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East Timor ACTION Network ALERTContact Your Representative to Sign a Congressional Letter Urging Australia to Negotiate Fairly with East TimorCall Today through March 3 to Insist that the U.S. Congress Send the Strongest Message Possible on a Permanent Maritime BoundaryNote new deadline!Ask your representative to sign the Congressional letter being circulating by Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) to Australia’s prime minister urging his government to fairly and expeditiously negotiate with East Timor a permanent maritime boundary and equitable sharing of oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea. The text of the letter is below. Over the last few weeks, hundreds of you sent a strong message to the Australian government via its embassy in Washington that people in the U.S. will not stand idly by as Australia robs East Timor. Now Australia’s prime minister must hear the same support for East Timor from the U.S. House of Representatives! We need to get as many representatives as possible to sign this letter to send as loud a message as possible. Call your representative today! The Congressional switchboard number is 202-224-3121. Ask for your representative's office, and then ask to speak with the foreign policy aide. If you don't know who your representative is, go to www.house.gov to find out. Signers to date include: Barney Frank (MA); Maurice Hinchey (NY); Raul Grijalva (AZ); Lane Evans (IL); Jim McGovern (MA); Dale Kildee (MI); Donald Payne (NJ); John Olver (MA); Tammy Baldwin (WI); Ed Towns (D-NY); Nita Lowey (NY); Charles Rangel (NY); Dennis Kucinich (OH); Patrick Kennedy (RI); James Langevin (RI); Jim McDermott (WA); Rahm Emanuel (IL); Carolyn Maloney (NY); Henry Waxman (CA); Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC); Julia Carson (IN), Ellen Tauscher (CA), Lantos (CA), Anthony Weiner (NY), Mike Honda (CA), Major Owens (NY), Berman (CA), Dennis Cardoza (CA), Madeleine Bordallo (GU), Gary Ackerman (NY), Neil Abercrombie (HI), John Lewis (GA), Pete Stark (CA), William Lipinski (IL), Barbara Lee (CA), Danny Davis (IL), Chris Smith (NJ), Nancy Pelosi (CA); Ed Pastor (AZ); Janice Schakowsky (IL), Robert Wexler (FL); Peter DeFazio (OR); Robert Andrews (NJ) Tell your Representative to:
To sign the letter, Congressional offices should contact Daniel McGlinchey (x 53548) in Representative Frank’s office by Friday, February 20th. Please let us know the results of your efforts. Contact us at etan@etan.org or fax (718-222-4096) with a copy of the letter you send. Thank you! For more background, see http://www.etan.org/issues/tsea.htm.
Dear Colleague, Although history has made it the poorest country in Southeast Asia, East Timor -- the world's newest independent state -- could benefit from large gas reserves that lie under the sea that separates it from Australia. East Timor's parliament passed a maritime boundaries law in 2002 claiming a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone in all directions, and the Timorese government, with the backing of the United Nations, announced that it wanted to negotiate a permanent maritime boundary with Australia. An agreement on permanent boundaries, and the consequent ability to derive revenues from the development of offshore petroleum and other resources, is essential to East Timor's ability to rebuild its nation, alleviate mass poverty, and avoid long-term dependence on foreign aid. Under normal international practice and legal principles established by case and statutory law since the signing of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), drawing a line halfway between the coastlines of two countries is the normal way to establish maritime boundaries when two countries are closer than 400 nautical miles apart. The Australian Government withdrew its consent, however, to the maritime boundary jurisdiction of relevant international dispute resolution bodies - the International Court of Justice and the mechanisms under UNCLOS -- thus leaving East Timor at the mercy of bilateral negotiations with its larger neighbor. Several "interim" resource-sharing agreements have been signed by Australia and East Timor for the development of some of these resources, but there is no revenue sharing arrangement in place for several oil fields currently being exploited by the Australian government, despite the fact that they are twice as close to East Timor as to Australia. 80% of the biggest single known resource in the Timor Sea - the Greater Sunrise field, which is also closer to East Timor than Australia - also remains in dispute. More than one year after East Timor's prime minister requested negotiations on establishing a permanent maritime boundary, the Australian prime minister agreed to begin talks last November, but he declined to accept a timetable or an end date for resolving the issue. An agreement on maritime boundaries is particularly pressing in light of Australia's continuing issuance of licenses and active depletion of resources in disputed areas. Australia stands to profit by waiting out the exhaustion of oil and natural gas resources before agreeing to a boundary, taking revenue that would not only belong to East Timor under normal international practice, but would also help it escape from the dire poverty and become independent of foreign donors. Please join me on the attached letter (see reverse side) to the Australian prime minister urging his government to move seriously and expeditiously in negotiations with East Timor to establish a fair maritime boundary and an equitable sharing of oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea. If you have any questions or would like to sign this letter, please email or call Daniel McGlinchey (x 53548) in my office by Friday, February 20th. BARNEY FRANK March xx, 2004 Dear Prime Minister Howard: As members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are strong supporters of East Timor, we write to urge your country to move seriously and expeditiously in negotiations with East Timor to establish a fair, permanent maritime boundary and an equitable sharing of oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea. We recognize the critical role your country played in East Timor's fight for independence, and we know your diplomatic efforts were instrumental in prompting the dialogue between Indonesian officials and East Timorese nationalists that led to the vote for independence. Australia's commitment to regional security, and its concern for East Timor in particular, was also evident when you indicated last June that Australian troops might remain in East Timor for years to prevent the country from "coming under unacceptable strain and perhaps collapse." As the poorest country in Southeast Asia, East Timor's dependence on foreign aid is one factor that keeps it from consolidating its stability and economic development, which of course adds greatly to the strain the country continues to face. This is why we support the statement our colleagues on the Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee included in the report that accompanied this year's foreign aid bill underscoring how important the negotiations over the maritime boundary and the petroleum reserves are to the future economic development and security of East Timor. We also join our Senate colleagues in urging both governments to engage in good faith negotiations to resolve their maritime boundary in accordance with international legal principles, and we hope both governments will agree to a legal process for an impartial resolution if the boundary dispute cannot be settled by negotiation. We also urge you to heed Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's call to conclude negotiations within three to five years. We were pleased that a preliminary meeting between your two governments was held in November, but we were disappointed by your government's insistence that bilateral meetings on the boundary be semi-annual and encourage you to hold them monthly, as requested by East Timor. Finally, given the overlapping claims of the two countries, we would strongly hope that any revenue from disputed areas on East Timor's side of the median line but outside the Joint Petroleum Development Area defined in the Timor Sea Treaty be held in escrow until a permanent boundary is established. We trust your country's commitment to the freedom and security of East Timor will include recognition of East Timor's territorial integrity and its right to a swift resolution of the maritime boundary dispute. |
