Bali to Balibo -- 27 years of lies
Title -- 3734 EAST TIMOR: Bali to Balibo -- 27 years of lies
Date -- 17 October 2002
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- John M. Miller, fbp@igc.org, 17/10/2
Copyright -- JMM
Status -- Unabridged
Post a comment on PMW's Right of Reply: www.TheGuestBook.com/egbook/257949.gbook
BALI TO BALIBO -- 27 YEARS OF LIES
The headlines scream: "Murder. Mayhem. Injury. Outrage - Australians Bombed in Bali". That this has occurred in the year of the 27th anniversary of the outrageous murders of five Australians in Balibo, East Timor, is a horrible irony of the first degree.
Add two letters to Bali and imagine the following scenario: ASIO informs the Australian government of the facts - four Australia-based news reporters have been killed in cold blood and a fifth has been tortured to death. (ABC PM broadcast September 19th 2000).
The name of the Indonesian soldier who led the attack is known. DEFAT officials rush to cover up the truth. (Professor Desmond Ball, of the ANU's Death In Balibo, Lies in Canberra).
The Prime Minister of the day and his Ambassador to Indonesia announce that the deaths were accidental. The "remains" of four of the victims are sent to the Australian Ambassador in Jakarta in a shoe box. The perpetrators of the crime have lost the body of the fifth victim.
Intercepts reveal that the Indonesian and Australian governments connive in a frantic attempt to find the missing body of the fifth tortured victim. In the meantime the Australian Ambassador hastily arranges a bogus funeral in Jakarta. There is only coffin.
Successive Australian governments, Labour and Liberal attempt to thwart the five families of the Balibo Five in their demands for justice by holding three so-called investigations - two by Tom
Sherman in 1994 and 1999 and this year's Blick Report. (International Commission of Jurists colloquium report of 1995.)
All three are deeply flawed.
In 2000, John Skeffington, a senior detective of twenty years standing who headed the Western Australian Major Crime squad and rose to the position of Commander of Metropolitan Operations W.A, volunteers to work in East Timor for CIVPOL, the United Nations Civilian Police Force in East Timor. He finds startling new evidence (including three more eyewitnesses) to the Balibo murders and requests a second tour of duty in order to complete his investigations.
Mr Howard refuses. Mr Howard describes the latest attack in Bali as "barbaric, brutal and mass murder without provocation," (ABC Newscasts 14th Oct 2002). Words that can and should be applied to the despicable act in Balibo.
Add to this the bogus show trials held in Jakarta after the worst colonial withdrawal in history from East Timor, and you have some idea of the likelihood of establishing the truth of just what went on in Bali this week end. The perpetrators of the crime in Balibo got away with murder. This emboldened them to follow up with more murders.
The day after the Indonesian invasion of East Timor the TNI murdered Roger East in front of many witnesses alive today.
If Australians do not care about justice for the Balibo Five and for Roger East, they will not get justice for any Australians murdered abroad. Please demand a full judicial inquiry for Gary Cunningham, Tony Stewart, Greg Shackleton, Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie and Roger East.
Shirley Shackleton email: shirley@melbpc.org.au
PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, lawyers, editors and other media workers, dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region. Launched in October 1996, it has links with the Journalism Program at the University of the South Pacific, Bushfire Media based in Sydney, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG), the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, and Community Communications Online (c2o).
© 1996-2002 Copyright - All rights reserved. Items are provided solely for review purposes as a non-profit educational service. Copyright remains the property of the original producers as indicated. Recipients should seek permission from the copyright owner for any publishing. Copyright owners not wishing their materials to be posted by PMW please contact us. The views expressed in material listed by PMW are not necessarily the views of PMW or its members. Recipients should rely on their own inquiries before making decisions based on material listed in PMW. Please copy appeals to PMW and acknowledge source.
For further information, inquiries about joining the Pacific Media Watch listserve, articles for publication, and giving feedback contact Pacific Media Watch at:
E-mail: delaro@clear.net.nz Fax: (+679) 30 5779 or (+612) 9660 1804
Mail: PO Box 9, Annandale, NSW 2038, Australia
or PO Box 78028, Grey Lynn, Auckland 1002, New Zealand
Website: www.pmw.c2o.org