Women ask for bigger role in E. Timor peace-building

Kyodo News

BANGKOK, June 14 --

The U.N. Development Fund for Women urged Wednesday that women be given more active roles in U.N. peacekeeping forces, notably in East Timor, a U.N. official said in Bangkok.

"Although women have participated in the peace process, the U.N. is unhappy with women's positions in the peacekeeping force in East Timor," said Thelma Kay, chief of the Women in Development section of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). ESCAP is a U.N. agency.

The issues and demands of women, including promotion, have been raised to U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) chief Sergio Vieira de Mello, but he has not yet responded, Kay said at a press conference.

The 23rd special session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York last week adopted political resolutions to encourage the full participation of woman in all levels of decision-making in conflict resolution, peacekeeping, peacemaking and preventive diplomacy, she added.

UNTAET, which will administer East Timor for two to three years during its transition to independence, has about 9,000 peacekeeping troops in the territory.

But top levels of command in the force have been dominated by men since the beginning, Kay noted.

Lt. Gen. Jaime de los Santos of the Philippines is the peacekeeping force commander and Maj. Gen. Michael Smith of Australia is his deputy.

The Philippines has recently proposed rotating the top post among Southeast Asian countries, but so far no one has suggested women be considered for command.

Subject: AU: East Timor wants new gap treaty Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 10:24:20 -0400 From: "John M.Miller" <fbp@igc.org> (by way of "John M.Miller" <fbp@igc.org>) To: john@goodlight.net

Also: Australia Wants New Timor Gap Pact To Benefit Both Sides

The Australian East Timor wants new gap treaty From PETER ALFORD in Dili and ROBERT GARRAN

15jun00

EAST Timor's leadership wants to dismantle the Timor Gap treaty and draw a new maritime boundary that would put virtually all the petroleum-rich Australia-Indonesia joint development area under the new state's control.

The National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) wants agreement with Canberra on a new international boundary by the time East Timor's first independent government is established next year. Mari'e Alkatiri, CNRT's economic planning chief, and Peter Galbraith, the political chief of the UN Transitional Authority in East Timor, will hold talks with officials in Canberra today to press their claim.

In a fundamental shift, the CNRT, effectively East Timor's government-in-waiting, is insisting that a new seabed boundary drawn an equal distance between East Timor and Australia is the starting point for negotiations on a new Timor Gap oil and gas revenue-sharing deal. This would give East Timor a crucial fiscal fillip, but Australia would lose significant royalty revenue.

Future oil and gas royalties of up to $US100 million ($170 million) a year could be at stake in any new Timor Gap deal between Australia and a desperately under-developed East Timor. Until now, independence leader and CNRT president Xanana Gusmao had indicated East Timor was prepared to take over Indonesia's Area A entitlements under the 1989 treaty but wanted a larger share of the revenues.

"We are doing everything we can to have this settled and ready to be signed by the first elected leader of the new East Timor nation," Mr Alkatiri told The Australian this week.

Australian officials are willing to negotiate a new agreement in time for independence, but are unlikely to concede ground on the boundaries of the Zone of Co-operation.

Anthony Bergin, of the Australian Defence Studies Centre, said Australia would be under strong political pressure to give a much more generous share of royalty revenue to East Timor than under existing arrangements, which are to share royalties equally.

UNTAET is working on having an East Timorese constitution settled, and a national election, by the end of next year, possibly even by June 2001, and independence is tentatively planned for January 2002.

"We are not thinking of (Timor Gap treaty) renegotiation but a new treaty," said Mr Alkatiri. "Of course, some of the terms will be the same but the starting point needs to be the drawing of a maritime boundary between our countries and that means the (Timor Gap) treaty would not have any effect any more."

Professor Bergin said opinion in international law had shifted substantially since the original treaty, and the original legal basis of Australia's stance in the Timor Gap treaty would now be seriously questioned in any international tribunal. end

-- Australia Wants New Timor Gap Pact To Benefit Both Sides 06/15/2000

CANBERRA -(Dow Jones)- Australia wants any renegotiation of the terms of the Timor Gap treaty to benefit both sides, include underpinning a stable and independent East Timor , a spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday.

The spokesman was commenting on a report that the National Council of Timorese Resistance wants to make a new treaty and establish a new boundary with Australia that would put much of the energy-rich area in the Timor Sea under East Timor control.

The report, in the Australian newspaper, said the council wants the boundary at the midpoint between the two countries, rather than close to East Timor as it is now.

Council and Australian officials met in Canberra Thursday to discuss the claim and other relevant matters.

A spokesman for Industry, Science and Resources Minister Nick Minchin said officials at the ongoing talks came from this department, the departments of foreign affairs and treasury and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor , and included a representative from the council.

No further comment was available about the talks late Thursday, Minchin's spokesman said.

Minister Downer is "aware of speculation in the press about the possible outcome of the renegotiation of the treaty arrangements with East Timor ," his spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.

"In negotiating a new regime for the Timor Gap, we would only consider a package which can be demonstrated to include substantial benefits for Australia as well as East Timor .

"We will look to establish a new Timor Gap arrangement which contributed to a stable and nondependent East Timorese economy," he added.

Australia To Renegotiate In Due Course

Downer's spokesman also said the Timor Gap treaty arrangements will need to be agreed in due course, but he couldn't give a timetable.

In the meantime, both parties are fully aware of the commercial importance of maintaining stability in the Timor Gap regime, the spokesman said.

But it still is too early to decide the scope of any realignment of renegotiation, he said.

The council was described by the Australian newspaper as East Timor 's government-in-waiting when UNTAET hands over power in 2001.

The Australian newspaper said that if the boundary between the two countries was drawn midway, East Timor would gain substantial royalty revenue from new energy developments planned in the area, but at Australia's loss.

The treaty was drawn up in 1989 between Australia and Indonesia but lapsed following Indonesia's withdrawal in 1999.

The terms of the Timor Gap treaty now are covered by a memorandum of understanding between Australia and UNTAET, which is overseeing the fledgling nation's transition to full independence.

The distance between the northwest coast of Australia and East Timor is less than 400 nautical miles.

In this area, Australia historically has claimed a continental shelf that extends to a geomorphological feature known as the Timor Trough, which is 3,000 meters deep but only 30-60 nautical miles from the coast of Timor . Royalty Payments Likely To Jump

While royalty payments from energy production in the Timor Gap area are still relatively small, they could rise sharply in coming years.

According to the government agency that manages the treaty on Australia's behalf, until mid-1999 only about A$2.5 million in royalties had been distributed to each side.

Since then, the Laminaria/Corallina field has come on-line, now producing 170,000 barrels of crude oil a day. This field is 45% owned by Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (A.WPL), with Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD) holding 22% and Broken Hill Proprietary Co. (BHP) the 33% balance.

Phillips Petroleum Co. (P), the operator of the Bayu-Undan project in the Timor Sea, announced Oct. 26, 1999, that it planned to proceed with a US$1.4 billion development to extract liquefied petroleum gas and condensate from the field, with production starting 2004.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Woodside Petroleum also are considering developing their Northern Australian Gas Venture based on huge unexploited resources in the Timor Sea.

These all are in the area covered by the treaty and could provide some revenue for the desperately poor East Timor , which was ransacked by Indonesia before it withdrew from the territory.

Bill Campbell, director of the office of international law in Australia's Attorney-General's department, Wednesday said that under international law, Australia has a legitimate claim for the current boundary as does East Timor for a midway boundary.

"Boundary issues are best resolved by agreement, negotiated in good faith to the mutual satisfaction of the parties," Campbell said in a statement, adding that few limits exist on such forms of maritime arrangements.

Campbell also said Australia's national interest must be considered.

An important element of this, he said, is continuity and stability in the application of a legal regime covering exploration and exploitation of resources, an element also important to companies that invest to explore or exploit resources.

"Therefore, in relation to the Timor Gap, it would be desirable for the relevant parties to agree, prior to independence, on an agreement which will take effect on independence," he said.

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