Roger East

Roger East (born February 7, 1922 in Girraween , Sydney , Australia , † December 8, 1975 in Dili , East Timor ) was an Australian journalist .

Life

East grew to Dubbo City belonging Eumungerie on. He served in the Navy during World War II , after which he began working as a journalist for the local newspapers The Liberal and The Northern Star in New South Wales .

In 1958 he joined ABC Radio in Melbourne , but soon moved to Brisbane . In 1961 he began working for the liberal Rand Daily Mail in South Africa , which was early on against the country's apartheid regime . From 1963 East was editor of the ABC television news agency Visnews in London . In 1965, East returned to ABC in Sydney, where he worked for radio and television. He later moved to Spain , where he edited English-language newspapers, and to New York , where he worked for the United Nations . Back in Australia, East became the National Country Party press secretary before taking almost the same job at the Labor Party .

In 1975 the neighboring colony of Portuguese Timor was to be prepared for independence, but Indonesian influence led to a civil war there between the two largest parties , which the left-wing FRETILIN was able to win after just a few weeks. The Portuguese colonial administration had withdrawn to the Timor island of Atauro due to the fighting . Against the background of the conflict, which Indonesia itself promoted, Indonesia began to occupy areas near the border with Portuguese Timor. On October 16, 1975, Indonesian soldiers murdered five Western reporters in the border town of Balibo , presumably to cover up the infiltration.

Roger East was  invited by José Ramos-Horta - the then external representative of FRETILIN - to report on the situation in the colony. East opened a one-man news agency in Timor for ABC Radio Darwin and AAP Sydney. He was the first reporter to bring eyewitness accounts of the death of the Balibo Five to the news. In addition, East reported on the attempts by FRETILIN to obtain international support. On November 28, FRETILIN unilaterally proclaimed the independence of the Democratic Republic of East Timor in the face of the Indonesian threat . East was the last foreign reporter in the country at the time. The other two previous correspondents Michael Richardson of The Age and Jill Jolliffe of Reuters had been evacuated with the Red Cross . On December 7th, Indonesia began the open invasion of East Timor . East reported on the landing of Indonesian troops in the state capital Dili. His last report for ABC Radio was received that afternoon.

East had planned to flee to the mountains with FRETILIN soldiers, but was captured by Indonesian parachute troops. The next day he was at the shipyard of Dili by Indonesian soldiers with an executed shot in the head . His body was dropped into the water. She was never found again.

Commemoration

The fate of Roger East also plays a role in the Australian film " Balibo " from 2009. The figure of Bill Mabbely in the novel The Redundancy of Courage by Timothy Mo is modeled East.

On August 30, 2014, Roger East was posthumously honored with the Ordem de Timor-Leste by East Timorese President Taur Matan Ruak . His nephew Hall accepted the medal.

See also

• History of East Timor

literature

• James Dunn: Timor: A People Betrayed. The Jacaranda Press, Milton, Queensland 1983, pp. 286-289.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} ABC memorial: Roger East , accessed August 31, 2014.
2. ↑ ^{a b} The Northern Star: Journalist's story finally told , August 15, 2009 , accessed August 31, 2014.
3. ↑ Tempo Semanal Sabadu: Estado TL condecorados Membros da Solidaridade no dia 30 de Agosto de 2014 , August 30, 2014 , accessed on August 30, 2014 on TIMOR CONDECORA .