Thursday, May 31, 2007

Indonesians blamed for killing of five journalists

A report in today's Independent claims

Indonesians blamed for killing of five journalists

This goes back to 1975 and the battles in the former Portuguese colony of East Timor.The five were working for Australian Tv at the time covering the fighting

Mark Tedeschi, the senior lawyer assisting the New
South Wales coroner, Dorelle Pinch, said there was sufficient evidence to charge
two unnamed individuals with war crimes. He urged her to refer the case to
Australia's director of public prosecutions.
Mr Tedeschi's final submissions
contradict long-standing claims by both Indonesia and Australia that the five
television journalists were killed in crossfire between Indonesian troops and
East Timorese resistance forces in the border town of Balibo. Two official
Australian inquiries reached the same conclusion.


And the report continues

Former East Timorese militiamen attached to Indonesian
special forces told the inquest that they saw Indonesian troops open fire on the
journalists as they tried to surrender. Their bodies were dressed in the
uniforms of Fretilin pro-independence forces and later burnt.








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