APSN | Timor-Leste: Balibo remembers 40 years on

Home > South-East Asia >> East Timor

Timor-Leste: Balibo remembers 40 years on

Pacific Media Centre - October 17, 2015

Balibo Five families want AFP to re-open case on 40th anniversary – WA Today. October 16, 2015
We can't forget the lessons of Balibo – WA Today. October 15, 2015
Quest for Balibo truth spans 40 years – Australian Associated Press. October 15, 2015
Government decides against Balibo 5 inquiry – Radio New Zealand International. December 7, 2014
Balibo Five cover-up: When will it end in justice? – Sydney Morning Herald. October 27, 2014

Balibo, Timor-Leste – The people of Balibo in Timor-Leste marked Friday's 40th anniversary of the killing of Australian-based journalists by invading Indonesian soldiers with a quiet gathering outside the house where television reporter Greg Shackleton painted the Australian flag.

It is now a memorial to him and fellow journalist Malcolm Rennie, cameramen Gary Cunningham (from New Zealand) and Brian Peters, and sound recordist Tony Stewart.

A sixth journalist, Roger East, was killed in Dili on December 8, 1975. Their killers have never been brought to justice.

On Friday night, the children came forward and lit an arc of candles in the sand around the house, before going to an outdoor screening of the film Balibo on the basketball court.

Also in the town on Friday was a group of men who had walked there from the capital of Dili; stopping at villages throughout the five-day journey to retell the story to locals.

One of the participants in the "walk against impunity", Sisto dos Santos, said it was not only the journalists' story, but the town's story, and important that it was passed to the children.

'Entrusting younger generation'

"Let them know the reality of what happened in the past," he said. "We entrust the younger generation. We believe in them to continue the struggle for truth and justice. This is the testimony of Indonesian involvement in crimes against humanity in Timor-Leste."

The families of the Balibo Five say they never got a satisfactory explanation for the Australian Federal Police closing their investigation for war crimes last year.

At a dawn ceremony in Canberra on Friday, they argued that 40 years of Australian government silence had given the killers impunity.

An Indonesian foreign affairs spokesman this week maintained the five men died in accidental circumstances, and said the matter was closed. (The Australian/AAP/Pacific Media Watch)

Source: http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/timor-leste-balibo-remembers-40-years-9495.