Name: dk106046			Date: 01/12/2004

The problem stated is that JVM mis-represents arbitrarily defined timezones like GMT-11 as GMT+11.

import java.util.*;
public class test {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        System.out.println( "\nJava default Timezone=" +
                            TimeZone.getDefault() );

        System.out.println("\n Java date=" +
                           (new java.util.Date()) );
    }
}

A sample run is as follows:

$ export TZ=GMT-11:00,M8.4.2,M3.2.1          
$ 
$ java test

Java default Timezone=java.util.SimpleTimeZone[id=Custom,offset=39600000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=false,startYear=0,startMode=0,startMonth=0,startDay=0,startDayOfWeek=0,startTime=0,startTimeMode=0,endMode=0,endMonth=0,endDay=0,endDayOfWeek=0,endTime=0,endTimeMode=0]

 Java date=Wed Jan 07 21:07:08 GMT+11:00 2004
$ 
$date
Wed Jan  7 21:07:55 GMT 2004

Notice that it changed GMT-11 to GMT+11.

======================================================================