Hi members and supporters of Timor Leste
Details of our annual film fundraiser for the Working Womens’ Centre in Timor Leste are below. Prior to the film showing there will be short updates on the WWC and on the attempt by the Federal Govt to silence the ‘whistle-blowers’ on the Howard/Downer Govt’s illegal bugging of T-L’s Cabinet rooms in 2004 which gave Australia an unfair advantage in dividing the income from the oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.
Hope you can come along – it’s also a good social event, food provided and the bar is open.
Regards and solidarity

Ladies in Black: WWC Timor-Leste Movie Fundraiser Join us in this fundraiser for the Working Women’s Centre in Timor-Leste! This event is jointly hosted by Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA (AETFA), SA Unions, Apheda: Union Aid Abroad SA Activist Committee, and WWC SA.

Set in the summer of 1959, when the impact of European migration and the rise of women’s liberation is about to change Australia forever, a shy schoolgirl (Lisa) takes a summer job at the prestigious Sydney department store, Goode’s. There she meets the ‘ladies in black’, who will change her life forever.Beguiled and influenced by Magda, the vivacious manager of the high-fashion floor, and befriended by fellow sales ladies Patty and Fay, Lisa is awakened to a world of possibilities. As Lisa grows from a bookish schoolgirl to a glamorous and positive young woman, she herself becomes a catalyst for a cultural change in everyone’s lives.www.ladiesinblackmovie.com.au

WHEN: WEDNESDAY 10 OCTOBER 2018from 5.30pm – 10pm (5.30pm: Drinks, nibbles & speeches) (Movie starts at 6.45pm)WHERE: Capri Theatre (141 Goodwood Rd – Goodwood SA) Tickets only $20 general admission $15 concession   Tickets available at the door Ph 0469 359199 for more detail   TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR OR YOU CAN BOOK ONLINE (aee below

BOOK NOW

I can’t come but would like to make a donation

Learn more about APHEDA Learn more about AETFA

Learn more about WWC SA

Dear Friends in solidarity with Timor-Leste and other peoples who have suffered from Indonesian military barbarity with US and allied support

As we get closer to 12 September 2018, when the rescheduled trial of Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery for conspiracy takes place in Canberra, it is good that the on-line news service Crikey posted the article below by Sophie Raynor which reminds us of the shameful way that Australian governments have treated the East Timorese, who so courageously supported us during WW2.

Below is just a reminder of that history:

* support for the invasion of East Timor by the Indonesian military (TNI) with a loss of almost a third of the population, gross human rights violations and 80% of the infrastructure destroyed until circumstances virtually forced the Howard Government to be a “reluctant saviour” when Australia played a major role in the INTERFET force that entered East Timor in 1999 after the 1999 UN supervised independence referendum

* attempts by Alexander Downer and John Howard to bully the newly independent government of Timor-Leste into a very unfair arrangement in the Timor Sea which attempted to deny the East Timorese access to some of its resources in the Sea and a maritime border that conformed to the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea UNCLOS). This basically meant that the wealthiest nation in the region was attempting to take resources that rightly belonged to the poorest nation in the region.

* the illegal spying on the Timor-Leste Government by ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service) to gain a commercial advantage by Australia during the negotiations

* when the Timor-Leste Government justifiably protested to the International Permanent Court of Arbitration about the spying and the unfair arrangement, George Brandis (then Australia’s attorney general) ordered ASIO (Australia Security and Intelligence Organisation) to raid lawyer, Bernard Collaery’s office to remove important documentation about the case and the home of Witness K (the Australian intelligence officer who reported the illegal bugging) to confiscate his passport. These actions were obviously undertaken to pervert the course of justice in the International Court – a shameful hypocrisy of a government that frequently preaches to others about the rule of law!

* then in 2018, when Timor-Leste had a great moral victory over the Australian Government at the International Permanent Court of Arbitration in relation to these matters, the Australian Government decided to charge Witness K and Bernard Collaery for conspiracy.

The only conspiracy of Witness K and Bernard Collaery was to stop Australia from unfairly cheating Timor-Leste and ensure that it could attain a fair internationally recognised maritime border as other nations do.

Also, since then the Australian Government has been silent about the estimated $5 billion worth of resources it has taken from Timor-Leste ‘s 1/2 of the Timor Sea. The article refers to this matter and stresses that while Australia is the highest aid donor to Timor-Leste with $98.1 million being allocated during 2018 -2019, this is only a very small amount compared with the estimated $5 billion worth of Timor’s resources that Australia has taken.

In the article, it is good to see that Sophie Raynor has mentioned statements by Juvinal Dias from the Timor-Leste activist group Movimentu Kontra Okupassaun Tasi (MKOTT) which very accurately describe the behaviour of the Australian Government in relation to its dealings with the East Timorese. Australian solidarity groups should applaud the actions of MKOTT. It recently organised a candle light vigil out side the Australian Embassy in Dili when Julie Bishop was there.

ACTION TO SUPPORT WITNESS K & BERNARD COLLAERY

* PETITIONS:
Please sign the Avaaz and GetUp on-line petitions at the following websites and encourage others to do the same:

https://justimor.org/2018/08/31/drop-the-charges/

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/democracy/witness-k/fight-the-prosecution-of-witness-k

* LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, TALK BACK RADIO ETC:
Write letters to newspapers and/or speak about the issue on talk-back radio.

* RESOLUTIONS:
Move resolutions of support for Witness K and Bernard Collaery at your political party sub branch, union, church, community group etc. and ask those organisations to issue media releases and public statements about the issue.

[Many ALP sub branches have already moved resolutions to go to the 2018 ALP National Conference despite the fact that ALP MPs took no effective action to support Timor-Leste winning justice in the Timor Sea or giving support to Witness K and Bernard Collaery.]

* ATTENDING PROTEST ACTIONS

Please take action to ensure that the shameful action against Witness K and Bernard Collaery are dropped.

Thanks to Dave Arkins (Sec. AWPA SA) for sending me the story.

Warm regards

In solidarity

Andrew (Andy) Alcock
Information Officer
AETFA SA Inc

Phone:    61 8 83710480
0457 827 014
Email:      andyalcock@internode.on.net

AETFA SA – 43 YEARS OF SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE FOR INDEPENDENCE & JUSTICE (AETFA SA was originally the Campaign for an Independent East Timor SA until Timor-Leste’s independence in 2002)

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‘Hypocrite minister’: Timor-Leste activists blast Bishop for prosecution of Witness K
Sophie Raynor    Freelance journalist   Crikey   20 August 2018

The Timor-Leste activist group that condemned the Australian government over the prosecution of Witness K and lawyer Bernard Collaery has blasted the government for its hypocrisy following Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s long-delayed July visit to the country, during which Bishop optimistically promised a “new chapter” for the countries’ beleaguered relationship.
Speaking to Crikey from Dili this week, Juvinal Dias from the activist group Movimentu Kontra Okupasaun Tasi Timor (MKOTT) equated Australia’s “undemocratic” prosecution of Collaery and Witness K to the rule of Indonesian dictator Suharto, drawing an uncomfortable connection to the brutal 24-year-long occupation of Timor-Leste by Indonesia.
Australia’s tacit support of that occupation allowed it to gain an undue share of oil and gas in the Timor Sea after the generous Timor Sea Gap agreement with Indonesia came into effect in 1991. Australia received 50% of the resource wealth from an area now found to be almost 100% within Timor-Leste’s boundary.
“Indonesia came to kill people, Australia occupied the sea and stole the wealth,” Dias told Crikey of the twin threats to Timor-Leste during its struggle for independence.
“For MKOTT, what we see from what Julie Bishop is doing is a continuation of Australia shutting its mouth on the invasion of Timor in 1975. Australia supported the invasion. [It] is a continuation of genocide in Timor, occupation of Timor-Leste, domination of Timor-Leste, stealing from Timor-Leste.”
When former ASIS intelligence agent Witness K revealed that Australia had bugged Timor-Leste’s cabinet during oil and gas treaty negotiations in 2004, Timor-Leste tore up an early treaty between the countries and launched espionage proceedings against Australia at the Hague.
The case was later dropped as an act of good faith and a new treaty delineating a permanent maritime boundary was signed in March this year. But the prosecution of the case’s key witness and his lawyer, revealed by Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie under parliamentary privilege in June, casts a new light over the countries’ relationship.
“The criminalisation of activists is part of a colonial or regime behaviour, not from a democratic country,” Dias said. “We know that Australia is a nation that always talks about democracy, a pioneer of democracy, a pioneer for freedom of expression, human rights, good governance, peace and other things. A country like Australia, which is economically and politically strong, should be an example to a small country like Timor-Leste.”
From the hilltop village of Tutuala in Timor-Leste’s eastern-most district, Lautem, dreadlocked Dias has a decade of activism behind him and a nine-year-long stint as a researcher at respected Timorese development analysis institute, Lao Hamutuk. Now working at the Timor Transparency Network, which publishes figures for Timor Sea wealth.
Dias told Crikey that Australia owes Timor-Leste money.
Australia is Timor-Leste’s largest foreign aid donor, but the $91.8 million allocated in aid over 2018-19 pales in comparison to the estimated $5 billion received by Australia from oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea, mostly from areas now recognised as Timor-Leste’s under the new treaty. “Australia can’t give small money and take big money,” Dias said.
Australia still draws an estimated US$4 million per month from oil and gas fields found under the new boundary treaty to lie in Timor-Leste’s waters, and will until the treaty is ratified, which is expected to be by the end of this year. While under its terms neither party has the right to seek compensation from the other, Dias says options remain open.
“Even though the treaty doesn’t ask for compensation, it also doesn’t ban Australia from voluntarily giving back the money it took from Timor-Leste,” he said.
But the specifics of the ongoing oil negotiations are of less interest to MKOTT than reclaiming Timor-Leste’s rights and correcting the perceived wrong of the Witness K prosecution.
Dias said that Collaery and Witness K simply wanted to strengthen Australia’s democracy by revealing the Australian government’s wrongdoing in bugging Timor-Leste, calling Bishop a “hypocrite” for promoting democracy abroad while her own country prosecutes its truth-tellers. “What Julie Bishop said in other countries about democracy doesn’t reflect in Timor-Leste,” he said. “This is why I say she is a hypocrite minister.”
The Australian government must avoid limiting freedom of expression by allowing the prosecution of the pair, Dias said, lest it start its own dictatorial regime. “We from MKOTT see that it is a setback for Australian democracy,” he said. “For Timor-Leste, this criminalisation is a practise of human rights violation. We see that they are criminalised now, we have the obligation to show solidarity.”
MKOTT activists, who have fought for Timor-Leste’s sovereignty since 2004, held a candlelight vigil outside Bishop’s hotel when she visited Dili in July, and Dias said the group will protest again in Dili on September 12, the rescheduled date of the case’s first directions hearing.
“Timor’s fight now is a continuation of the past fight,” he said. “In the past, the fight was to gain independence. Now people of Timor are feeling about the domination of the Australian government. They know it’s not just and fair from them. That’s why until now they keep demanding.”

To all supporters. No action is planned yet, but this matter won’t rest, be assured.
In solidarity with Bernard and witness ‘K’
Bob Hanney
Secretary

Australia East Timor Friendship Association South Australia Inc

AETFA-SA, PO BOX 240, GOODWOOD SA 5034
www.aetfa.org.au

Affiliated to the Timor Sea Justice Alliance (TSJ

MEDIA STATEMENT 28 JUNE 2018:

FAIR MINDED AUSTRALIANS SAY DON’T CHARGE
WITNESS K & BERNARD COLLAERY – HONOUR THEM

The Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA released the following statement today following the move by the Australian Government to charge Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery with conspiracy:

“Australians who value human rights and fairness between nations are outraged today to learn that the Turnbull government intends to charge Witness K and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery, with conspiracy.

Witness K, a former Australian military intelligence officer, blew the whistle about an operation undertaken by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) to spy on Timor-Leste”s Government in 2004 during the early days of negotiations between Timor-Leste and Australia over the positioning of their maritime boundary

The operation was very controversial and was described by the former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions ( DPP) Nicholas Cowdery QC as a ‘conspiracy to defraud.’
Independent federal member for Denison, .Andrew Wilkie, has said that it was both illegal and unscrupulous.

It is obvious that the Australian action had nothing to do with protecting Australia’s security. It was about giving Australia an unfair advantage over the poorest nation in SE Asia regarding the sharing of resources in the Timor Sea.

Bernard Collaery also acted for the Timor-Leste Government in the International Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague that was responsible for coordinating the conciliation process between Australia and Timor-Leste. This followed the decision by the Timor-Leste Government in 2013 to oppose the previous unfair Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS ) treaty that it was bullied into in 2006. This treaty was in violation of the UN.Convention of the Law of the Sea.

Following this move in a bid that appeared to be an attempt to pervert the course of justice, George Brandis,, (former Australia Attorney General) ordered the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to raid Bernard Collaery’s office to remove documents related to the case. In addition, he ordered ASIO personnel and to confiscate the passport of Witness K to prevent him from going to the PCA to be a key witness.

However, despite these actions by the Turnbull Government, in March this year, Timor-Leste had a significant moral victory over Australia when it was decided that the maritime boundary would be along the midline between the coasts of the two nations.

Whether the Turnbull Government likes it or not, Timor-Leste has been vindicated on the matter of the maritime boundary between our two nations.

It should just accept this decision and desist from taking any action against these Witness K and Mr Collaery. Fair minded Australians regard them as heroes who assisted Timor-Leste, our great World War 2 ally, to obtain justice.They are more worthy of receiving national awards than threats of imprisonment.

Andrew Wilkie believes that the charging of the men by the Federal Attorney General Christian Porter will create an even greater scandal for Australia.

No matter how much it claims that this matter is about national security, it is obvious that Australia is viewed as trying to take a commercial advantage over a smaller nation that had suffered a very brutal occupation and now seeks to take vindictive action against Witness K and Bernard Collaery. There should be no suggestion that they should face a closed court.

It should also accept the advice of Dr Jose Ramos Horta, the Nobel Peace Laureate and former PM and president of Timor-Leste, and return Witness K’s passport to him.

In addition, the Australian Government should return to Timor-Leste all the money it has accrued from the oil and gas resources that it has taken from an area at is now acknowledged under international law to belong to Timor.

The Australia government’s cruel treatment of asylum seekers, the shabby treatment of the East Timorese during the illegal and brutal occupation of their nation by the Indonesian military followed by the attempts to steal its urgently needed resources have already given us a bad name internationally.

It has to be said that Witness K and Bernard Collaery have both acted with great integrity and fairness and are deserving of honours.

The same cannot be said about the Turnbull Government.

Andrew (Andy) Alcock
Information Officer
AETFA SA Inc

Phone: 61 8 83710480

0457 827 014

Email: andyalcock@internode.on.net

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28 June 2018 MEDIA RELEASE BY BERNARD COLLAERY

Former ACT Attorney-General and lawyer, Bernard Collaery, has disclosed today that he, and Witness K, have received a Summons returnable before the ACT Magistrates Court charging them with conspiring to breach Section 39 of the Intelligence Services Act 2001. As Section 39 stood at the relevant time, it provides for a two-year or 120 unit penalty. Section 39 makes punishable the revealing of information of any kind, even arguably unlawful activity, concerning ASIS.

There is no allegation by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions of any national security breach.

“Fourteen years after the bugging of the Dili cabinet during revenue negotiations between Australia and Timor-Leste as joint venturers, over four years after the raid on my chambers and Witness K’s home, and three years after I gave a public address in which I explained that no issues of national security were compromised, Witness K, a loyal Australian patriot, and myself are to be put before the Court on a charge of conspiracy for revealing what a former NSW DPP Nicholas Cowdery QC has described as a ‘conspiracy to defraud.’

The charge of conspiracy against Witness K and myself is Kafkaesque. I have no more to say about it. It will be vigorously defended.

The thought that I will appear as a defendant in the Court in which I have practised for most of my career is devastating for myself, my family, and our legal team. I am also charged with protesting the search of my chambers and revealing the seizure of my Brief and the unlawful activity of the government to a number of ABC journalists. I do not know the extent to which those journalists who reported my comments may or may not be brought into these proceedings.

If their careers are to be affected, I very much regret that such an event would happen in our country. My legal team acted at all times with the support of eminent legal advice. I was privileged to have sought justice for the poorest country in Asia, for a people with a high infant mortality rate and to whom we owe a debt of honour from the events of World War II.

I can reveal that as a young man, nearly fifty years ago when memories were fresh, I received training from an Australian intelligence agency during which a former Z Force commando told me of the sacrifice the Timorese people had made in saving the lives of our young soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, his comrades, in World War II. I have never forgotten that. I am disappointed that an Australian veteran and very good person, Witness K, has been denied a passport now for more than four years, has been unable in retirement to enjoy life fully, and is to now be tried with me for conspiracy.

This prosecution, approved of by the Federal Attorney-General, can only mean one thing. Namely, that bugging the out-of-session deliberations during revenue negotiations between joint parties to a treaty is a legitimate function of ASIS. I do not believe that the Australian people will support the notion that our Secret Service should join in a conspiracy to defraud the people of the poorest nation in Asia. The Attorney-General expects this hearing to be held behind closed doors. I do not believe the Australian people will support this. It was never, and can never be, a legitimate function of our Secret Service to join in, ‘a conspiracy to defraud.’ This prosecution sends a wrong message to the good men and women in our Secret Service. They do not join the Service to take part in corporate plunder. Using the terrorist powers to shroud the proceedings in this matter is unbecoming a liberal democracy. The proposition by the Liberal Party that it can use ASIS in plundering the resources of one of the poor nations to our north has to be tested in open court.

There must be humanity and honesty in our dealings with developing nations. I call upon the Australian people to stand with me and Witness K in saying, ‘We Care.’”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/22/jose-ramos-horta-urges-australia-to-return-passport-of-spy-who-revealed-bugging-operation

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-28/witness-k-and-bernard-collaery-charged-intelligence-act-breach/9919268

Watch out for the AETFA SA and Australia West Papua Assoc. SA banners and combined stall!
SA MAY DAY MARCH & RALLY 2018

SATURDAY 5 MAY 2018

MARCH:  ASSEMBLY TIME: 10 AM  VENUE: Victoria Square Adelaide

MARCH STARTING TIME: 10.30 PM (Depart for rally at Light Square)

RALLY:  TIME: 11 AM (approximately)  VENUE: Light Square

Speeches, music, kids’activities etc

SUPPORT THE ACTU CHANGE THE RULES CAMPAIGN & INTERNATIONAL STRUGGLES FOR PEACE, SOCIAL JUSTICE & HUMAN RIGHTS

CELEBRATE TIMOR-LESTE’S MORAL VICTORY OVER THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT IN THE INTERNATIONAL PERMAMENT COURT & DEMAND THAT AUSTRALIA PAYS BACK THE MONEY FOR TIMOR-LESTE’S RESOURCES TAKEN FROM ITS 1/2 OF THE TIMOR SEA (at least $5 billion!)

PROTEST AGAINST:                                                                                                                          * THE CONTINUED INDONESIAN MILITARY GENOCIDE IN WEST PAPUA

CALL FOR:                                                                                                                                         * A UN INTERNATIONAL PEACE KEEPING FORCE TO ENTER WEST PAPUA & ALLOW A UN SUPERVISED INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM THERE SO THAT WEST PAPUANS CAN DETERMINE THEIR OWN POLITICAL FUTURE

* DEMAND THAT THE AUSTRALIA GOVERNMENT PAY THE TIMOR-LESTE GOVERNMENT FOR THE OIL & GAS RESOURCES IT HAS TAKEN FROM THE POOREST NATION IN SE ASIA

* DEMAND THAT THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT TAKE STEPS TO MAKE AUSTRALIA AN INDEPENDENT, NON-ALIGNED, FREE AND PEACEFUL NATION THAT WORKS FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EFFECTIVE CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT – INSTEAD OF SUPPORTING US IMPERIAL WARS

Other May Day Events:

PORT ADELAIDE WORKERS’ MEMORIAL SERVICE                                                        SUNDAY 6 MAY 2018    10 AM                                                                                                      VENUE:    Workers Memorial / Port Adelaide Information Centre                                                             – NW corner of St Vincent St & Commercial Rd intersection, Port Adelaide

 followed by morning tea in the nearby town council centre provided by the  Port  Adelaide – Enfield Council

 NOTE: 2018 is the centennial of the erection of the Workers’ Memorial

SEMAPHORE WORKERS’ CLUB MAY DAY BBQ                                                                  SUNDAY 6 MAY 2018     12 NOON                                                                                             VENUE:        SEMAPHORE WORKERS’ CLUB    93 Esplanade, Semaphore