Radio Australia Today Editorial

Jose Ramos-Horta, Balibo and a night of tears

27 July 2009

On Friday night Melbourne’s Hamer Hall was packed for the opening of this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival.

It’s always a big night, but this year’s was the biggest, because this one featured the world premiere of the Australian film Balibo. I’ve mentioned this film in earlier blogs, but this was the first time I had seen it.

I must say before I go any further, that I was on edge about seeing it. I knew the story about the murders of the five journalists by invading Indonesian troops in late 1975. I knew that the journalists were trapped and butchered and their bodies burnt. I knew that the Australian government denied knowing anything about either the deaths of the impending Indonesian invasion.

What I didn’t know was the humanity of the story, of what these men were like, of why they were there in Balibo when they were warned repeatedly not to stay. After seeing the film, I now know. Here were five journalists on a story, a great story. They were not Rambos; they just wanted to report.

The film also told the story of Roger East, a veteran Australian journalist who found out what happened to the Balibo Five, by going into occupied Balibo three weeks after the jousrnalists were murdered. He too was certainly no Rambo. He just wanted the truth. Roger East was so touched by the story pf the East Timorese that he decided to stay in Dili and report as Indonesia invaded that city. It was a decision that saw him arrested by the forces within minutes of the invasion, and executed on the wharf at Dili.

The film was hugely emotive and gave plenty of space to the events. The performances were superb, including that of Anthony LaPaglia, who played Roger East.

But the one character who flows through from both the Balibo Five and Roger East was the now-president Jose Ramos-Horta. The film shows that he was the man who encouraged Roger East to come to Dili, and it was Ramos-Horta who showed the Balibo Five where the Indonesian forces were preparing to attack. He also warned both the Five and Roger East to leave when things got too dangerous. What he didn’t count on was that journalists will stay for a story, even if they know there is danger involved.

Unfortunately for the six journalists, they had no idea just what kind of enemy they were dealing with, and lost their lives as a result.

A truly great film has come out of this horrible episode, a film that shows that when Australians want to tell a story, they tell it like no other.

We’ll be speaking with Jose Ramos-Horta later in the program.

– Phil