Balibo Five

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Commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the death of the Balibo Five

In the small East Timorese town of Balibo Vila , near the border with Indonesia , five television journalists, the so-called Balibo Five , were murdered by Indonesian soldiers on October 16, 1975 . On the day of her death, they filmed the entry of Indonesian armed forces from the old fortress . These incursions by Indonesia into what was then the colony of Portuguese Timor served in preparation for the actual invasion on December 7, 1975. It was intended to prevent an independent state of East Timor.

circumstances

Balibo (East Timor)
Balibo
Balibo
The place Balibo is located in the west of East Timor
The Balibo Fort
The image of the Australian flag by Greg Shackleton

The Balibo Five were the New Zealander Gary Cunningham (cameraman) and the two Australians Greg Shackleton (reporter) and Tony Stewart (sound) from the Melbourne broadcaster HSV-7 ( Seven Network ) and the British Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie from the television broadcaster TCN-9 ( Nine Network ) from Sydney .

The then 16-year-old FRETILIN soldier Manuel da Silva later reported that he and four other men were supposed to be holding the old fort in Balibo when the Indonesians came. Brian Peters and Gary Cunningham filmed the warships firing at Balibo from the fort. The two cameramen then ran back down from the fort to the three other reporters at a small Chinese shop.

When the attack by the Indonesian special forces Tim Susi and battalions of the second infantry brigade was imminent, the Fretilin soldier Rosito Ximenes urged journalists to flee now, but they believed that as foreign journalists they would not be in danger. Film footage shows Greg Shackleton painting the Australian flag and the word "AUSTRALIA" on the wall of her home.

Other, more recent eyewitness accounts state the reporters were shot after surrendering. Former Indonesian information minister , Mohammad Yunus Yosfiah , is accused of having shot Brian Peters from Britain as a special forces officer , after which Yosfiah's men also killed the three reporters from TCN-9. Da Silva saw three of the reporters being dragged out of the house by Indonesian soldiers and pushed into the street. Da Silva couldn't tell whether they were injured or already dead. Da Silva and his comrades then fled Balibo. The fifth reporter allegedly barricaded himself in a bathroom and was later killed by a knife in the back while trying to escape. Yosfiah denies ever meeting the Balibo Five . The officer responsible for the attack on Balibo was Colonel Dading Kalbuadi .

The Indonesian military justified the killing of the camera crews on the grounds that the men were communists and sympathizers of FRETILIN . Attempts were also made to blame the killing of the FRETILIN themselves, or rather the East Timorese militias who fought against the FRETILIN. But these were hardly involved in the attack on Balibo. Most historians assume, however, that the reporters were killed to prevent an early discovery of the Indonesian incursions. The Australian reporter Roger East , who wanted to clarify the fate of the Balibo Five, was captured and executed by Indonesian soldiers in the course of Indonesia's open invasion of East Timor on December 7, 1975.

The remains of the Balibo Five were cremated and buried in Jakarta without the consent of their families . Greg Shackleton's widow, Shirley, has become an outspoken supporter of East Timor’s independence in Australia. Other relatives of the victims were so traumatized that they did not deal with the subject for many years. It was not until 1994 that Maureen Tolfree, Brian Peters' sister, got involved in East Timor when she heard of a demonstration against the sale of BAE Hawk fighter jets to Indonesia in her hometown of Bristol .

After seven months of preparation by the CivPol, international arrest warrants were issued in 2001 for crimes against humanity against Yunus Yosfiah, as well as Cristoforus da Silva and Domingos Bere . However, the Indonesian government refused to extradite Yunus , according to Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab .

Australian surveys from 2007

The journalists' house is now a museum

As of February 5, 2007, the New South Wales investigative court re-investigated Brian Peters' death. The previous January, reports surfaced in the media that old papers suggested that then-Prime Minister of Australia Gough Whitlam had endorsed the murder of journalists by the Indonesian military. Whitlam denied this. Other press reports reported from witnesses who had overheard the Indonesian military radio, which reported: "According to your instructions, five journalists were tracked down and shot."

The court found in its findings, presented on November 15, 2007, that the Balibo Five had been executed. Questioning of witnesses and the inspection of secret documents would lead to the result. A member of the investigation team requested that Mohammed Yunus Yosfiah and Christoforus da Silva be charged. The former ordered the execution of at least three reporters, and da Silva stabbed the fifth journalist.

According to a spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry in early March 2007, the case has been closed. The Jakarta government believes the five were killed in a crossfire. This was confirmed again in November 2007 after the results of the investigation were announced. The Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “They (the results of the investigation) do not change Indonesia's position that the case is closed for us and we continue to maintain that they (the Balibo Five) were killed by the crossfire of the conflicting parties at the time. No matter what the investigative court's recommendation is, it will not change Indonesia's position on this matter. "

Commemoration

Memorial Grove of the PEN Club in Canberra

The so-called "Australian Flag house" (also "Balibohaus"), on which the reporters had painted the flag of Australia, was renovated with funds from the Australian state of Victoria and expanded into a community center with a daycare center, library and vocational training center. A plaque on the house is reminiscent of the Balibo Five .

The screening of the Australian film " Balibo " from 2009 about the Balibo Five was banned by the Indonesian authorities just minutes before its premiere in Indonesia.

The PENClub in Canberra planted to commemorate the dead several trees in memory.

In 2014 Greg Shackleton was posthumously awarded the Colar des Ordem de Timor-Leste . Gary Cunningham received the Medal of the Ordem de Timor-Leste in 2015. For Brian Peters there was also the Medal of the Ordem de Timor-Leste in 2016.

Since 2016, the Associação de Jornalistas de Timor-Leste (AJTL) has been presenting the Balibo Five Award to journalists in East Timor .

See also

Web links

Commons : Balibo Five  - collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "Part 3: The History of the Conflict" (PDF; 1.4 MB) from the "Chega!" Report of the CAVR (English)
  2. ↑ "Chapter 7.2 Unlawful Killings and Enforced Disappearances" (PDF; 2.5 MB) from the "Chega!" Report of the CAVR (English)
  3. ↑ a b c ABC Local Radio, Emma Alberici, February 5, 2007, Balibo five death hearing begins
  4. ^ Scoop, November 12, 2007, Balibo journalists' deaths: Coronial Inquest
  5. ^ The West, November 15, 2007, Investigação responsabiliza Indonésia pela morte de jornalistas
  6. ↑ Bay Ledger News Zone: Australia court urges Indonesia war crimes charges, November 16, 2007 ( February 22, 2014 memento in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ International Herald Tribune, November 15, 2007, Australian coroner recommends war crime probe in deaths of 5 journalists in East Timor
  8. ^ The Sydney Morning Herald, November 17, 2007: Balibo Five share some blame: coroner
  9. ↑
     Wikinews: Jakarta does not want to allow any further investigation into the case of the "Balibo Five"
  10. ↑ ETAN , November 16, 2007, "Balibo Five case closed: Indonesia"
  11. ^ ABC News, December 1, 2009, Indonesia bans Balibo screening
  12. ↑ Decreto do Presidente da República n ° 25/2014 de 27 de Agosto , accessed on September 18, 2019.
  13. ↑ Decreto do Presidente da República n ° 43/2015 de 6 de Maio , accessed on September 18, 2019.
  14. ↑ Decreto do Presidente da República n. ° 24/2016 de 19 de Maio , accessed on September 18, 2019.
  15. ↑ Facebook appearance of the First Lady East Timor: Gabinete da Primeira-Dama de Timor-Leste , April 4, 2016 , accessed on April 4, 2016.