Balibo Five Film

The Balibo Five were a group of journalists for Australian television networks based in the town of Balibo in East Timor (then Portuguese Timor) where they were killed on 16 October 1975 during Indonesian incursions prior to the invasion.[1]

In 2007, an Australian coroner ruled that they had been deliberately killed by Indonesian special force soldiers.[2] The official Indonesian version is that the men were killed by cross-fire during the battle for the town.[3]

The group comprised two Australians, reporter Greg Shackleton, 27 and sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21; a New Zealander, cameraman Gary Cunningham, 27, for HSV-7 (Seven Network) in Melbourne; and two Britons, cameraman Brian Peters, 29 and reporter Malcolm Rennie, 28 working for TCN-9 (Nine Network) in Sydney.[1][4][5]

While the men were aware that Indonesian troops were to mount an attack on the town, they believed that as Australian journalists, they would not be considered military targets. Greg Shackleton was filmed painting an Australian flag and the word 'AUSTRALIA' on the wall of a house known locally as the Chinese house.[1]

The level of prior knowledge within the Australian government of Indonesian plans to attack Balibo and target journalists to prevent Indonesian military involvement being demonstrated is debated.[6]

The Balibo Housing Trust, funded by the Victorian Government, now owns the Chinese house and preserves it as a community learning centre.
Roger East

Roger East, 50, an Australian AAP-Reuters journalist, travelled to East Timor to investigate the deaths of the five men. East was captured in Dili by the Indonesian military on 7 December 1975, the day of the invasion, and executed by firing squad on the morning of 8 December with his body being disposed of in the ocean. He has been refered to as the forgotten sixth member of the Balibo Five. Calls for an inquest into East's death have been rejected.

A 1999 government enquiry into the deaths of the Balibo Five and Roger East, conducted by the former chairman of the National Crime Authority and Australian Government Solicitor Tom Sherman, found no evidence of murder for the five but accused Indonesia of burning their bodies in a charade to destroy all evidence of a monumental blunder following their deaths in crossfire. However, in contrast to the Balibo incident, the killing of Roger East:

"took place in an urban area with a number of uninvolved persons in close proximity. The quality of the evidence on Roger East’s death was much higher. The evidence came from two eyewitnesses, supported by strong circumstantial evidence of the killing from two further witnesses. In relation to Roger East I have concluded that, it is more likely than not, he was summarily executed by an unidentified Indonesian soldier late of the morning of December 8, 1975, in the wharf area of Dili."

Advocacy

Greg Shackleton's widow, Shirley, became an outspoken supporter of East Timor's fight for independence. Other relatives were so traumatised by the event that for many years they did not pursue the matter any further. In 1994, Brian Peters' sister, Maureen Tolfree, became involved with the East Timor issue, having heard of a demonstration in her home town of Bristol against the sale of BAE Hawk fighter jets to Indonesia.[7]

Musician Paul Stewart was a teenager when his twenty-one year old brother Tony died. He later formed the Dili Allstars with Colin Buckler (of the band Painters and Dockers). They recorded a song with East Timorese musician Gil Santos to protest the capture of East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmão by Indonesian armed forces in 1992.[citation needed]

Stewart worked as a consultant on the 2009 film Balibo, saying that it was a difficult but rewarding experience, and that it was one that finally presented the truth to the world. Now running a charity that donates musical instruments to East Timor, Stewart said the film highlighted the Australian government's lack of action over the deaths of the journalists. "To this day, the one phone call my mother's had from the Government came a couple of weeks after it all happened when someone from the embassy in Jakarta called and asked 'where should we send the bill for the coffin?'" he said.[8]

Malcolm Rennie's mother, Minna, later became involved with the issue until her death, as did his cousin Margaret Wilson.[9]

In 2006, the International Press Institute sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to express concern that UN investigators had failed to fully investigate the deaths of the Balibo Five, as well as three other journalists killed in Timor-Leste in 1975 and 1999, and to request that the UN reopen their investigations.[5]

Robert Connolly, director of the 2009 film, said: "It's quite clear the journalists were murdered. The current Indonesian and Australian (government) point of view that they were killed in crossfire is quite frankly absurd. We seek out war criminals from World War II, so to dismiss calls for justice for the Balibo Five is crazy." [10]
2007 inquest into death of Brian Peters

On 5 February 2007, the New South Wales (NSW) Coroner's Court began an inquest into Peters' death.[11] Although a British citizen, lawyers for the journalists’ families successfully argued that as Peters was a resident of New South Wales at the time of his death, NSW jurisdiction applied. This was the first public inquiry held regarding the fate of the Balibo Five that had powers to call witnesses.[12]

On the first day of the inquest, Yunus Yosfiah, former Minister for Information in the Habibie Government in Indonesia in 1998 and 1999, was accused of having led the 1975 attack in Balibo. Allegations were also raised that the journalists' bodies were dressed post-mortem into military uniforms and posed with weapons to make them appear to have taken an active part in the fighting.

The Australian media reported that the Australian Defence Signals Directorate intercepted an Indonesian military radio communication suggesting that the five were killed on the orders of superiors.[12]

An eyewitness account described seeing the five men before they were killed. "At this point Indonesian Army Captain Yunus Yosfiah and his team shot the journalists who were unarmed with their hands in the air ... I saw them shoot. A lot of them were firing. They fired towards the white people."

According to evidence presented, the fifth Balibo victim locked himself in a bathroom but was stabbed in the back with a special forces knife when he emerged.

Mark Tedeschi QC, in his closing statement to the inquest, stated, "There is incontrovertible evidence, including eyewitness accounts, that Indonesian troops deliberately killed the Balibo five newsmen. At least three of the journalists were shot after an order was given by Captain Yunus Yosfiah and the fifth man was stabbed by officer Christoforus Da Silva. It is highly unlikely the Captain would have made the decision to kill the newsmen without the sanction of his superior officers. There is enough evidence to refer the case to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to consider prosecuting two unnamed people for the war crime of wilful killing."[12]

The NSW coroner investigating held that "The Balibo Five ... were shot and or stabbed deliberately, and not in the heat of battle" in order to silence them from exposing Indonesia's 1975 East Timor invasion.[2]
War Crimes Investigation

On September 9, 2009, it was announced that the Australian Federal Police were launching a war crimes probe into the deaths of the Balibo Five.[13]
[edit] Feature film
Main article: Balibo (2009 film)

A feature film about the killing of the men, called Balibo, has been produced by Arenafilm in Australia, with Robert Connolly as director and David Williamson as screenwriter.[14] The film is based on Cover-Up, by Jill Jolliffe, an Australian journalist who met the men before they were killed. The book has been a source of controversy because of its criticism of some of the people involved in the campaign for justice.[15] Journalist John Pilger has criticised the reworking of the film's screenplay to play down the Australian government's cover-up of the killings and the removal of scenes which showed the effect of the cover-up on their families [16].

Attending the premiere of Balibo at the Melbourne International Film Festival on July 24, 2009 at Melbourne's Hamer Hall was the President of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta, who fought for his country's independence in exile for 24 years. Horta alleged in the evening's closing speech that the Balibo Five were tortured and killed by Indonesian forces. Horta said of the recent changes in Indonesia: "It is better. Indonesian democracy today is one of the most inspiring in the south-east Asia region."[11] Also in attendance were the families of the Balibo Five, who were called to the stage by director Robert Connolly. Relatives of Tony Stewart held aloft a banner bearing his name which had been embroidered by East Timorese women.[13] A tearful Maureen Tolfree, sister of the Balibo Five's Brian Peters, said she hoped many Australians would see the film and learn the truth about the events that happened some 35 years ago. "I think it will bring to the Australian public what's gone on," she said.[14]

In December 2009, the authorities in Indonesia banned the film from public screening.[17]