Tue, 08 Dec 2009 1:57p.m.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully
The Newspaper Publishers' Association (NPA) has welcomed an admission by a former Indonesian colonel that five journalists including a New Zealander were intentionally killed in 1975, but has criticised the New Zealand government for its failure to act.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Murray McCully said today the Government was watching developments.
New Zealander Gary Cunningham died with four other Australian-based newsmen – Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Greg Shackleton and Anthony Stewart – at Balibo in East Timor in 1975.
AAP reported yesterday that a former Indonesian army colonel, Gatot Purwanto, admitted Indonesian soldiers deliberately killed the so-called Balibo Five to cover up the invasion of East Timor, contradicting Indonesia's long-held official line they died in crossfire.
"If we let them leave they would say that this was the Indonesian invasion," Mr Purwanto, who was a low-ranking special forces soldier when he took part in the 1975 assault on Balibo, told Tempo magazine.
"If we let them go there would be evidence."
The comments come as Australian Federal Police hold a war crimes investigation into the deaths.
A 2007 New South Wales coronial inquiry found a group of soldiers led by Indonesian Special Forces captain Yusuf Yosfiah ordered the deaths of the Balibo Five, who were in East Timor covering the Indonesian invasion of the former Portuguese colony.
The NPA is the secretariat for the Media Freedom Committee, which represents New Zealand media, and advocates free speech and journalists' rights.
Its chief executive Tim Pankhurst said it was good to have an admission.
"What has been equally shameful has been the silence of the Australian and New Zealand governments over the killing of its citizens," he said.
New Zealand was outspoken about events in Fiji but not a large neighbour like Indonesia.
"Over the years there has been nary a peep from this country and even in the mid 1990s then foreign minister Don McKinnon was quibbling over the term invasion for what happened in East Timor following the departure of the Portuguese," Mr Pankhurst said.
"At least Australian authorities, if not the Government, have not let the matter rest."
Mr Pankhurst said journalism was a dangerous job in many parts of the world.
"Countries like New Zealand and Australia that support free speech, a fundamental tenet of democracy, need to back that up by defending their citizens.
"It might be 34 years on but it is not too late for justice for the Balibo Five and their families." Mr McCully's spokesman said the Government was watching developments.
"The minister raised the issue of the Balibo Five with his Indonesian counterpart previously but the current investigation is an Australian initiative and we are following it very closely."
Mr Purwanto spoke after seeing Robert Connolly's Balibo, the Australian film about the killings that has been banned in Indonesia.
He claims his superior tried to ask Jakarta what to do about the men as soldiers surrounded the house where they were hiding.
But those soldiers decided to open fire, before Jakarta responded, after they were "provoked" by gunfire from the journalists' direction, he said.
Afterwards, soldiers took the bodies to another house to be burned to cover up the incident.
Shirley Shackleton, the widow of the Seven Network's Greg Shackleton, who was killed at Balibo, welcomed the admission but said it did not give her closure.
"You don't get closure from things like that," Ms Shackleton told Fairfax Radio Network today. "Closure is just a new age gobbledegook word, what it really means is `Please, I can't stand your grief, go away'."(But) it is a milestone. It's another nail in the coffin of lies."
Ms Shackleton said the claim the journalists shot at soldiers was "bullshit".
"He's saying it wasn't crossfire, he also says that the troops fired after a shot came from behind the journalists. (But) there was no one in that village, it was completely deserted.
"That's bullshit. Team Susi was an assassination squad sent to shut them up.
"This was bloody murder."
NZPA
