Editorial & Opinion ; EDITORIAL: De

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Subject: Editorial & Opinion ; EDITORIAL: Deafening silence over

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Editorial & Opinion 

      EDITORIAL: Deafening
      silence over journalists'
      killings

      IN October 1975, TV journalist Greg
      Shackleton trekked to the village of Balibo
      in East Timor with four Australian-based
      colleagues -- Tony Stewart, Malcolm
      Rennie, Brian Peters and Gary
      Cunningham. 

      They had earlier heard that Indonesian
      warships were sighted off the coast and
      that an invasion was imminent. The morning
      before the attack, Shackleton filed the
      following report: 

      ''Last night, a group of East Timorese
      gathered in this tin shack, bracing
      themselves against the Indonesian
      invasion. The air was so thick with fear that
      you could reach out and touch it. There
      were many questions: Why, they asked, are
      the Indonesians invading us. Why, they
      asked, are the Portuguese not helping us
      as we are still a Portuguese colony. Who,
      they asked, will pay for the terrible damage
      to our homes.'' 

      It was Shackleton's last report. The next
      day, Indonesian soldiers came and shouts
      of ''Australian journalists, non-combatants''
      were heard before they were drowned by
      gunfire. 

      For 23 years, the death of the Balibo Five
      has been shrouded in controversy. The
      Indonesians have consistently maintained
      that the men were cut down in crossfire.
      The 1996 Sherman Report, commissioned
      by the Australian government, concurred
      with the Indonesian claim. ''More likely than
      not,'' it concluded, ''the Balibo Five were
      killed in the heat of battle while fighting was
      continuing to occur.'' 

      Still, the issue refuses to die. 

      In August, the Geneva-based International
      Commission of Jurists (ICJ) produced a
      damning report on the incident. Indonesian
      troops, it said, set out from nearby
      Batugade with the intention to kill the
      journalists. The commission called for
      several retired Indonesian military officers,
      including current Information Minister Yunus
      Yosfiah, to be brought before an Australian
      judicial inquiry. 

      And last week, an eyewitness claimed that
      Yosfiah, then a captain of the elite Red
      Beret force, ordered his troops to fire at the
      journalists through the windows of the
      house in which they were taking refuge.
      One was knifed in the back after he was
      ordered out of the house. The newsmen
      were then stripped of their civilian clothes
      and dressed in military uniforms. Their
      bodies were later posed with machine guns
      and photographed, and then burnt. 

      According to the ICJ, the killings were
      aimed at ''concealing from world scrutiny
      the activities of the invading forces as they
      began their clandestine offensive''. Indeed,
      the Balibo Five were not the only journalists
      murdered. A sixth journalist, Australian
      Roger East, was killed when Indonesian
      troops parachuted into Dili in December
      1975. 

      If the Indonesians had hoped that dead
      journalists tell no tales, then they had almost
      succeeded. The world heard little about the
      invasion of East Timor which resulted in the
      death of an estimated 200,000 people,
      about one-third of the population. It was a
      genocide comparable to Cambodia's
      killing fields. 

      Given the new evidence, Australian Foreign
      Affairs Minister Alexander Downer
      announced he would reopen the inquiry into
      the Balibo Five. And in reaction to the news
      that Indonesia's President BJ Habibie
      could also be holding an inquiry, he said:
      ''We can't force them to do that but we
      would obviously welcome further
      information provided by the Indonesians
      and any investigation they may conduct into
      these events, which were of course a long
      time ago.'' 

      This doesn't sound like a person particularly
      interested in uncovering the truth. Of
      course, the truth may not serve the interests
      of the Australian government. There is
      evidence that its foreign affairs department
      had been involved in a cover-up of the
      killings. Australian diplomats were said to
      have been briefed by Indonesian
      intelligence officials on plans to attack
      Balibo three days before the attack.
      Australian diplomats were also aware of
      Jakarta's invasion plans from late 1974. 

      Indeed 23 years later, many questions
      remain. Why did the Australian government
      maintain a stoic silence over the killing of
      their citizens? Why did the country, almost
      alone, recognise the annexation of East
      Timor by Indonesia? Why was nothing done
      by the global community, when for 23 years
      the UN Security Council has demanded
      unconditional Indonesian withdrawal from
      East Timor? 

      Clearly, we cannot bring the dead back to
      life. But the least we can do is to put these
      questions to rest. 

      The Nation