Nick Lenaghan – A group of Australian World War II veterans have weathered criticism from the RSL and Canberra over an advertising campaign condemning the federal government's stance on East Timor's oil and gas rights.
In television advertisements being aired over the next fortnight, the veterans, who fought in East Timor in 1941-42, say negotiations are not being conducted in the Anzac spirit and Prime Minister John Howard would not be welcome at their Anzac Day marches.
The RSL has opposed the ads, funded by Melbourne businessman Ian Melrose in his bid to win a better deal for East Timor on allocation oil and gas reserves located in the Timor Sea.
At the campaign launch in Melbourne on Monday, former Army engineers sergeant John Jones, 85, defended his comrades who appear in the ads.
"Any of those Australians has the right to say what he wants to say on Anzac Day if it involves him and his experiences," he said. "As we were leaving we said to the Timorese that we would look after them. We promised because they looked after us. They kept us fed. We would have died otherwise and they allowed us to take some of their food which was in very short supply."
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander slammed the ads as dishonest and irresponsible.
The ads will screen on SBS and commercial networks leading up to Anzac Day and ahead of talks between Australia and East Timor next week.
"These ads are a waste of money. They will have no impact on the negotiation process. They take no account of the fact that we have given East Timor 90 per cent of the reserve for the joint area between Australia and East Timor," Mr Downer said.
Mr Howard said the stance taken by the Australian government was fair, considerate and decent. "But it is also a stance that looks after the interests of the Australian people, which is my first responsibility," he said.
RSL national president Bill Crews said the veterans were honourable men and had a right to express their opinion. But he said it was inappropriate to invoke the Anzac spirit as the basis for criticising the government over the issue.
"My members, or at least some of them or many of them, would be uncomfortable the spirit of Anzac... is now being used in one side of a political debate, irrespective of which side it might be," Mr Crews said.
Negotiations over the massive reserves have foundered on a dispute about maritime boundaries between Australia and East Timor. East Timor has pushed for a sea boundary midway between the two nations, while Australia says it should run along the continental shelf closer to East Timor.
Under an interim deal signed in May 2002, East Timor is entitled to 90 per cent of royalties from oil and gas developments in the area under negotiation. The deal also included an agreement on the Greater Sunrise field, which gave Australia 79.9 per cent of royalties, because most of the project's area was located in Australian jurisdiction. A compromise solution has been suggested to postpone permanent maritime boundary talks for up to a century.
Mr Melrose has spent $2.2 million for campaigns on the issue so far and his last set of TV ads were refused airplay by SBS and Channel 7 after objections about some of their content.