It's not over till the pipeline purrs:
The “resource curse” and other challenges for Timor-Leste
Dr Mark Byrne*
24 June 2005
One of the main problems confronting supporters of the new nation
of Timor-Leste (East Timor) is that it is no longer a major news
story. The Indonesians have left, independence has been won, and
now UNTAET (the United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor)
has also pulled out, leaving the world’s newest nation largely
in the hands of its own people. However, it was clear at the two
day conference “Cooperating with Timor-Leste,” held
in Melbourne on June 16 and 17, that the East Timorese people still
have strong support in Australia, not only from community advocates
but also from all levels of government as well as universities and
aid agencies. Many of these people and organizations have campaigned
tirelessly for Timor-Leste since the dark days of Indonesian occupation.
What is needed now is support for Timor-Leste’s nation building
— or rebuilding, since seventy percent of infrastructure was
destroyed by Indonesian Army-sponsored militias in 1999. This is
a nation of nearly a million people with an average annual income
of AUS$1.50 per day, where the average life expectancy is in the
high fifties and where every second child is malnourished. It has
perhaps the highest rate of population growth in the world, but
an annual budget roughly equivalent to that of two large municipal
councils in Australia.
Other issues receiving significant attention at the conference
from both Australian and Timorese speakers included the absence
of many basic primary health care facilities; the need for family
planning; the urgent need to build transport and communications
infrastructure; and the need to tackle domestic violence and safeguard
women’s rights. Food security and agricultural development
are also crucial for a country where, during the dry season, much
of the population eats only one meal a day. Of great importance
too are education and the problems of literacy and language learning.
(Portuguese, the official language, is spoken by only five percent
of the population, and Tetum, the national lingua franca, by roughly
half.) Other areas which received significant attention were economic
management and governance; eco- and other forms of tourism; and
the need to develop a legal system from nothing.
Timor-Leste is a focus of Uniya’s regional relations project,
which examines human rights and social justice challenges in our
region and Australia’s foreign policy responses to these challenges.
Two issues discussed at the conference of particular concern to
Uniya are the Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations and transitional
justice. [1]
Timor Sea
In one of the first addresses to the conference, the ANU’s
Jenny Drysdale talked about Timor-Leste’s Petroleum Development
Fund, legislation to enable which is being introduced to Parliament
this week. The proper management of this fund, which will be based
on investing revenue from the Bayu Undan gas field in the Timor
Sea, will ensure that Timor-Leste will have a steady income from
this source even after the field is exhausted. Ms Drysdale emphasised
the difficulty for developing countries of relying on a single resource
to fund its economic prosperity. She identified Nigeria and Nauru
as examples of nations which had fallen into the “resource
curse,” failing to secure their economies using the income
from oil and phosphate, respectively, before the resources ran out.
The Government of Timor-Leste is to be congratulated for the efforts
it is making to ensure that it does not go down this path. However,
the Bayu Undan field will be exhausted by about 2020, and without
revenue from Greater Sunrise, earnings from the Petroleum Fund are
unlikely to increase thereafter. The earliest that oil and gas could
flow from Greater Sunrise is 2010. With a life expectancy of about
thirty years, it may be in Timor-Leste’s best interests for
this field not to be developed as soon as possible.
This argument is bolstered by rising gas and oil prices —
a trend that is likely to continue as the world’s consumption
of fossil fuels increases. The longer Timor-Leste waits, the more
it is likely to earn from Greater Sunrise. This long-term view places
Timor-Leste in a strong negotiating position. Perhaps this is why
it has now apparently secured a 50:50 split of royalties rather
than the previously offered 82:18 split in favour of Australia.
It may also be the reason why latest reports suggest that the final
deal will not involve Timor-Leste shelving for fifty years (as previously
demanded by Australia) its claim for a permanent maritime boundary
between the two nations. Timor-Leste’s claim would place most
of the Greater Sunrise field in its territorial waters. [2]
These issues were also discussed at one of more lively workshops
at the conference. It was an unscheduled event on the final afternoon
and was addressed by Ian Melrose, the Queensland businessman behind
the recent television advertisements calling for a “fair go”
for East Timor. As well as discussing the negotiations, Mr Melrose
asked for feedback on his idea for the next advertisement. He received
a spirited response and some alternative ideas.
Transitional justice
The conference’s Law and Justice panel discussed two main
issues. One was the problems besetting the emergence of a competent,
independent and properly resourced judiciary in Timor-Leste. The
other was the various initiatives that have taken place since 1999
to achieve justice for the crimes committed both during the period
of Indonesian occupation, when an estimated 200,000 East Timorese
were killed, and before and after the vote on August 30, 1999 that
led to independence.
The most successful of the transitional justice processes to date
has been the recently completed Reception, Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (known as CAVR, its Portuguese acronym.) It was intended
to help reconcile perpetrators of minor crimes with their local
communities. It was a success because it had widespread public involvement,
and “more than 1400 cases involving ‘less serious crimes’
committed in the context of past political conflicts between 1974
and 1999” [3] were resolved through the community reconciliation
process. The success was qualified because it favoured the need
for community reconciliation (often involving community service,
and sometimes involving customary law) over the need of individual
victims for retributive justice — that is, for perpetrators
to pay for their crimes. [4]
The Serious Crimes process was intended to deal with crimes such
as rape and murder. 391 people were charged with murder and 327
warrants were issued (including one for former Indonesian presidential
candidate and armed forces chief General Wiranto). However, this
process failed to achieve justice because “Indonesia refused
to accept the jurisdiction of the SCU, and no Indonesian suspects
were ever handed over to face justice.” [5] Just as importantly,
many East Timorese were unaware of the process, which was not regarded
as having community ownership or legitimacy. The UN recently disbanded
the Serious Crimes Unit.
Speakers on the conference’s law and justice panel agreed
that achieving real justice will depend on the creation of an international
war crimes tribunal. The government of Timor-Leste, however, recently
announced the formation of a Commission of Truth and Friendship
with Indonesia. As the name suggests, instead of achieving justice,
the TFC will recommend the granting of a full amnesty to those who
"cooperate fully in revealing the truth." [6]
The Timor-Leste government can hardly be blamed for its pragmatic
approach, given its geographic and historical relationship with
Indonesia. Cynicism about the chances of achieving justice is also
well founded given the dubious integrity and achievements of the
ad hoc human rights court set up by Jakarta. The court acquitted
all but one official implicated in the violence with Indonesia and
failed “to act on arrest warrants against more than 300 others
who sought sanctuary in Indonesia.” [7]
However, there are signs of hope. For instance, the Australian
aid agency AUSTCARE has initiated a community peace-building program
in two districts. At the other end of the justice spectrum, this
week the UN Security Council will debate the report of a Commission
of Experts appointed by the Secretary-General which recently visited
Indonesia and Timor-Leste. The report will recommend what future
action needs to be taken to ensure justice for East Timorese victims
of war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to one source,
the report is scathing about the Jakarta trials, and recommends
that “Indonesia be given six months to prepare credible trials.
If it does not comply, the experts argue, the UN should invoke its
charter to set up an international war crimes court for East Timor.”
[8]
Conclusion
The strongest impression I gained over three days of conference
talks (the first day was a research symposium to mark the establishment
of the East Timor Studies Association of Australia) was of the resilience
of the East Timorese people in the face of past and present challenges,
and the depth of the commitment on both sides to work for the betterment
of the lives of nearly a million people living in a nation closer
to Australia than is New Zealand. Australia’s commitment is
partly the result of the debt that many Australians still feel from
our occupation of the island — then neutral territory, as
a Portuguese colony — during World War Two, and the subsequent
killing of some thirty thousand Timorese by Japanese soldiers in
retaliation for their support for Australian troops. It also reflects
a genuine desire to work for the human rights and social justice
of our near neighbours who have never, until now, been in control
of their own destiny.
For their part, the people of Timor-Leste have no desire to become
an Australian colony, and have good reason to doubt the motives
of the Australian government, given our complicity in the Indonesian
occupation from 1975 and our apparent hunger for the Timor Sea’s
resources. However, the relationship has risen above such impediments
and now has a strength rooted not only in common strategic and commercial
interests but in the friendship and love of people who are working
together for common goals.
Notes:
1. Transitional justice can be defined as the pursuit of “accountability
for past mass atrocity or human rights abuse… in societies
emerging from repressive rule or armed conflict.” From the
website of the International Center for Transitional Justice (www.ictj.org,
accessed June 21 2005).
2. Timor Sea Justice Campaign News Update, 21 June 2005 (www.timorseajustice.org/news.htm,
accessed June 22 2005).
3. Lia Kent, “Unfulfilled Expectations: Community Views on
CAVR’s Community Reconciliation Process”, Judicial System
Monitoring Programme, August 2004, 4 (www.jsmp.minihub.org/new/otherreports.htm
, accessed June 24 2005).
4. See the Justice System Monitoring Program (www.jsmp.minihub.org)
and CAVR (www.easttimor-reconciliation.org) websites for more details.
5. Mark Dodd, “East Timorese Still at Risk, UN Warned”,
The Australian, May 30 2005 (www.jsmp.minihub.org/News/0505_Dnews/30may05_TA_ET%20still_eng.htm,
accessed June 21 2005)
6. Australian Associated Press, “E Timor to exonerate war
suspects” (www.etan.org/et2005/march/06/09et2exon.htm, accessed
June 21 2005).
7. Australian Associated Press, “E Timor to exonerate war
suspects” (www.etan.org/et2005/march/06/09et2exon.htm, accessed
June 21 2005).
8. Jil Joliffe, “Jakarta’s Timor trials a ‘sham’,
Sunday Age, June 19 2005 (http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/06/18/1119034101665.html
).
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Dr Mark Byrne is Project and Advocacy Officer at Uniya Jesuit
Social Justice Centre in Sydney. Thanks to Suganthi Singarayar,
Nina Reimer, Minh Nguyen and Sr Libby Rogerson, who edited earlier
versions of this article.
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