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)