Australia to probe death of its journalists in E. Timor
Australia to probe death of its journalists in E. Timor
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP): The government ordered yesterday an investigation into allegations it did nothing to protect the lives of five Australian journalists murdered by Indonesian troops in East Timor 23 years ago.
The move followed a report by The Sydney Morning Herald that Canberra's foreign affairs department had systematically concealed information about the killings to retain support for its policies on East Timor.
Australia has been one of few countries to grant de jure recognition to the annexation of the former Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975 and annexed the following year. The United Nations refused recognition.
The five were reporter Malcolm Rennie, 28, and cameraman Brian Peters, 29, both British citizens working for Channel Nine, Melbourne; reporter Greg Shackleton, 27, sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21, and cameraman Gary Cunningham, 27, a New Zealander, working for Channel Seven, Melbourne.
They died at Balibo on Oct. 16, 1975, as Indonesia prepared for a full-scale invasion of East Timor following Portugal's departure after some 400 years of colonial rule.
Greg Shackleton's widow, Shirley Shackleton, who has maintained for years that Canberra knew much more about the incident than it admitted, said the report vindicated her belief and a judicial inquiry should now be held.
"What it means is that Australian nationals can be murdered and the murderers can get away with it with the connivance of their own department of foreign affairs and their own prime ministers," she told ABC radio.
The Australian section of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists also called for a judicial inquiry.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton also said that if the allegations were true, they should be investigated by an independent inquiry.
Citing official documents and accounts by officials, the Herald said Indonesian intelligence officials had given the Australian Embassy in Jakarta a detailed briefing of plans for the attack on Balibo and the embassy advised Canberra in a cable three days before it took place.
But no attempt was made to check if any Australians were in the war zone, nor to warn or protect the journalists known to be in the area at the time.
The paper said the attack was part of a full-scale invasion by about 3,200 Indonesian troops to seize control of East Timor, not a border skirmish between irregular Timorese forces with some Indonesian assistance, as the foreign affairs department had claimed.
The Herald said the embassy cable, which had been confirmed by former Ambassador to Indonesia Richard Woolcott, contradicted a denial by former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam of knowledge of the Balibo "border incursion".
The paper said an inquiry headed by a former government lawyer, Tom Sherman, in 1995-96 failed to interview any of the Australian officials who were handling Timor affairs in 1975.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denied there had been any cover-up but said he had ordered his department to review the allegations but said he believed all of the facts had been uncovered by the Sherman report.
"But I have asked my department to go through this information in The Sydney Morning Herald and if there's anything new in that report to draw it to my attention."