Timor Sea Justice Campaign, Melbourne.
www.timorseajustice.org
A fair go for East Timor

February 2006.

Dear supporters,

As many of you would know, the governments of East Timor and Australia recently signed a new resource sharing agreement that covers the Greater Sunrise gas field.

This event marked a very major development in our campaign to change the Australian Government's policy of unilateral depletion of contested petroleum resources in the Timor Sea.

Although, the deal does not adequately reflect East Timor's legal entitlements under current International Law and it also disappointingly postpones the pivotal debate of where permanent maritime boundaries should be established for future generations, the agreement is a significant improvement on the miserly deals previously put forward by the Australian Government.

There were many factors that contributed to this dramatic shift in the Australian Government's position, but there's little doubt that the Timor Sea Justice Campaign's work of raising public awareness of the issue and highlighting our Government's morally bankrupt behaviour, helped mount the pressure needed to produce a fairer result for East Timor.

As such, the Timor Sea Justice Campaign would like to thank everyone who took an interest in the issue and supported our efforts in a wide range of ways. Well done.

The treaty now needs to be ratified by the national parliaments of both countries. The Timor Sea Justice Campaign will continue to monitor and report on such developments on this website.

We will also continue to monitor the situation regarding the 'downstream processing' of the gas and oil as the Timor Sea Justice Campaign strongly believes that East Timor should receive its fair share of the 'flow on' economic benefits associated with the development of its own natural resources.

Despite these on going efforts, the role of the campaign has entered a notably less active phase, so our supporters can expect to hear from us less frequently.

But please stay informed by keeping an eye on our website which will soon be experiencing some redevelopments as we continue with our long term campaign calling for the establishment of permanent maritime boundaries with East Timor in accordance with current International Law.

Thanks again for your ongoing support.

Regards,
from all involved in the 'Melbourne Working Group' of the Timor Sea Justice Campaign.

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