Radio Australia Today Editorial

Balibo: The horror tale of a horror time

24 July 2009

Tonight the Melbourne International Film Festival opens. It’s already faced controversy over that film about Rebiya Kadeer and the resultant boycott of the festival by China.

Tonight’s opening film is the equally controversial Balibo, the story of how five journalists were murdered in East Timor in 1975.

The men were covering a skirmish in the town of Balibo. On the way in they met ABC journalist Tony Maniaty, who had been getting out of the area. He warned them that things were going too hot in Balibo and strongly advised them not to go in. They did go in, did some reporting, and from accounts, then ignored the further warnings of their local ‘fixer’ who told them that Indonesian troops were very close. For some reason the men did not heed the warnings, and stayed to continue capturing footage. Perhaps it was Australian bravado. Perhaps it was a unrealistic belief of safety in numbers. Or perhaps it was a belief that journalists were somehow immune from the events surrounding them. Whatever the reason, the men stayed, the militia arrived, herded the journalists into a room and killed them.

Shirley Shackleton, the wife of one of the murdered men disputes Maniaty’s version. An angry Shirley Shackleton told us this morning that Maniaty’s description of her husband was the opposite of what he was. And on this day of the film premiere she has also called on the Australian government to bring the mens’ remains back to Australia as soon as possible.

As I said, this story has been a long-running controversy here, with allegations that the then-government of Gough Whitlam knew about the dangers the journalists faced in East Timor, but did nothing about it. Adding to the pain of the story, many years passed before anyone was called to account over the killings.

East Timor president Jose Ramos Horta is in Melbourne and will be at the premiere, which speaks volumes for the importance of the Balibo incident in the East Timor-Australia relationship. The return of remains will not mean the story will be forgotten, but at least it will mean that the decades-long fight by Shirley Shackleton for acknowledgement for her husband will have some fitting conclusion. As anyone who has ever lost a loved one in mysterious circumstances, just knowing the location of the body is a huge relief. Let’s hope it will be so for Shirley and the relatives of the other victims.

– Phil