Balibo Five

The Australian flag in Balibo

The Balibo Five was 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 before 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. In the opinion of The Economist, the Australian government has never challenged this, as it was focused on developing relations with Indonesia.^[3]

The group

The group comprised two Australians, reporter Greg Shackleton, 29, and sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21; a New Zealander, Gary Cunningham, 27, cameraman for HSV-7 (Seven Network) in Melbourne; and two Britons, cameraman Brian Peters, 24, and reporter Malcolm Rennie, 29, both working for TCN-9 (Nine Network) in Sydney.^[1][4][5][6]

While the men were aware that Indonesian troops were to mount an attack on the town, they believed that, as 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 in the town square. Balibo House Trust, established in 2003 with seed funding from the Victorian Government and television stations 7 and 9, now owns this house and preserves it as a community learning centre.^[7]

Senior diplomats told the 2007 coroner's inquest of their understanding that "the killing was done by the Indonesian military and that it was deliberate".^[8]

Roger East

Roger East, 53, 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 referred 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 on 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. 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.^[9]

Musician Paul Stewart was a teenager when his 21-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.

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.^[10]

Malcolm Rennie's mother, Minna, later became involved with the issue until her death, as did his cousin Margaret Wilson.^[11]

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.^[6]

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.^[12] Although he was 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.^[13]

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.^[13]

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."^[13]

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 9 September 2009, it was announced that the Australian Federal Police were launching a war crimes probe into the deaths of the Balibo Five.^[14]

In 2009, former Indonesian soldier Gatot Purwanto told the ABC the men were shot deliberately but not executed. He says he was about 30 metres away when Indonesian soldiers fired on the house the men were sheltering in. "We knew they were foreigners, but we didn't think about whether they were journalists or not, because in a battle, the instinct is if they're not friends, then they could kill us," he said. The now 62-year-old says he was with Special Forces captain Yunus Yosfiah when the Balibo Five were spotted. A coronial inquest into the deaths of the men found Mr Yosfiah, who was later an Indonesian Government minister, ordered the killings.^[15]

Saul, who acted for the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) at the NSW inquiry, said there are “complexities” in the legal situation relating to prosecuting a war crime. “It has to show that there was an international armed conflict between Indonesia and Portugal … and that in the context of that the journalist were killed,” he said, adding “I think the legal case for that conflict’s existence is very strong on the facts”. He said that while the criminal standard of proof was much higher for the police than in a coronial inquest, the AFP have not “satisfactorily” explained if they had exhausted all lines of inquiry.^[16]

The AFP then concluded in 2014, that there is insufficient evidence to prove an offence.

Feature film

A feature film about the killing of the men, called Balibo, was produced in 2009 by Arenafilm, Australia, written by David Williamson and directed by Robert Connolly.^[17] 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.^[18]

The Balibo killings episode was also fictionalised for the opening sequence of the 1982 film Brothers, written by Roger Ward and directed by Terry Bourke

Theatre production

In 2011, the Melbourne Theatre Company and Western Australia's Black Swan State Theatre Company commissioned Australian playwright Aidan Fennessy to write a new work on the theme of the Balibo Five.^[19] Entitled 'National Interest', the play focuses on the family of slain journalist Tony Stewart. It was performed in Perth and Melbourne during 2012.^[20] Coinciding with the play's premiere season, on 20 May 2012, East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta presented Paul Stewart with a medal of merit awarded posthumously to his brother Tony.^[21]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balibo Five.

• Balibo House Trust
• BALIBO Official Film Site | a Robert Connolly film | Starring Anthony LaPaglia and Oscar Isaac
• BALIBO Official Film Trailer
• New spotlight on Balibo killings, ABC, The 7.30 Report 2 June 2009 transcript
• Sunday report on Balibo memorial Nine Network Australia
• BBC Radio 4 Death in East Timor – Interview with Maureen Tolfree
• 'Lest we forget' cartoon by 'Jeff' from 1976
• Press group seeks fresh investigation into Balibo five – IFEX
• DemocracyNow!'s interview with Shackleton's widow, Shirley. "15 Years After East Timor Massacre, Calls for Accountability Continue"
• New focus helps crack Balibo Five film The Australian
• ABC Radio National blogging from Balibo Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• Jill Jolliffe. Balibo (revised and updated). Melbourne, Scribe. 2009. ISBN 978-1-921372-77-3.
• ContentFilm International : Balibo
• 'National Interest' – A co-production from Melbourne Theatre Company and Black Swan State Theatre Company