Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta has accused former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer of “avoiding and distorting” issues related to the 2004 bug scandal, saying recent comments ignored the fact that Australia had spied “on behalf of the oil companies”. and using the cover of Australia’s supposedly altruistic foreign aid program. “
On Thursday, Downer appeared on the ABC’s question-and-answer program and was questioned about the 2004 Australian Intelligence Service mission to disturb the Timor-Leste government during sensitive talks in order to deplete oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
Downer, who was Secretary of State at the time, was careful not to comment directly on the deal, but said that Australia’s intelligence practices “were no different from any of our allied countries”.
“What our intelligence services do is gather information,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. The suggestion that we somehow have intelligence services but they don’t collect information is … it’s absurd. “
The comments have frustrated Timor-Leste, an Indo-Pacific partner, at a time when Australia is actively trying to counter the Chinese government’s influence in the region.
Ramos-Horta told the Guardian that Downer was “avoiding and distorting the underlying problem.”
The 2004 espionage mission, later set up with the help of intelligence officer Witness K and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery, was used to give Australia the advantage in what were trade negotiations over access to oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, which a collection of resource companies, led by the Australian company Woodside Petroleum, sought to exploit.
The young and impoverished ally hoped that access to Timor Sea reserves would lay the groundwork for its development.
Ramos-Horta said the execution of an intelligence operation in these circumstances was very different from spying on a hostile state.
“It’s one thing to spy, engage in mistakes and other activities when faced with hostile, hostile and sworn enemy powers like North Korea,” Ramos-Horta said. “Another is when the government of a supposedly benevolent, free and open society like Australia, engages in espionage activities on behalf of oil companies and uses the cover of Australia’s supposedly altruistic foreign aid program.
“It simply came to our notice then.
“Let’s not forget that at the same time, Australian intelligence was disturbing the private telephone of the wife of the then President of Indonesia. Was it a legitimate protected intelligence operation? Mr Downer is obviously avoiding and distorting the central issue. “
The case against Collaery, accused of illegally disclosing protected information about the operation, remains a bad thing in the relationship with Timor-Leste.
Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was elected president earlier this month, has previously called for the prosecution to be dropped and for witnesses K and Collaery to be awarded Timor-Leste’s highest honor.
In a recent interview with the newspaper Nine, he said that Timor-Leste had put “the past where it belongs”, but that:
“At the same time, I would like Australia to be more generous and more compassionate with Bernard Collaery. I would say leave the case.”
China has named Timor-Leste as a major partner country of the Strip and Route, and its state-owned enterprises have been involved in major development projects in the developing country.
Australia is also a major contributor to aid to Timor-Leste, but Ramos-Horta has called for a more meaningful infrastructure partnership between the two countries, saying it is in Australia’s strategic interests.
He approached Downer for further comment.