C

are for West Timor Foundation (YPTB) is planning to file a judicial review to the Constitutional Court to challenge the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and certain seabed boundaries between Indonesia and Australia.

The proposal will coincide with the second anniversary of the Montana oil spill, which impacted local farmers in Kupang.

YPTB director Ferdi Tanoni said the government had claimed that the seabed border and the EEZ between the two countries had been settled at the time that Timor Leste was separated from Indonesia, but that the foundation did not agree with this.

“It [the settlement] was one-sided and did not consult the East Nusa Tenggara [NTT] community as the holder of the customary rights of the Timor Sea,” Tanoni said in a press release on Friday.

According to Tanoni, the YPTB had consulted the matter with Agusniwan Etra, an official of the Constitutional Court, based on which the foundation had decided to take legal action to deal with the Timor Sea case.

“The judicial review will cover a number of government decisions related to the Timor Sea, including the EEZ and the seabed boundary agreed between Indonesia and Australia in 1971,” Tanoni said.

At least nine agreements and memorandums of understandings have been signed by Indonesia and Australia since 1971. Of the nine, one has not been ratified: the 1997 agreement on EEZ and certain seabed boundaries.

“Australia, with the approval of the Indonesian government, claimed the territory as theirs. In fact, the 11-article agreement clearly mentions that it will be effective only until there is an exchange of ratification charters,” Tanoni said.

It is also because of this, according to Tanoni, that the YPTB and its alliance will sue the government on the grounds that the agreement did disservice to Indonesia, and in particular the people of NTT, which
directly borders Australia.

“Many Indonesian fishermen have been arrested and sentenced by the Australian authority because they were considered to have violated the sea border,” Tanoni said.

He added that the foundation would also file the same case to the International Court in The Hague.

The Montara oil and gas spill in August 2009 has cost thousands of fishermen and seaweed farmers billions of rupiah, as fish populations have dramatically decreased.