Australia and its tiny neighbour.
In the lead up to next week's maritime boundary negotiations between Australia and East Timor, the Australian Council of Trade Unions is calling on the Australian Government to ensure East Timor receives its fair share of benefits from gas and oil projects in the Timor Sea.
Australia's top labor union leader demanded Saturday that Australian government negotiators give impoverished East Timor a fair share of multi-billion dollar oil and gas deposits under the sea that separates the two nations.
Emeritus consultant gynaecologist, Barry Mendelawitz, who spent time working in East Timor, has felt compelled by the abysmal state of East Timor's health system to urge the Australian Government to give our neighbours a fair go in the Timor Sea.
Reporter: Rachel Carbonell
Eleanor Hall: The President of East Timor is playing down concerns that the dispute between Church and State that's erupted in the young nation could escalate. Police are barricading government buildings in the capital Dili, as thousands of people protest against plans to make religious education in East Timor's state schools voluntary.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – About 5000 East Timorese protesters calling for the Prime Minister to resign were camped in Dili yesterday under banners reading "End the Dictatorship".
The demonstrators, backed by the Catholic Church, have been prevented by riot police from entering the capital's main square, but have remained in a side street.
Dili – President Xanana Gusmao condemned the East Timorese Catholic Church's continuing demonstrations against the government Thursday, saying he would not allow street protests to bring down Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's cabinet.
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor was last night facing its worst crisis since independence after influential sections of the Catholic Church called people into the capital, Dili, to protest against the Government.
[IFET sent the following letter yesterday to the UN Commission of Experts which is examining justice for East Timor. The letter, including a formatted PDF version, is online at http://etan.org/ifet/docs/04202005.htm.]
Justice Prafullachandra Bhagwati
Professor Yozo Yokota
Ms. Shaista Shameem
Dili – Hundreds of peaceful Catholic protestors kept up their pressure on East Timor's government for a second day Wednesday, but both the religious activists and the government toned down their sometimes inflamed rhetoric.
Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne – The Timor Sea Justice Campaign is set to broadcast its next series of television advertisements to coincide with Anzac Day on April 25. The group has chosen this time to focus on Australian soldiers and their relationship with East Timor.
Veronica Brooks, Canberra – Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Wednesday maritime boundary negotiations with East Timor will resume next week, marking the sixth meeting in a year as the two sides move closer to a deal.
Rosa Garcia, Dili – East Timor's influential Catholic clergy on Tuesday rallied thousands to protest against Dili's "dictatorship regime" in the latest sign of a growing rift between church and state in the fledgling country.
Dili – Hundreds of East Timorese Catholics, angered by moves to demote religion classes in public schools, gathered in front of Dili's government building Tuesday to protest what they call "dictatorial" policies by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
Dili – Police in East Timor prevented about 200 people entering Dili late Monday to attend a demonstration in the capital called by supporters of the country's powerful Roman Catholic Church against a government trial to end compulsory religion classes in schools.
Dili – The struggle between East Timor's government and influential Roman Catholic Church intensified Monday with the church hierarchy accusing Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's cabinet of being secret Marxists who endanger democracy.
Nick Lenaghan – A group of Australian World War II veterans have weathered criticism from the RSL and Canberra over an advertising campaign condemning the federal government's stance on East Timor's oil and gas rights.
Comments made by Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, regarding advertisements featuring World War Two veterans criticising the Government's theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources, were today branded as ludicrous and disappointing by the Timor Sea Justice Campaign.
Timorese journalists, lawyers and MPs met in Dili on March 22 to debate media freedom and Timor-Leste's draft penal code at a seminar entitled "Media law and human rights" (Lei media ho direitus humanus).
More than 60 people attended the seminar, which was co-hosted by the Judicial Systems Monitoring Program (JSMP) and Internews.
Max Lane – Around 200 East Timorese protesters were attacked on April 9 by police, including special branch paramilitary forces.
Dili – Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has accused leaders of East Timor's Roman Catholic Church of attempting to play the role of political opposition in its recent criticism of a government pilot scheme to end compulsory religious education in schools.
Dili – An increasingly bitter dispute between the government of East Timor and the country's spiritual leaders over plans to demote religious teaching in schools escalated Monday after two Roman Catholic bishops accused the Dili executive of causing "great offense" to their church.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono laid a wreath at an East Timor cemetery where Indonesian soldiers massacred dozens of pro-independence protestors 14 years ago.
Around 200 East Timorese protesters were attacked this morning (April 9) by East Timorese police, including special branch paramilitary forces.
Rendi A. Witular, Dili – Indonesia and East Timor announced on Friday an agreement on territorial borders as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono began his two-day visit to the country's former colony.
Prime Minister John Howard has always recognised history and its interpretation as a potent political weapon.
With a 21-gun salute, Indonesia's president was greeted in East Timor on a visit to bolster reconciliation between Jakarta and the territory it once occupied with brutal force.
National anthems of both countries were played at Dili's rudimentary airport after Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived on a Garuda Indonesian flight direct from a tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Julian Lee – Channel Seven and SBS have refused to air an ad campaign condemning the Prime Minister, John Howard, for "stealing" billions of dollars of East Timorese oil and gas revenues, a stance that may trigger court action and highlights the thorny issue of freedom of expression.
In this episode of The Editors, we discuss the commission of truth and friendship set up after Indonesia's occupation of East Timor and deaths of up to 200,000 people. Grace Phan speaks to Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirayuda, and human rights lawyer, Adirito de Jesus Soares.
On the sixth anniversary of the massacres at the Catholic Church in Liquica, East Timor, the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) urged the international community to heed East Timorese cries for justice.
"The international community must keep its commitment to the victims of this and other horrific crimes committed in East Timor," said John M.
Dili – Dozens of demonstrators demanding justice greeted the UN Commission of Experts on its arrival Tuesday in Dili to assess progress made by East Timor and Indonesia in trying those responsible for crimes against humanity in 1999 when the Timorese broke from Jakarta's occupation.
Hundreds of students and National Alliance for an International Tribunal members demonstrated Tuesday at Dili Airport to press a UN Commissions of Experts to seriously investigate abuses in East Timor in 1999.
The protesters underlined the lack of action on abuses perpetrated on East Timorese by wearing black gags emblazoned with "We need Justice" across their mouths.
Australia wants a final decision on the boundary in the Timor sea to be deferred for up to 100 years so that oil and gas projects worth 40 billion dollars can go ahead, and has offered Dili $3 billion to put aside its concerns about sovereignty.
Alecia D. McKenzie, Siem Reap (Cambodia) – The first lady of the world's newest nation, East Timor, is sitting in the audience of an international meeting, listening to the prime minister of Cambodia give an impassioned speech. In her arms she cradles a cherubic-looking baby, who smiles frequently.
Mark Dodd – It caused outrage among East Timorese and Australian troops sent to protect them, raised tensions among UN peacekeepers to a deadly new level and caused senior UN staff to resign in disgust.
The deployment of Jordanian peacekeepers to East Timor was probably one of the most contentious UN decisions to follow the bloody independence ballot.
Channel 7 and SBS have announced that they will not be screening the latest television commercials about the Timor Sea dispute written and funded by Australian businessperson Ian Melrose.
Canberra – Australia's treatment of East Timor over oil and gas revenues has been compared to the actions of the late disgraced businessman Christopher Skase.
Melbourne businessman Ian Melrose has funded television advertisements, which will air over the Easter weekend, criticising Australia's position on talks with East Timor over sea boundaries.
Lisbon – Foreign Minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral says Lisbon's new Socialist government intends to increase its cooperation with Portuguese-speaking African countries and East Timor, while simultaneously seeking a more dynamic role within the European Union.