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)