Australian police have announced a long-awaited war crimes investigation into the deaths of the "Balibo Five" journalists killed by Indonesian troops in 1975. The surprise move comes nearly two years after a coroner's investigation ruled the five Australia-based men were murdered in an East Timor border town as they tried to surrender to invading Indonesian forces. The coroner called for war crimes charges against a number of generals, including one who rose to become Indonesia's information minister in the late 1990s.
"Allegations of war crimes committed overseas give rise to complex legal and factual issues that require careful consideration by law enforcement agencies before deciding to investigate," the Australian Federal Police said in a statement. The inquiry also follows the recent release of a hard-hitting movie, "Balibo", depicting the deaths of the Australians Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart, Britons Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie and New Zealander Gary Cunningham.
Jakarta has always maintained the reporters died in crossfire as Indonesian troops fought East Timorese Fretilin rebels, a version of events accepted by successive Australian governments. If enough evidence was found to show "criminality or a real possibility of criminality", police will ask Australia's chief prosecutor to consider whether war crimes charges should be laid. "The standard of proof in a criminal proceeding is high, and differs from that of a coronial inquiry," police said.
The journalists were covering Indonesia's advance into East Timor, then a Portuguese colony, at the beginning of a 24-year occupation marked by serious human rights abuses. The Sydney coroner Dorelle Pinch found in 2007 that they were murdered to keep the invasion a secret. Paul Stewart, whose brother Tony, 21, was the youngest of the Balibo Five, welcomed the investigation but said it was long overdue.
He also called for an investigation into the estimated 183,000 East Timorese deaths during Indonesia's occupation. "I am pleased at the move," he told AFP. "While they're investigating my brother's death maybe they'd also like to look into my Timorese mates, the death of all their family members as well." Greig Cunningham, the brother of killed cameraman Gary, said it was time for those responsible to be brought to justice.
"It has to be done, it can't not happen," he told public broadcaster ABC. "I believe that you can't just get away with murder. I just don't accept it. I just live and hope that something will happen with them." "Balibo" director Robert Connolly said it was an "amazing result" and said he hoped his film had helped prompt the inquiry. "For 34 years these poor families have had successive governments dismiss the obligation we have as Australians to pursue what happened to these men," he told AFP.
"Finally, the federal police are acting on it. I think it's a great triumph." Sydney coroner Pinch found the five were captured and "shot and or stabbed deliberately by members of the Indonesian Special Forces including Christoforus da Silva and Captain Yunus Yosfiah". Capt Yosfiah, who rose to hold the post of Indonesia's information minister in the late 1990s and is now a retired general, has admitted leading the attack on Balibo but denied involvement in the journalists' deaths.
Indonesia's foreign ministry dismissed the inquest's findings, saying that for Jakarta it was a "closed case". The East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta, a rebel leader at the time who investigated the deaths, said in July that at least one of the five was "brutally, brutally tortured". "I'm glad I don't rely on these people to pay my electricity bills, otherwise I'd have been sitting in the dark for 34 years," said Mr Stewart, referring to Australia's slow response.
* AFP