Ramos Horta ready to torpedo gas pipeline to Darwin

EAST Timor president Jose Ramos Horta yesterday threatened to thwart the development of a $108 billion gas field rather than "surrender" the project to Darwin.

"I love Australia, I feel very much part of it, the blood in my body is Australian, donated by young Australian soldiers," he said.
"But I love my country and people even more..."
"You are rich and powerful, so I have to side with my people who are weaker and poorer. I hope you understand this."
Mr Ramos Horta used his address to NT Parliament to attack the executives of Australia's second largest oil and gas producer, Woodside Petroleum.
He said East Timor was the most viable site for the Greater Sunrise oil and gas project.
"The pipeline will go where it should go. The shortest route and cheapest," he said.
"Timor Leste cannot and will not bow to pressures from the Woodside CEO millionaires."
Mr Ramos Horta said most of the men responsible for the global financial crisis work for oil and gas companies.
"We will not bow to unilateral decisions made by these infamous CEOs that manage and mismanage world economies," he said.
"I for one prefer to forestall Greater sunrise than surrender to the dictates of a bunch of oil executive millionaires." (ntnews)

HEATED: East Timorese president Jose Ramos Horta arriving at NT Parliament yesterday. Picture: Brad Fleet

Ramos Horta tells of finding his would-be assassin

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin
October 31, 2008
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EAST Timor President Jose Ramos Horta has found the man who shot and almost killed him, instantly recognising him on a visit to Dili's Becora jail.
"I stared at him," Mr Ramos Horta told The Age yesterday. "He turned away, embarrassed and couldn't look me in the eye. I have been waiting for him to come forward and confess his crimes."
Mr Ramos Horta said the man he identified as having shot him twice in the back during attacks in Dili on February 11 was not Marcelo Caetano, the rebel named as his attacker, who was hunted in East Timor's mountains by hundreds of soldiers, including Australia's SAS commandoes.
"Marcelo Caetano was wrongly accused," Mr Ramos Horta said.
"I never said it was him. It was a media beat-up."
Mr Ramos Horta realised a mistake had been made in April, when Mr Caetano, a member of renegade soldier Alfredo Reinado's gang, surrendered with other rebels.
Rather than "deep anger showed on the face of the President" when he met Mr Caetano, as one Australian newspaper reported, Mr Ramos Horta said he was, in fact, upset that a dreadful mistake had been made.
Speaking publicly for the first time about coming across his attacker, Mr Ramos Horta said the man who shot him was one of the Reinado gang, who is among a group of 22 rebels being held in Becora jail until East Timor's Prosecutor-General completes an investigation into the attacks.
"He was one of Alfredo Reinado's men, without doubt," Mr Ramos Horta said.
"Those rumours and innuendo that it was an element of the F-FDTL (East Timor's army) or somebody else who shot me are absolutely wrong."
Mr Ramos Horta, who survived the attack after emergency surgery in Darwin, said he has not asked the name of the man he identified as his attacker.
"I await the legal process," he said.
"If or when the prosecutor wants me to come face to face with the man in an identification parade, I will do it."
But Mr Ramos Horta said there was no way that he was mistaken. "I saw this man at close range — less than 20 metres," he said. "I looked at the intent in his eyes. At that precise moment I turned to run and he shot me twice in the back."
Mr Ramos Horta said he was not worried that the investigation into the attacks was still not complete.
He said East Timorese knew the basic facts about what had happened, and that prosecutions would begin in February.
"What they know is that the president was shot by elements of Alfredo Reinado on February 11," Mr Ramos Horta said.
"They know that act was absolutely unforgivable on the part of Alfredo Reinado to enter the president's compound in an aggressive and hostile manner."
Reinado, a cult hero figure, and one of his men were shot dead at Mr Ramos Horta's house.
Mr Ramos Horta was visiting Darwin yesterday where, during an address to the Northern Territory's Parliament, he urged the territory to develop close ties with East Timor . (theage)

Tinjau Ulang Batas RI-Australia di Laut Timor

Kupang (ANTARA News) - Batas wilayah perairan RI-Australia di Laut Timor yang dibuat dalam kurun waktu 1971 - 1997 harus ditinjau ulang oleh pemerintahan kedua negara menyusul disahkannya RUU Wilayah Negara menjadi UU oleh DPR-RI pada 28 Oktober 2008 di Jakarta."UU tersebut bisa dijadikan pedoman sekaligus kekuatan diplomasi baru oleh Jakarta untuk meninjau kembali seluruh batas wilayah perairan antara RI-Australia di Laut Timor yang dibuat sejak 1971-1997," kata Ferdi Tanoni, Ketua Pokja Celah Timor dan Direktur Yayasan Peduli Timor Barat (YPTB) di Kupang, Kamis.Penulis buku "Skandal Laut Timor, Sebuah Barter Politik Ekonomi Canberra-Jakarta, 2008" itu mengatakan, UU itu bisa digunakan Jakarta untuk segera menetapkan satu batas maritim permanen antara RI-Timor Leste yang belum pernah dibahas sejak Timor Timur lepas dari Indonesia pada 30 Agustus 1999.Mantan agen imigrasi Australia itu menyatakan, batas wilayah perairan RI-Australia di Laut Timor versi 1991-1997 sangat merugikan Indonesia karena hampir 80 persen wilayah perairan di Laut Timor dikuasai Australia untuk kepentingan bisnis minyak dan gas bumi (migas).Wilayah perairan Laut Timor sangat kaya dengan sumber daya alam seperti minyak dan gas bumi sehingga Australia menggebu-gebu menguasai hampir seluruh wilayah perairan itu sampai mengusir nelayan tradisional Indonesia yang berlayar di Laut Timor yang telah dilakukan mereka sejak berabad-abad lalu."UU Wilayah Negara ini sangat kita tunggu-tunggu karena sudah 63 tahun merdeka, negara kita tidak mempunyai UU yang mengatur tentang batas wilayah negara sehingga melemahkan posisi Indonesia dalam mempertahankan kedaulatan negaranya. Timor Leste yang baru merdeka saja sudah memiliki UU Batas Wilayah Negara," urainya.Tanoni menilai garis batas laut antara Indonesia dengan Timor Leste dan Australia di sekitar Celah Timor masih bermasalah dan harus dirundingkan kembali."Kita harapkan UU itu menjadi amunisi baru bagi Indonesia dalam merundingkan kembali batas wilayah perairannya dengan Australia dan Timor Leste di Laut Timor," harapnya. (Antara)