East Timor â€“ Australiaâ€™s Shame East Timor, Asia's poorest
nation that recently celebrated its second anniversary of
independence is still desperate and unable to feed itself.
Almost half of its population is unemployed and at least half is
illiterate. Potential profits from this reserve are so high
that, if fairly divided, they could easily guarantee East
Timor's full economic self-sufficiency and tackle most of its
urgent social problems. The Economist, British weekly
newsmagazine, summarized the situation by saying: 'Some of the
disputed resources lie in a zone known as the Timor Gap that
Australia and Indonesia excluded when they delineated their
seabed boundary in 1972. Seventeen years later the two countries
signed a deal to divide government revenues from this zone
evenly between them. Mr. Gusmao now describes that deal as
'illegal and illegitimate' because of Indonesia's occupation of
East Timor at the time. President of East Timor, Xanana Gusmao,
offered several solutions, one of them being potent