Indonesia rejects Aussie finding on reporters' death

Indonesia rejects Aussie finding on reporters' death

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian government rejected yesterday the
finding of an Australian official investigation which pins the
blame for the deaths in 1975 of six Australian-based journalists
in East Timor squarely on Indonesian soldiers.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that while it has not had
the opportunity to review the report published in Canberra
yesterday, Jakarta's position regarding the cause of the deaths
remained unchanged.

"While it is unfortunate that these deaths occurred, it is a
fact that East Timor at that time was embroiled in a tragic civil
war in which many people died," the ministry statement said.

"Our position on this issue has always been that these
individuals were killed in crossfire between the opposing armed
factions in this conflict.

"We have seen nothing to change that conclusion," it said.

It promised, however, to study the full report.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer tabled the
report, written by the team which investigated the six deaths,
which was headed by former National Crime Authority boss Tom
Sherman, Reuters reported.

The study was commissioned by the Labor government in November
1995 after former East Timorese soldiers living in Australia said
they saw five of the journalists killed by Indonesian soldiers.

The five, Australians Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart,
Britons Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters and New Zealander Gary
Cunningham, were in East Timor to cover fighting which had
erupted in the wake of Portugal's withdrawal from the province.

The sixth, Australian Roger East, traveled to the territory to
cover the journalists' disappearance and the fighting.

There has never been an official explanation of East's death,
although several people have said they saw him shot dead by
Indonesian soldiers at Dili harbor.

The incidents occurred before East Timor formally became part
of Indonesia in July 1976. Indonesia had sent its volunteers to
East Timor in late 1975 to quell a bloody civil war that erupted
in the wake of the Portuguese withdrawal from the territory.

Downer told parliament yesterday that he had asked his
Indonesian counterpart, Ali Alatas, for any further information
Jakarta might have. Australia had no power to investigate events
on foreign soil, he added.

The report found that irregular Indonesian troops and East
Timorese commanded by Indonesian officers killed five of the
journalists in the western East Timor village of Balibo in
October 1975.

"It is more likely than not that the Balibo five were killed
in the heat of battle while fighting was still taking place,"
Sherman's report said.

It also said that an unidentified Indonesian soldier probably
killed journalist East when Indonesian troops went into the
capital, Dili, in December that year.

Downer said the new report was the best possible, given the
time lapse and all information available outside Indonesia.

"We simply do not have any other information on which to base
further analysis or more definitive conclusions," he said, adding
he would not comment on the findings.

Meanwhile, Shirley Shackleton, whose husband, Greg Shackleton,
was one of the television crew members killed at Balibo, demanded
a judicial inquiry in Australia and a murder trial in Indonesia.

"I want to see the perpetrators of these murders put on
trial," she said, at one stage close to tears.

"I don't want them murdered, I don't want them killed.

"But they must stand up in a court and explain what they were
doing, admit what they were doing." (emb)