Australia to stop reporter death probe

Australia to stop reporter death probe

JAKARTA (JP): The Australian government is unlikely to further
pursue an inquiry concerning the deaths of six journalists in
East Timor in 1975, allegedly killed by Indonesian troops.

After a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart yesterday,
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told journalists
that he had been informed that Jakarta could provide no
additional information surrounding the deaths.

"It would be misleading and unfair of me to suggest that the
Australian government could carry this matter a great deal
further forward," Downer said.

"They said they didn't have any further information available,
I can't force them to make information available," he remarked.

Downer and Alatas held their half-hour meeting at the end of
yesterday's ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences.

An Australian commission concluded a six-month inquiry last
month surrounding the deaths of the six Australian-based
journalists, saying they were probably killed by Indonesian
troops.

Jakarta maintains that the journalists were killed in
crossfire between rival Timorese factions during the civil war
that preceded East Timor's integration as Indonesia's 27th
province.

Downer said Alatas' response came as no surprise, but noted
that "the Indonesian response will cause some disappointment to
the next of kin of the deceased".

Given that there was no additional information, there was not
much Canberra could do about the matter, Downer said.

"The simple fact is that we have asked the Indonesian
government if it can provide additional information. The
government has said it doesn't have further information at this
stage," he said.

When asked whether it would be possible to exhume the bodies
in order to conduct autopsies, Downer replied that such an
undertaking would require consensus from all the relevant
families.

"I've been advised there isn't a consensus among the
families," he said. (mds)