BUNARIA (TOP) – After all theFRETILIN bases collapsed and the assassination of President Nicolau dos Reis Lobato on 31 December 1978, Xanana began his underground or clandestine movement from Mehara-Lospalos to all over Timor-Leste.
Xanana, who was later appointed as Chief Commander of FALINTIL, the armed forces resistance explained that when he left Mehara he brought with him about three squads of troops who had died one by one during the war against the Indonesian military in the jungle.
After hiding for several nights with his combatants on the top of Mount Ramelau, he then returned to the slopes of Mount Kablaki in the area between Same-Manufahi and Ainaro and then walked again to a place called Bunaria.
When hundreds of thousands of Timorese people died and fought against Indonesia to defend the sovereignty of this small country, a big country like Australia, which was rich and prosperous, was smart to use this bloody opportunity to sign an agreement with Indonesia that supported it in carrying out a massive military invasion in December 1975. The agreement called Timor Gap.
"Here in Bunaria-Ainaro I heard a radio news broadcast that Australia and Indonesia signed the Timor Gap Treaty," said Xanana while visiting his hideout surrounded by 7 Indonesian military battalions in 1989.
ABC Radio journalist, Robert Domm was one of the first foreign journalists to interview the Chief Commander of FALINTIL, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão in the Bunaria-Ainaro forest in late 1989./Net.
"While in the jungle I may lose everything but I always carry my weapon and a small radio to hear world news," Xanana said in Bunaria last week.
Xanana explained that it was in Bunaria that the first foreign journalists interviewed him about the war situation in Timor-Leste and also attacked Australia about the signing of the Timor Gap treaty.
After the results of an interview with Australian journalist Robert Domm published this news in several Australian media, Xanana also sent a letter of protest to the Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke and also to the Australian parliamentary delegation in February 1991.
"Australia has been part of the genocide carried out by the occupying force because it is with its interests that it wants to secure Indonesia by openly supporting the annexation of Timor-Leste. The real proof is the Timor Gap Treaty," Xanana's letter of protest in February 1991.
Australia has long had a strong interest in expanding its access to oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea. Australia occupied the maritime territories of neighboring countries through bilateral negotiations.
Australia's culture, political society and possessions will not want to lose billions of dollars in petroleum revenues.
The chronology of Australia's arrogance occupies the Timor Sea
According to several sources accessed by The Oe-Kusi Post (TOP), in 1968 the Australian government appealed to Portugal to explore for oil and gas on the south coast of Timor-Portuguese.
Since 1963, Australia has been accused of stealing oil from its neighbor, Timor-Leste.
Timor-Leste was a colony of Portugal for 450 years. In 1975, it was occupied by Indonesia which lasted until 1999. After gaining its independence in 2002, Timor-Leste challenged the maritime boundaries declared by Australia which deprives the small nation the right to earn revenues from its oil and gas resources.
The Timor-Leste government is urging the Australian government to recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and that it establishes its border on the midline between the two countries, as is referred in international law.
Median Line./Net.
At stake are the offshore oil and gas reserves that exist in the “Greater Sunrise” region, located next to Timor-Leste. So far, the Australian government has not shown any willingness to let go of these resources, valued at $40 billion, or to return to the negotiating table, despite the appeals by the Timorese authorities.
The “greed” for the exploitation of Timor-Leste's resources dates back to 1963 when the Australian government issued a license for petroleum extraction to Woodside Petroleum, a company that had explored the mineral resources in the Timor Sea. In 1972, Australia agreed on a “very favorable” deal with President Suharto's regime in Indonesia that garnered a “broader maritime boundary closer to Indonesia,” thus obtaining access to more mineral resources — an agreement that Portugal rejected:
“Portugal – then the administering colonial power in Timor-Leste – refused to join the negotiations, preferring to wait for the international process which, in 1982, resulted in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS. Portugal’s decision created the “Timor Gap” in the Australian–Indonesian sea boundary”.
From 1989 to 1999 Australia exploited Timor-Leste's offshore mineral resources “illegally by unilaterally recognizing the ‘de facto’ integration of [Timorese] territory into Indonesia and turning a blind eye to the atrocities and crimes committed against human rights,” as stated researcher, Marisa Gonçalves.
Australia and Indonesia, in 1989, entered into an “agreement of cooperation on a 50/50 basis” to exploit the mineral resources of the Timor Gap, an agreement that Portugal rejected and “challenged…in the International Court of Justice, but the action lapsed in the face of Indonesia's refusal to recognize the court's jurisdiction,” explains Michael Leach, professor and researcher of politics at Swinburne University in Melbourne.
In 2013, the Australian government was accused by the Timorese government of illicitly obtaining confidential information about offshore oil and gas in the Timor Sea, having “undermined the Timorese during the negotiations for the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea in 2004.” According to reports, Australian spies had placed eavesdropping devices inside the government palace and used what they heard to their advantage in negotiations with the Timorese government.
Xanana already showed his abilities during the fight against the Indonesian occupation. When he was attacked by the Indonesian military, Xanana always escaped the deadly attacks. He realized that his safety situation was a miracle and a gift from God and also a power from nature (amulet) because he always escaped thousands of deadly attacks by the Indonesian military from 1975 until his arrest in the early morning of November 20, 1992.
"We are talking about defending maritime boundaries even though we get deadly attacks but we have to keep fighting. Therefore, after we became independent, I continue to adhere to this principle until we win maritime boundaries against Australia," Xanana explained to his combatants.
Xanana explained that after ABC radio journalist Robert Dom returned to Dili, they were suddenly surrounded and attacked by 7 battalions of Indonesian military during seven days.
“At that time, I brought 12 FALINTIL members and only three escaped and were still alive until now, myself, Teofilo now lives in Lospalos and Alende,” Xanana described the war situation at that time as very deadly.
He added that since the resistance period he has known Australia's greed for oil and gas in the Timor Sea, and Australia is one of the western countries in the world that supports the integration of Timor-Leste into Indonesia.
"Now we have to work hard to bring the pipeline here, and while I am still alive, I will not let it go to Australia."
Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão./Net.
In December last year, Woodside Energy chief executive Meg O’Neill told analysts the company would reassess its view that piping gas from the Greater Sunrise field to the undeveloped south coast of East Timor was not viable.
“We feel it’s appropriate to reopen the concept evaluation,” Ms O’Neill said. She noted new technology, such as modular LNG, had emerged to challenge Woodside’s previous view that the only commercially feasible option was to process gas in Darwin, which is already home to two LNG plants.
But the former prime minister of Timor-Leste, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão has repeatedly stated that his government for 10 years has conducted research on this matter and shown that it is economically viable to piped the Greater Sunrise pipeline to Timor-Leste.
Xanana even added that while he is still alive he will not allow the Greater Sunrise pipeline to be pulled to Australia.
Timor-Leste has a 56.56 per cent stake in the massive Greater Sunrise field 150 kilometres from Timor-Leste and 450 kilometres from Darwin. Woodside owns 33.44 per cent and Japan’s Osaka Gas holds the remaining 10 per cent.
Discussions on how and when to tap into the resource wealth of Greater Sunrise, which has an estimated worth of $US50 billion ($73 billion), were revived after a maritime border dispute between Timor-Leste and Australia was resolved with a treaty in 2018.
The production-sharing contract stipulated by that treaty is still to be finalised. Timor-Leste believes development could proceed in parallel with those negotiations.
President of the Republic José Ramos-Horta praised Ms O’Neill’s willingness to reconsider on the pipeline. Writing on his Facebook page last year, he said she had “showed greater management wisdom than her predecessors by stating that the Timor-Leste option should be put on the table even if there are concerns about costs. These concerns can be discussed and resolved.”
A Timorese artist painted a Kangaroo on the wall of the Australian ambassador in Fatuhada-Dili in 2013. Photo by Antonio Daciparu.
President Horta said, Timor-Leste could become the next Dubai or Singapore if Australian resources giant Woodside agreed to pipe gas there instead of Darwin for processing, the island nation’s President Jose Ramos-Horta said as he steps up pressure on Anthony Albanese to support the project.
In an effort to help break the impasse, the Albanese government has appointed former Victorian premier Steve Bracks as a special representative. However, Mr Ramos-Horta believes Canberra should do more.
In Singapore in December last year, President Horta doubled down.
“Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not said a word whether he agrees or not with the pipeline coming to Timor-Leste,” he told Bloomberg.
Mr Albanese was “very sympathetic, but so far in regard to the development of the gas field called Greater Sunrise, we have not seen any change of attitude on the part of Australia”.
A Timorese artist painted a Kangaroo on the wall of the Australian ambassador in Fatuhada-Dili in 2013. Photo by Antonio Daciparu.
Timor-Leste’s politicians have recently hardened their stance on where Greater Sunrise gas should be processed, saying the country needs the development kick-start that would come with such a massive project.
Woodside appears to have listened. “The Timorese are very keen to have that development in country, and we recognise it is an important national project for them, so we feel like it’s appropriate to reopen the concept evaluation, understand the technologies, understand the technical challenges,” Ms O’Neill told analysts.
“Timor-Leste has a lot of international friends. International friends may want to help with some of that infrastructure that doesn’t exist today in Timor that would exist if we went to Darwin.”
Dili would reject any option that waters down its stake. Timor Gap, the state-owned company charged with developing Timor-Leste’s oil and gas resources, has indicated other parties are interested in Greater Sunrise, but it will not compromise any future revenues. Timor-Leste is entitled to at least 70 per cent of Greater Sunrise royalties.
A source close to Timor Gap said: “Timor Gap is not interested in diluting its shareholding. The focus needs to be on bringing the gas to Timor-Leste and there are multiple major oil and gas companies who have expressed interest in the project on that basis.”
