Re: East Timor

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Michael Keaney posted:

> (Thanks to Alan Bradley on the Marxism list for the following.)
>
> The following article appears in the current issue of Green Left Weekly
> (http://www.greenleft.org.au/):
>
> Who gains most from New Timor gap treaty?
>
> On July 5, representatives of the East Timor Transitional Cabinet, the
> United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor and the Australian
> government met in Dili and signed the Timor Sea Arrangement, concluding 10
> months of negotiating and wrangling over a new deal to replace the Timor Gap
> treaty.
>
> The new agreement represents a moral and political victory for East Timor,
> with the Howard government finally conceding to the demands pushed by UNTAET
> representative Peter Galbraith and East Timorese negotiators Mari Alkatiri
> and Jose Ramos Horta that East Timor receive at least a 90% share of the
> royalties from oil and gas developments in the area currently covered by the
> "joint zone of co-operation".
>
> The new agreement will mean East Timor will receive an estimated $7 billion
> in revenue from royalties over a 20-year period, providing a crucial source
> of income for the devastated and newly independent nation.
>
> > From the outset, the Howard government negotiating team - headed by foreign
> minister Alexander Downer, resources minister Nick Minchin and
> attorney-general Daryl Williams - have sought to obstruct East Timor from
> asserting its rights under international law.
>
> The back down by the Australian government was not motivated by concerns of
> helping East Timor. It was primarily motivated by the desire to safeguard
> the interests of oil and gas companies operating in the Timor Gap and the
> financial windfall for itself and the Northern Territory government ensuring
> that Darwin becomes the transit port for the export of East Timorese oil and
> gas.
>
> On top of this, the Howard government was also keenly aware that with East
> Timor gaining a better royalty deal, this offered another justification not
> to provide more humanitarian aid and assistance to East Timor. Both the
> Coalition government and the Labor opposition want to diminish as much as
> possible responsibility (and any notion of compensation) for the part played
> by Australia in supporting the 24-year-long Indonesian military occupation.
>
> How "generous" really is this new agreement? Certainly the royalties will
> make a big difference for East Timor, but the spin-off for US and Australian
> oil companies operating in the Timor Sea (and for the Northern Territory and
> Australian governments) is enormous by comparison.
>
> Some $13 billion is expected to be invested in new pipelines and downstream
> processing in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory treasury
> department estimates that these projects will generate $50 billion in
> economic activity in the NT over the next 20 years.
>
> Downer asserts that the new deal "is a fair and just" agreement, "an
> agreement with a true basis in international law". An article by Alkatiri
> and Galbraith in the July 6 Sydney Morning Herald gives a more accurate
> appraisal of the agreement. They wrote:
>
> "The new Timor Sea treaty is a fair deal for East Timor and an even better
> deal for Australia and the companies developing oil and gas in the Timor Sea
> ... [the agreement] also rights a historic wrong.
>
> "It will not make East Timor rich. However, if the money is well spent, it
> will give the people of East Timor the opportunity to escape the grinding
> poverty that is the legacy of occupation and war".
>
> They added that: "Under international law, East Timor is entitled to a
> seabed boundary at the mid-point between East Timor and Australia. This
> would give East Timor not 90 per cent, but 100 per cent of the oil and gas
> in the Timor Sea.
>
> "Thus while it may look like Australia is making a major concession in
> moving from the 50/50 revenue sharing it had under the Indonesia treaty to
> the 90/10 split in this new treaty, it is more than fair for Australia".
>
> And, as Galbraith noted following the signing of the agreement, "it provides
> a hell of a lot more certainty than they [energy companies] had under a
> treaty with Indonesia in which they were in effect making investment in
> stolen property".

The Green Left Weekly is quite right to point out that Australia is
not being generous in signing the new Gap deal.  As the Vancouver Sun
says below, there is even more:

*****   The Vancouver Sun
July 7, 2001 Saturday FINAL EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS, Pg. B6 Jonathan Manthorpe
HEADLINE: Minority oil interest means hope for E. Timor
BYLINE: Jonathan Manthorpe

...When Australia negotiated the first treaty with Indonesia in 1989,
it included a requirement that Jakarta give financial incentives to
the oil companies because of the risks involved.

Canberra insisted on the same incentives -- $2.27 US back to the
companies for every $1 US invested -- in the new agreement. East
Timor's negotiators were forced to agree, but have promised they will
tax the incentive payments....   *****

What's missing altogether from the GLW perspective is how East Timor
contributes to the progress of the Empire.  For instance, "'This is
the very first time the United Nations has participated in
negotiating a treaty on behalf of a country,' added Peter Galbraith"
(at <http://www.un.org/peace/etimor/news/N030701.htm>).  Nothing
succeeds like success, as they say, and East Timor may be slated to
become liberal internationalism's showcase (= what Somalia, Bosnia,
Kosovo, etc. couldn't become), a model of technocratic
"nation-building" in the age of post-sovereignty.

*****   Document of The World Bank
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Report No.21184-TP
MEMORANDUM OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
ASSOCIATION TO THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ON A TRANSITIONAL SUPPORT
STRATEGY OF THE WORLD BANK GROUP FOR EAST TIMOR
November 3, 2000
East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islands Unit
East Asia and Pacific Regional Office

...The beginning of reconstruction and World Bank involvement

9.  World Bank involvement with the transitional process in East
Timor began with the allocation of responsibility for forward
planning in the territory to the Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islands
Country Unit in February 1999.  At that time, the World Bank
established close contacts with the East Timorese leadership and the
United Nations Department of Political Affairs that was responsible
for the preparation of the consultation process.  The Bank
participated in a study of social and economic conditions in East
Timor led by Columbia University and initiated a dialogue with
Timorese leadership on reconstruction planning in anticipation of the
August ballot.  In August 1999 five East Timorese economists came to
Washington for training in reconstruction planning.

10.  On September 29, 1999 a meeting in Washington of donors, UN
agencies and East Timorese representatives supported the World Bank's
role in donor coordination, and endorsed a proposed Joint Assessment
Mission (JAM) to East Timor.  The JAM visited East Timor in
October/November 1999.  The mission identified priority
reconstruction objectives and provided estimates of external
financing needs.  The JAM adopted a comprehensive development
framework approach, covering eight sectors, to form an integrated
framework of priority interventions.  The mission incorporated
international technical expertise from five donor countries, the
European Commission, UN agencies, the Asian Development Bank and the
World Bank.  East Timorese technical experts were paired with
international experts in each sector.  A concurrent mission of the
International Monetary Fund accompanied the JAM to contribute to the
macroeconomic assessment and recommendations.  Close cooperation
between the IMF and the World Bank to synchronize development funding
with fiscal exigencies has been a cornerstone of the strategy since
then....

<http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/eap/eap.nsf/Countries/East+Timor/B172FA3A4358054F85256A4C006A2268?OpenDocument>
*****

Forward planning indeed.  I believe that the CNRT may be expected to
become what the ANC has become.

Now, back to the work of Peter Galbraith.  His political career
concerning Iraq, the Balkans, & East Timor has been emblematic of
liberal internationalism.  Don't let the lucrative oil deal blind you
to it.

Yoshie