SYDNEY -- Southeast Asia's newest and poorest nation has done an oil deal that should bankroll its way to real independence.
East Timor has signed an agreement with neighboring Australia to develop huge, untapped oil and gas reserves under the Timor Sea. Within years the country's empty treasury could be receiving lucrative payments from the sales of these energy resources. The new agreement between Dili and Canberra is being hailed in both countries. It comes at a time when cordial relations are being tested by an awkward problem Canberra must soon solve -- whether to forcibly repatriate 1,800 East Timorese refugees living in Australia.
Some of these refugees have lived in Australia for decades. Mostly Christians, they fled from an assimilation program imposed by Jakarta following its 1975 invasion under the Suharto regime. Others arrived in Australia after escaping the brutal crackdown that Indonesia launched in East Timor four years ago.