Australia lied about E. Timor deaths: Files

Australia lied about E. Timor deaths: Files

CANBERRA (Reuters): Secret files released on Tuesday show the
Australian government lied about its knowledge of the murder of
five journalists in East Timor weeks before Indonesia invaded in
late 1975, political analyst Des Ball said.

The files show the government was informed that the
journalists were dead on Oct. 16, the same day they were reported
missing, Ball told reporters at a news conference at which 70,000
pages of diplomatic documents were made public.

The government did not confirm the deaths for days and six
months later said investigations were still under way. Successive
administrations have told parliament and the next of kin they did
not know the details of the deaths.

The funerals were delayed for months and only charred bits of
bone were ever produced as remains.

The files expose "the most shameful episode in the history of
Australian foreign policy," Ball told reporters at the release of
the files at Australia's national archives.

Ball, an Australian National University professor who has
written a book about the events, was selected by the government
to summarize his findings from the secret papers.

Australians Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart, Britons Malcolm
Rennie and Brian Peters and New Zealander Gary Cunningham, aged
21 to 29, were killed in the Timorese town of Balibo several
weeks before Indonesia invaded East Timor on Dec. 7, 1975.

The files showed four of them were killed while they hid or
were held in a house. Charred bones were found in the home.

A fifth body, also burned, was found nearby, which Ball said
confirmed rumors that one journalist had escaped from Indonesian
troops before being captured and killed in a way that is "too
horrible to recount".

Ball said the files show Australia has long known about the
journalists' deaths at the hands of Indonesian troops.

They show "how the Australian government connived with Jakarta
over Indonesia's covert invasion...how it dealt with the killing
of the five Australian-based journalists at Balibo...and how it
lied to the Australian parliament and public, including next of
kin, over the ensuing quarter of a century," he said.

The documents showed then prime minister Malcolm Fraser's
coalition government kept its officials in the dark, sending a
team to investigate the "presumed deaths" six months later.

Fraser, now head of CARE Australia, was not immediately
available for comment.

Secret memos, cables and letters sent and received by the
foreign department from 1974 to 1976 are being released ahead of
the usual 30-year wait in a bid to clear the air over one of the
most controversial events in Australian history.

Files released last week revealed that Australia knew in
advance of the invasion of East Timor and effectively gave
Indonesia's then President Soeharto tacit approval to annex it.

Indonesia and its Western allies were concerned pro-communist
East Timorese would take over the territory.

Having advance notice "was a major intelligence coup but it
does raise the question at what point access to privileged
information becomes complicity if you don't make any objections
to the substance of what you're receiving?" Ball said.

Human rights groups said up to 200,000 people died during the
invasion and subsequent fighting and famine in East Timor.

Ball praised the release of the papers but said the omission
of key intelligence files leaves some questions still unanswered.

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has refused to cast
judgment on the governments of the time.

East Timor voted for independence last year after 25 years of
Indonesian rule. It is under temporary UN control after the vote
triggered a wave of violence by pro-Jakarta militias.