Revisiting East Timor deaths
Many will view the movie Balibo as a long-overdue addition to Australia's cinematic canon, and one that could well make a significant global impact given the starring role of one of the country's most bankable actors, Anthony LaPaglia.
With gripping drama, it tells the surprisingly little-known story of the Australia-based journalists --two Aussies, two Brits and a Kiwi - who lost their lives ahead of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975. Gary Cunningham, Greg Shackleton, Malcolm Rennie, Brian Peters and Tony Stewart. Collectively, they are known as "Balibo Five," after the border town where they were killed on 16 October 1975. Anthony LaPaglia plays the Darwin-based journalist, Roger East, who was persuaded by a then little-known rebel leader, Jose Ramos-Horta, who is now East Timor's president, to investigate the deaths.
The official Indonesian explanation is that the journalists were killed in crossfire between the Indonesian army and Fretilin rebels - a version of events that has long been accepted by successive Australian and British governments.
The film Balibo presents a very different narrative. It maintains that the journalists were executed by Indonesian troops on the orders of the their commanders, to prevent them reporting on the pre-invasion incursions.
It is based on a book, by the journalist, Jill Jolliffe, and is true to the findings of a coronial inquest in Sydney 2007, which ruled that the journalists were executed as they tried to surrender to Indonesian forces. "The journalists were not incidental casualties in the fighting, they were captured, then deliberately killed despite protesting their status," wrote coroner, Louise Pinch in her report. The inquest recommended war crimes charges be brought.
I've seen a preview of the movie, and found it incredibly stirring. I suspect it will leave many viewers with a very powerful sense of injustice.
One of my few reservations came right at the end, just before the credits started to role. There were the obligatory "what has happened since" chunks of text after the final scene had played out. But strangely, they did not make any reference to the Indonesian government's official explanation, the Australian government's acceptance of it, or the coroner's findings.
Nor did it mention that despite being handed down more than 18 months ago, the Australian government has not yet given its own response to the coronial inquest. Instead, the attorney general referred the case to the Australian Federal Police, which has remained silent on the issue. The director Robert Connolly says the "cover-up" of the Indonesian, Australian and British governments would make an ideal sequel.
It is widely thought that the government of Gough Whitlam tacitly agreed to Indonesia's invasion of East Timor because it viewed the Fretilin rebels as communists, and did not want another "Cuba" so close to its shores. Given the oil and gas deposits in the Timor Sea, it preferred to negotiate with Jakarta rather than Dili.
Now, the Australian government shows little or no enthusiasm for revisiting those events, because it does not want to sour diplomatic relations with the Indonesian government, according to the families. Nor does the British government. It is waiting to see what the Australian government does next, and plans no independent action of its own - this despite the fact that two Britons were amongst the dead, and their families have been prominent in the ongoing campaign for justice. It was the Bristolian, Maureen Tolfree, the sister of Brian Peters, who managed to get the case brought before the coroner in Sydney.
Anthony LaPaglia has said he hopes this movie with accelerate the campaign for justice. "I understand why the families have fought for 35 years," he told us last week. "And I'm on board now." But will it make a difference?
I'm 
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