Send a Message to Australia: Hands Off Timor’s Oil! Picket 12 noon, Wed April 20

Stand in solidarity with the East Timorese demanding their rights

End Australia’s theft from one of the poorest nations in Asia!

By refusing to establish permanent maritime boundaries, the Australian government is short-changing East Timor out of billions of dollars in oil and gas revenue.

According to international law, the maritime boundaries between Australia and East Timor should be along the halfway (median) line, but the Australian government refuses to acknowledge this.

Two months before East Timor’s independence, Australia withdrew from the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice – leaving Timor-Leste with limited avenues to challenge Australia’s unilateral depletion of contested oil fields.

During subsequent negotiations over oil and gas revenues the Australian Secret Service fitted surveillance devices inside the Timorese cabinet room so it could spy on government negotiators. The resulting temporary treaty is highly unfair to Timor.

On February 23, thousands of East Timorese peacefully protested outside the Australia Embassy in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. Organized by the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOTT), they called for the establishment of permanent maritime boundaries along the "median line" half way between Australia and Timor.

12 noon, Wednesday, April 20

Picket the Australian Conulate,

Level 7 PriceWaterHouseCoopers Tower

186-194 Quay Street, Auckland