Jakarta Globe – AFP, December 11, 2013
East Timor activists shout slogans during a protests in front of Australian Embassy in Dili, East Timor on December 5, 2013. (EPA Photo/Antonio Dasiparu) |
Former East
Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta on Wednesday warned Australia not to
underestimate the damage caused by spying allegations, which he said had
angered many of his countrymen.
Australia
is accused of using an aid program as cover to place listening devices in the
East Timor prime minister’s office and rooms used for cabinet discussions
during negotiations on the Timor Sea gas treaty in 2004.
East Timor
is now bringing an arbitration case at The Hague against Canberra, alleging it
spied to gain commercial advantage and seeking to have the Aus$40 billion ($36
billion) 50-50 profit sharing deal it signed torn up.
Ramos-Horta,
now a special envoy for the UN secretary general, said he had no idea at the
time that Australia would violate their offices.
“I don’t
know what Australia can do to restore confidence among East Timorese people or
leaders. I hope Australia does not underestimate the anger, the disappointment
that its spying, its espionage towards Indonesia and Timor Leste is causing,”
he said.
Australia
is also accused of tapping the phones of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, his wife and inner circle in 2009.
Ramos-Horta
said it would be understandable if Canberra had been spying on the likes of
North Korea but not neighbors and allies.
“When you
try to listen in to phone conversations of the president of Indonesia, a
friendly country, or his own wife, or when you spy on a friendly neighbour like
Timor-Leste which Australia helped to free in 1999 and which Australia claimed
to be a friend, well it really undermines 10 years of our relationship,” he
said.
As a UN
envoy, Ramos–Horta played a key role in lobbying for Australia to win a seat on
the UN Security Council last year, but he said that had he and the world body
known about the spying allegations, it would have been a different story.
“Had we
known that Australia was spying on us and spying on our friends… well if (that)
news had transpired before the vote for the Security Council a year ago, I
doubt Australia would have secured the seat,” he said.
Australia
was elected to a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for a two-year
role that began in January.
Ramos-Horta
said Canberra must be more sensitive and transparent and admit it was at fault.
“Australia
likes to lecture Timor-Leste and other countries about transparency and
integrity in public life. Well, this has not been a very good example of
transparency and honesty,” he said.
Agence France-Presse
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