Balibo Five
Encyclopedia
The Balibo Five was a group of journalist
s for Australia
n television network
s based in the town of Balibo
in East Timor
(then Portuguese Timor
) where they were killed on 16 October 1975 during Indonesia
n incursions prior to the invasion.
In 2007, an Australian coroner ruled that they had been deliberately killed by Indonesian special force soldiers
. The official Indonesian version is that the men were killed by cross-fire during the battle for the town.
er, 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
.
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. The Balibo Housing Trust, funded by the Victorian Government, now owns the Chinese house and preserves it as a community learning centre.
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". But the journalists were obviously unaware that "it was the policy of the Australian Government privately to support Jakarta in its attempts to occupy East Timor by force" and that the United States had secretly endorsed the intention of Indonesia's President Suharto to invade the Portuguese colony.
, 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 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:
. 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.
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.
Malcolm Rennie's mother, Minna, later became involved with the issue until her death, as did his cousin Margaret Wilson.
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.
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."
(NSW) Coroner's Court began an inquest into Peters' death. 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.
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.
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."
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.
were launching a war crimes probe into the deaths of the Balibo Five.
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. 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.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
s for Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
s based in the town of Balibo
Balibo
Balibo is a town in East Timor situated approximately from the Indonesian border. It is located in the subdistrict of Balibo, Bobonaro District....
in East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
(then Portuguese Timor
Portuguese Timor
Portuguese Timor was the name of East Timor when it was under Portuguese control. During this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Netherlands East Indies, and later with Indonesia....
) where they were killed on 16 October 1975 during Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n incursions prior to the invasion.
In 2007, an Australian coroner ruled that they had been deliberately killed by Indonesian special force soldiers
Kopassus
Kopassus is an Indonesian Army special forces group that conducts special operations missions for the Indonesian government, such as direct action, unconventional warfare, sabotage, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and intelligence gathering.Kopassus was founded on April 16, 1952...
. The official Indonesian version is that the men were killed by cross-fire during the battle for the town.
The group
The group comprised two Australians, reporter Greg Shackleton, 29, and sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21; a New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
er, Gary Cunningham, 27, cameraman for HSV-7
HSV-7
HSV is a television station in Melbourne. It is part of the Seven Network, one of the three main commercial television networks in Australia, and its first and oldest station, having been launched in time for the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne....
(Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
) in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
; and two Britons
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, cameraman Brian Peters, 24, and reporter Malcolm Rennie, 29, both working for TCN-9
TCN-9
TCN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Nine Network in Australia and is located at Willoughby. The licence, issued to a company named Television Corporation Ltd headed by Frank Packer, was one of the first four licences to be issued for commercial television stations in...
(Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
) in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
.
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
Flag of Australia
The flag of Australia is a defaced Blue Ensign: a blue field with the Union Flag in the canton , and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter...
and the word 'AUSTRALIA' on the wall of a house known locally as the Chinese house. The Balibo Housing Trust, funded by the Victorian Government, now owns the Chinese house and preserves it as a community learning centre.
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". But the journalists were obviously unaware that "it was the policy of the Australian Government privately to support Jakarta in its attempts to occupy East Timor by force" and that the United States had secretly endorsed the intention of Indonesia's President Suharto to invade the Portuguese colony.
Roger East
Roger EastRoger East
Roger East was an Australian journalist who was executed by the Indonesian military in its invasion of East Timor in 1975....
, 50, an Australian AAP
Australian Associated Press
Australian Associated Press is Australia's national news agency. The organisation was established in 1935 by Fairfax and The Herald and Weekly Times.AAP employs more than 175 journalists who work in bureaux in all Australian states and territories...
-Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
journalist, travelled to East Timor to investigate the deaths of the five men. East was captured in Dili
Dili
Dili, spelled Díli in Portuguese, is the capital, largest city, chief port and commercial centre of East Timor.-Geography and Administration:Dili lies on the northern coast of Timor island, the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands....
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
National Crime Authority of Australia
The National Crime Authority was an Australian law enforcement agency established in 1984.In 2003 it was superseded by the Australian Crime Commission .The NCA was set up in the wake of the Costigan Commission into tax evasion and organised crime...
and Australian Government Solicitor
Australian Government Solicitor
Australian Government Solicitor, previously known as Commonwealth Deputy Crown Solicitor, is a law firm that provides legal services to the Government of Australia, and occasionally to governments of the states and territories of Australia...
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 independenceIndonesian occupation of East Timor
Indonesia occupied East Timor from December 1975 to October 1999. After centuries of Portuguese colonial rule in East Timor, a 1974 coup in Portugal led to decolonization among its former colonies, creating instability in East Timor and leaving its future uncertain...
. 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
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
against the sale of BAE Hawk
BAE Hawk
The BAE Systems Hawk is a British single-engine, advanced jet trainer aircraft. It first flew in 1974 as the Hawker Siddeley Hawk. The Hawk is used by the Royal Air Force, and other air forces, as either a trainer or a low-cost combat aircraft...
fighter jets to Indonesia.
Musician Paul Stewart was a teenager when his 21-year-old brother Tony died. He later formed the Dili Allstars
Dili Allstars
The Dili Allstars are an Australian and East Timorese reggae/ska band based in Melbourne. They are one of the leading voices of support for the East Timorese people and a popular musical group...
with Colin Buckler (of the band Painters and Dockers
Painters and Dockers
Painters and Dockers are a rock band formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1982. Their best performed album, Kiss My Art, peaked in the top 30 of the Australian Recording Industry Association albums charts in 1988. The album included two top 50 singles, "Nude School" and "Die Yuppie Die"...
). They recorded a song with East Timorese musician Gil Santos
Gil Santos
Gil Santos is the longtime radio play-by-play announcer for the New England Patriots of the National Football League, and morning sports reporter for WBZ radio in Boston. He retired from WBZ on January 30, 2009. Santos was inducted into the WBZ Radio Hall of Fame on July 9, 2009...
to protest the capture of East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmão
Xanana Gusmão
Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão GCL is a former militant who was the first President of East Timor, serving from May 2002 to May 2007...
by Indonesian armed forces in 1992.
Stewart worked as a consultant on the 2009 film Balibo
Balibo
Balibo is a town in East Timor situated approximately from the Indonesian border. It is located in the subdistrict of Balibo, Bobonaro District....
, 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
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West 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.
Malcolm Rennie's mother, Minna, later became involved with the issue until her death, as did his cousin Margaret Wilson.
In 2006, the International Press Institute
International Press Institute
International Press Institute is a global organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of press freedom and the improvement of journalism practices. Founded in October 1950, the IPI has members in over 120 countries....
sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General
United Nations Secretary-General
The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....
, Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
, 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.
Robert Connolly
Robert Connolly
Robert Connolly is a politically conscious film director, producer and screenwriter based in Melbourne, Australia.Connolly is best known as the director and writer of the feature films Balibo, Three Dollars and The Bank, and the producer of the high-profile Australian films Romulus My Father and...
, 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."
2007 inquest into death of Brian Peters
On 5 February 2007, the New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
(NSW) Coroner's Court began an inquest into Peters' death. 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.
On the first day of the inquest, Yunus Yosfiah
Yunus Yosfiah
Yunus Yosfiah, , is the most decorated member of the Indonesian army...
, 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
Defence Signals Directorate
Defence Signals Directorate is an Australian government intelligence agency responsible for signals intelligence and information security .-Overview:According to its website, DSD has two principal functions:...
intercepted an Indonesian military radio communication suggesting that the five were killed on the orders of superiors.
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
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
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."
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.
War crimes investigation
On 9 September 2009, it was announced that the Australian Federal PoliceAustralian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...
were launching a war crimes probe into the deaths of the Balibo Five.
Feature film
A feature filmFeature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
about the killing of the men, called Balibo, has been produced by Arenafilm in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, with Robert Connolly
Robert Connolly
Robert Connolly is a politically conscious film director, producer and screenwriter based in Melbourne, Australia.Connolly is best known as the director and writer of the feature films Balibo, Three Dollars and The Bank, and the producer of the high-profile Australian films Romulus My Father and...
as director and David Williamson
David Williamson
David Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.-Biography:...
as screenwriter. 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.
External links
- BALIBO Official Film Site | a Robert Connolly film | Starring Anthony LaPaglia and Oscar Isaac
- BALIBO Official Film Trailer
- New spotlight on Balibo killings, ABCAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, The 7.30 ReportThe 7.30 ReportThe 7.30 Report is an Australian nightly television current affairs program, that was shown on ABC1 and ABC News 24 at , Mondays–Thursdays...
2 June 2009 transcript - 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 - IFEXInternational Freedom of Expression ExchangeThe International Freedom of Expression eXchange , founded in 1992, is a global network of around 90 non-governmental organisations that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression....
- 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 AustralianThe AustralianThe Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
- ABC Radio National blogging from Balibo Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
- Jill JolliffeJill JolliffeJill Jolliffe is an Australian journalist and author who has reported on East Timor since 1975. She witnessed the first incursions of Indonesian regular troops into East Timor in September 1975 and reported on the deaths of the Balibo Five the following month.Jolliffe lived in Portugal from 1978...
. Balibo (revised and updated). Melbourne, Scribe. 2009. ISBN 9781921372773. - ContentFilm International : Balibo