At last, 32 years after the event, relatives of the Balibo victims have been given a measure of satisfaction, thanks to the NSW coronial inquiry. However, this outcome is only a step, albeit a significant one, towards a satisfactory resolution of a problem that has formed an obstacle to a closer relationship between Australians and Indonesians.
In effect, Coroner Dorelle Pinch found that the five newsmen were deliberately killed by Indonesian Army (TNI) troops acting on orders from Captain Yunus Yosfiah, to prevent media exposure of this covert operation by the TNI against Portuguese Timor. This conclusion was not new to most of us I myself wrote a brief account in 1977 based on witness testimonies, and another report some 12 years ago for a British House of Commons inquiry, both of which argued that the newsmen had been summarily executed by the TNI invaders to conceal their serious violation of the UN Charter.
The coroner's findings, especially the recommendations that the victims' remains be returned, were a welcome outcome for the newsmen's relatives, but the hard part is her call for further action by the Commonwealth on the matter of the "war crime". As such, it is not subject to statutory time limitations. This presents quite a challenge, meaning there will be no closure for whoever will be in charge in Canberra after this weekend. Previous official accounts have now been exposed as attempts to keep the Balibo incident off the political agenda, even shamefully apportioning some blame to the victims.
Here Dorelle Pinch has treated the Whitlam government (and its successor, for that matter) rather too tenderly. She appears to exonerate the former from foreknowledge that the newsmen's lives were in danger. But the relevant officials did know that an attack was to take place almost a fortnight before it happened, and their experts on the TNI would surely have known that, as Indonesian troops had acquired a reputation for brutality during Konfrontasi and after the 1965 coup, the newsmen's lives were gravely at risk.
As this report points out, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was distracted by the deep crisis at the time, making it difficult to get his attention (to an issue he probably didn't want to hear about). But the Balibo killings was an explosive incident. It deserved better than the feeble response it got from the government of the time, one that apparently surprised the Suharto government, which expected a blast from Canberra and got a mere whimper a polite letter from Whitlam asking for Suharto's help in solving the problem of the missing newsmen, whose fate was already known to Canberra. He got no reply, for after November 11, 1975, the Labor government was no longer in office.
Taking this important matter forward will therefore depend on a much stronger political will than has so far been exercised by Australian governments Labor and Coalition but it should be addressed. The focus is now on retired Lieutenant-General Yosfiah, a former minister for information, whose denials are supported by Indonesian authorities who dismissively declared the case closed. But it cannot be so easily dismissed, including in Indonesia itself, where a growing number of Indonesian pro-democracy politicians are demanding that the TNI be held to account for a brutal past. It should not be forgotten that the Indonesian people themselves have been the worst victims of TNI excesses. In Timor's case an independent Indonesian commission early in 2000 urged the then Wahid government to open an investigation into all allegations of TNI crimes from 1975 onwards. However, although Indonesia has shifted towards democracy, Suharto's powerful military has escaped serious reform. At least two senior officers indicted for crimes against humanity in East Timor still occupy high office. If the Yudhoyono Government were to reopen the Balibo case, it would lead to renewed pressure for a wider investigation into atrocities committed by the TNI during its 24 years of occupation of East Timor. Balibo cost the lives of five newsmen but more than 100 East Timorese were murdered in each of six or seven massacres.
This saga has been shamefully mishandled by past Labor and Coalition governments, the latter remaining silent while tens of thousands of East Timorese were killed by the TNI after the invasion. For the sake of the relationship, both parties have resorted to their own forms of cover-up, some insight into which emerged from the testimonies of officials. In effect, by consistently failing to disclose what our governments knew about the Balibo incident and summarily dismissing reports like the one I wrote in 1977 they have covered up for the killers, accommodating a crime against humanity. Perhaps Yosfiah is only the fall guy, the real culprits being those who set up the operation and gave the orders, but unfortunately Major-General Murdani, the overall commander, and Colonel Dading Kalbuardi, field commander of the assault on Balibo, are now dead. Let's hope for courageous follow-up from Canberra, facing up to, rather than turning away from, the truth.
James Dunn was in East Timor when the five Australian newsmen were killed, and later served as a UN expert on crimes against humanity.