REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUPANG -- An environmental activist has urged Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi to ask Tony Abbott about what efforts were made following the Montara oil rig explosion in 2009, which contaminated the Timor Sea.
"If the Australian government is, indeed, concerned about human rights, then why has Tony Abbott, who is also a former clergyman, cruelly allowed thousands of people in West Timor and East Nusa Tenggara to suffer because of the spraying of dispersants (into the sea) in 2009?" Ferdi Tanoni, the activist from West Timor, questioned in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Thursday.
The Australian government had decided to spray poisoned dispersants to suppress Montara's oil spill in the Timor Sea.
Tanoni affirmed that following the disaster, his concern for the environment in West Timor would not lessen until Australia takes responsibility of the sea contamination, as a result of which thousands of people lost their source of livelihood.
Moreover, he pushed for the issue to be raised as a response to Prime Minister Abbott's reference to the aid provided by Australia after the tsunami, in his statement on the execution of two Australian nationals, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were members of drug ring Bali Nine.
According to Tanoni, who is also the head of the West Timor Care Foundation (YPTB), the Australian government avoiding the Montara oil spill issue is an inhumane crime, which led to the death of locals who depended on the Timor Sea to earn their livelihood.
"They not only destroyed the livelihood of thousands of poor people, but also caused them to die of the strange diseases they contracted due to their everyday interaction with the contaminated waters of the Timor Sea," the activist explained.
In view of these incidents, Tanoni has urged the Indonesian government, Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi in particular, to convey the complaints and sufferings of the people of West Timor to Abbott's government.
"Since Abbott became the prime minister, he has not made any effort to address the sea contamination issue of 2009. Nobody wants a death penalty. But do not push or threaten our government and our nation. That is taking it too far," he remarked.
Tanoni also mentioned that the Australian prime minister had insulted the government and people of Indonesia by ignoring the request made by the Indonesian government in September 2014, when it had asked to establish cooperation to resolve the Montara oil spill issue in Timor Sea.
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