THE BALIBO 5

ADEAD MEN CAN STILL BITE!@

By Max Watts, a freelance journalist, Sydney

A Dead Men can still bite !@ said Shirley Shackleton, thirty-one years after her husband, Greg Shackleton, died in Balibo, a village on the frontier between East and West Timor. Shackleton, Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Gary Cunningham, and Tony Stewart, TV journalists working for Channels 7 and 9, the ABalibo 5@ - disappeared on 16 October, 1975. Killed, soon in Dili, a sixth Australian journalist, Roger East. And - in the next 24 years perhaps two hundred thousand East Timorese. Murdered, by the Indonesian army, with the not so silent assent of the Australian, the US, the British governments.

For 31 years these deaths, that of the six Journalists, that of the 200,000 Timorese, have been covered up. Officially lied into the Asad, but forget@ file. But now a little Deputy Sydney Coroner, Dorelle Pinch, has pried open at least a part of the Y graves. Exposed some of the worst lies. Allowed, as Shirley Shackleton says, the dead to bite, bite some very senior, still living, bums. And Pinch hopes to continue in MayY Let=s hope !

Break for some History

AThe Timorese are used to being killed@, one told me. In 1941-43 they supported the Australian AIndependent Companies@ fighting a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese there. The Australians left, the Timorese stayed, the Japanese were not amused and killed perhaps 40,000, ten percent of the then population. The Australian government told the survivors: AWe will never forget you!@

Never was a short-term word. In 1945, after the Japanese surrender, East Timor was returned to the Portuguese AEmpire@. The Salazar dictatorship. In April 1974 Portuguese Captains, soon actively backed by their rank and file soldiers, overthrew that fascist dictatorship. The anti-fascists in the army ended Portugal=s decade-long colonial wars in Africa, dissolved the centuries-old ALusitanian@ empire. East Timor, too, no longer a distant, almost forgotten, colony, was freed. In 1975 AFretilin@, a left-wing party, many of whose leaders had been Portuguese soldiers, came to power in Dili.

The Australian Whitlam Labor Government, the Americans smarting from their defeats in Vietnam, worried. Neither wanted a ASecond Cuba in the Pacific@. And both realised that the ATimor Gap@ between Timor and Australia contained still untapped but perhaps enormous Oil and Gas deposits.

Indonesia, for centuries an exploited Dutch colony, had fought for and won its independence in 1945-1950. But its left, an important element in and after that anti-imperialist struggle, was eliminated in 1965-66 by a right-wing military coup, supported and steered by the CIA. Half, or a whole, million ACommunists@ were killed. Order and Business now reigned in Jakarta. Phillips, a major American Oil Company, could and did, do business there. A million dead ACommunists@ were no problem, but the Fretilin in East Timor could well be. Or become one. For Phillips.

Particularly as the permits for the Timor Gap had been allocated, in previous years, to APetrotimor@ and its American partner, Oceanic Oil. No one in the establishments wanted a "left" Fretilin government in very poor East Timor to keep such a treasure.

Fortunately a well-known American, one Henry Kissinger, had (still has ?) very good connections with the Phillips Company and the Indonesian government. And at the crucial time, late 1975, this Kissinger was ASecretary of State@, i.e. Foreign Minister, of the American government, leading the short-term (almost temporary) President Gerald Ford. By the nose ? WellY anyway, to Indonesia, to visit communist-killing Dictator Suharto.

Suharto, the Indonesian generals, also worried. An independent, leftist, Fretilin, government in East Timor could become an Ainfection@, give too many ideas to the now Acalmed@ (i.e. killed) Indonesian left.

Americans, Australians, Indonesians B and Phillips Petroleum had one common idea. Get rid of Fretilin ! And if the great majority of the East Timorese wanted Fretilin? Tough ! ADemocracy@ would just have to take a back-seat. Suharto had shown, in Indonesia, that he could "take care" of (i.e. kill) the left.

As we have seen recently in Palestine, democracy is useless if the wrong, anti-American, anti-imperialists, use it to govern.

TWO PLANS FOR OVERTHROWING FRETILIN

A first scenario, to get rid of Fretilin by starting a civil war inside East Timor, using the right and right-center APODETI and UDT parties to attack the government, with (covert) Indonesian support, failed bloodily in August 1975. Fretilin emerged stronger than ever, the remnants of the UDT, APODETI, fled to Indonesia.

A second plan, invading East Timor with the Indonesian army, was problematic. It could look really bad. The Australian (Labor !) government, even the Americans, certainly the United Nations and the Portuguese (who still had some warships there) might object.

(Later on, 1990-91 Saddam Hussein tried this in Kuwait. Invaded a small country to get at its oil. We know where he eventually ended up, hung on the gallows).

So, with the silent approval of Australia=s Whitlam, America=s Kissinger, the British Ambassador, these two plans were merged: Indonesia would invade, but pretend it wasn=t there. It should look like being only, or still, a civil war between Timorese. The Indonesian Army moved in, using as cover some auxiliaries - UDT/APODATI Timorese. Unfortunately these had no warships or helicopters. Warships were needed to occupy the coastal border town of Batugade. Headquarters for the invasion force.

The Balibo 5: Flies in the Ointment

At this point the two Australian TV crews in Balibo, on the East Timorese frontier, became B did they realise this ? B a Areal problem@. For the Australian, American, Indonesian governments.

From the East Timorese mountain village of Balibo they filmed the Indonesian warships. And, on 16 October 1975, the Indonesian attack on Balibo. Had these films Agot out@, been screened, any pretense of civil war, Indonesian absence, would have become ridiculous

The Whitlam Australians, the Kissinger/Ford Americans, had explained this to Suharto: AGo ahead, invade, but don=t let anybody know@.

Much of the Australian public still remembered what the East Timorese had once done for Australia. The Americans, few of whom knew where Timor was, had been traumatised by Vietnam. There they had been told they landed there to defend Vietnam from the Communists. Who turned out to be the Vietnamese. Many Americans might feel bad, so soon supporting another invasion, again Ato stop communism@. Particularly if that invasion was Afor the oil.@ Look at what happened when Saddam did that to Kuwait !

So, no publicity, please ! Some of the Indonesian attackers, led by one Captain Yunus Yosfiah (who went on to greater things B became a general, a minister, now he=s alive, well, retired in Jakarta) worried. AThere are Australian journalists in BaliboY Filming..A He was told: ANever mind. We=ll have >strong medicine= for them.@

And so that invasion went ahead. Fretilin forces, outnumbered, fearing encirclement, fled. Resistance ceased. The Indonesians, Yunus Yosfiah, entered Balibo. The 5 journalists, yelling: AAustralians, Journalists@, came to meet them. Yosfiah shot them, had the fleeing survivor stabbed to death. Three bodies were first dressed in Portuguese army uniforms, filmed behind damaged machine guns, ACommunist Fretilin allies@. As this version was seen as too plump, unrealistic, the dead 5 were carried into their house, and B for three days B repeatedly doused with kerosene, burned. So were their films, their equipment.

All was reported repeatedly by the Indonesian officers to their superiors. By radio. The Australian Intelligence services (and certainly the Americans, who have a huge CIA base in Pine Gap, Australia) listened in. Translated, reported.

What happened to these reports has long been controversial. In fact the very existence of these radio intercepts, these reports, has been systematically denied for thirty-one years, particularly by once Oz Prime Minister Whitlam.

For 31 years the Aofficial versions@ remained: AWe don=t know what happened. To these journalists. They were just unlucky, hit, killed, by crossfire. Between different East Timorese groups. Not the Indonesian army..@

Seven separate, but Aclosed@, investigations failed to shake these official versions.

UNTIL..

The families of the Balibo 5 did not give up. Maureen Tolfree, the sister of Brian Peters, a Asimple@ Bristol woman, insisted. And a small opening opened up, grew, grows. Cameraman Brian Peters, although a British citizen, was a Sydney resident. A New South Wales Coroner, Deputy Coroner Dorelle Pinch, found she thus has Ajurisdiction@. An official Inquest into Brian Peters= death opened in early February. 2007. Thirty-one years after the disappearance, death, of Peters, the other four. The Balibo Five.

Coroner Pinch promised an open, complete, inquiry. On opening day pickets outside the courtroom stood with AThe Truth, This Time !@ signs.

The inquest ran three weeks in February and has already revealed much. Two weeks open sessions, Timorese witnesses of the 16 October 1975 events. Murders. Multiple witnesses confirmed: AYosfiah, the Indonesian soldiers, shot, stabbed, the Journalists. There was no crossfire, the fighting had ceased well before.@ Then, at the end of the second week, things became more complicated: Retired Australian AIntelligence@ servicepersons insisted they had seen, at the time and soon thereafter, radio intercepts destined to the highest interests, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, his inner cabinet. These intercepts have never been revealed, admitted, in previous inquiries. The tension rose. The Australian government sent Aheavies@, asking for closed, secret, sessions. AThese discussions risk the National Interest@. Outrage of the families, their lawyers. The Media, public. AWe were promised an open inquiry. Will this be another white-wash ? Who is being protected by >the national interest= cover ?"

Australian politicians ? Americans ?? Henry Kissinger ???

In the Southern Texas US Federal Court Oceanic Oil is suing Conoco-Phillips for US $ 50 Billions. Oceanic claims Phillips instigated, financed, the Indonesian invasion of East Timor (incidentally killing not just 6 journalists, but 200,000 Timorese). 200,006 deaths - to boot out Oceanic and Petrotimor from their most valuable permits in the Timor Gap. In its initial statement Oceanic specifically notes the Indonesian occupation in early October 1975 of the coastal town of Batugabe, soon headquarters for the attack on Balibo.

Others cite the close connections between Mr. Kissinger and Phillips Oil. Kissinger and Ford=s visit, in early December 1975, to Jakarta, Suharto. The protocol admits: Ainvade East Timor, but please wait till we have left.@ Kissinger and Ford left on December 6, the full-scale invasion began the next day.

Kissinger and his aides, secretly, did all they could to facilitate, arm, that invasion. They had certainly been informed of the October events in Balibo by the American listening devices in Pine Gap, on satellites.

Will the coroner=s inquest go that far ? Seances have been suspended till 1 May (2007). New witnesses are being sought. Senior B retired B Australian politicians, including Whitlam, may yet be heard. Coroner Pinch has issued an arrest warrant against once-Captain Yunus Yosfiah, who has refused to appear. He, in Indonesia, laughs: AMe ? Sure, I was there, but I didn=t do anything@. For the Indonesian government, the Acase is closed@.

How strong will the Dead Men bite ? Will the Deputy Coroner continue stirring ? Question AAmericans@ ? Ford is no longer with us, but what about Noble Prize winner Kissinger ? What did he know ? And suggest ? When ? Did the Balibo 5, 200,000 Timorese, have to die - for Phillips, for the oil/gas of the Timor Gap ?