The Ministry of Justice has forwarded to the Balibo House Trust a draft lease to be signed to allow work to commence on the development of the Balibo Fort House for visitor accommodation. Plans have been drawn up for the accommodation, including extra bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as the refurbishment of the original house in the fort and the repair of the fort walls.
Damien Kingsbury initially developed the idea for visitor accommodation at the Balibo Fort House two years ago and it now looks like going ahead.
The lease is expected to be signed in late April by former Victorian Premier and adviser to Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, Steve Bracks, and chair of the Balibo House Trust, Rub Hudson, MP.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Review of 'Balibo'
Review – By Bruce Honeywill in Dili
Balibo, the movie, has two special Amnesty International screenings in Auckland before going on general New Zealand cinema release on Thursday. The film, banned in Indonesia, tells the story of the murder of five members of two Australian-based television news crews in a tiny East Timorese border village in 1975. The narrative exposes the duplicity of the Australian government – and New Zealand – in covering the truth of the deaths for more than a quarter of a century.
In 2010, I stand on the wall of the old Portuguese fort overlooking the tiny mountain village of Balibo. I was here previously, 10 years ago.
East Timor then, for a short period, was an undeclared territory under United Nations sovereignty. The Indonesian military had just withdrawn after 24 years of occupation. As the Indonesian forces withdrew in late 1999, they and pro-Indonesian militia put the tiny impoverished nation to the torch in one of the horrors of recent history.
I worked for a time with journalist/author Jill Jolliffe filming eyewitness accounts of various witnesses to the violent deaths of these five journalists and camera crew. I followed, with my camera, witnesses’ graphic descriptions of the last minutes of the lives of the group now known as the Balibo Five.
The witnesses came from both the defending East Timorese military (Falantil) and pro-Indonesian militia working with Indonesian special forces. The witnesses described how the news crews were killed by the bullet and blade of the Indonesian military and its supporters.
These witness accounts added to the volumes of research collected by Jolliffe in what became her life obsession to see the truth of her colleagues’ deaths revealed.
Journalist Jill Jolliffe's original book Cover-Up has been republished as Balibo.
Jolliffe’s ensuing book Cover-Up not only told the story of the murders of the members of the news crews but exposed the complicity of the then Australian Labor government with the United States and Britain, in tacitly supporting the invasion of East Timor by Suharto’s Indonesia.
The book particularly focused on the Australian government’s “cover-up” of the truth of the deaths of the Balibo Five.
Chillingly accurate
The story of the Balibo Five was taken by screen writer/director Robert Connolly and producer John Maynard to become the feature film Balibo.
While honed to a partly fictional narrative to meet market expectations, the accounts of the deaths of the journalists and crew are chillingly accurate to the eyewitness accounts.
The Balibo Five working for the Seven and Nine Networks in Australia mirrored the cultural makeup of their grandfathers’ generation at Gallipoli – a Kiwi, three Aussies and a Pom all under the common flag of journalism and the world’s right to know.
The Balibo Five were all in their 20s; they distilled the excitement, anarchy and inexperience of television news in those early decades before the commodification we see today.
The two journalists in particular, Greg Shackleton and Malcolm Rennie, were young and ambitious at a time when the first rule of television journalism was “get the story”. The second rule “get the story first”.
Cameraman Gary Cunningham was born in Wellington in 1947. Described as “a big, affable fellow”, Cunningham worked with the New Zealand National Film Unit in Dunedin. He was seconded to the NZ Broadcasting Corporation as a news cameraman where he won an award for his coverage of the Wahine ferry disaster.
Cunningham moved to Australia to further his love of news cinematography. After two years at the Nine Network he moved to Channel Seven in whose employment he remained until his death.
Tragic heart
While the story of the murders of the Balibo Five is the throbbing, tragic heart of the film, the narrative follows the exploits of another journalist, Roger East (Anthony Lapaglia). The story of the events leading up to and following the death of the Balibo Five is seen through the eyes of East and his interactions with a young José Ramos Horta played by Oscar Isaac.
The premise for the film is a videtaped investigative interview with a fictional Juliana, beautifully played by Bea Viegas, an East Timorese woman in her first acting role. Juliana describes how she, as a girl, watched Roger East’s execution on the wharf at Dili.
The Balibo Five are strongly played by Damon Gameau (Shackleton), Gyton Grantley (Cunningham), Mark Winter (Tony Stewart), Nathan Phillips (Rennie) and Thomas Wright as Brian Peters. The cinematic approach uses hand-held cameras with high grain film for the Balibo Five story that interweaves with the more traditionally shot Roger East narrative.
The skilled depths of Lapaglia’s acting and his obvious passion for the project drives the story through the few little bumps brought about by the challenges of filming on location in Dili and Balibo (although the actual death scenes had to be filmed in Darwin as the reality was considered too violent for the still traumatised East Timorese of the border towns).
Deep duplicity
This film tells a story of deep duplicity of powerful governments prepared to throw away ethical and moral responsibilities for political expediency.
It is a film of journalists at work, and sends the message that when the proverbial “hits the fan” we are all on our own.
There are a couple of interesting sidelights to the film. The East Timorese video cameraman filming the evidence of Juliana is none other than José Belo, today’s most outspoken journalist in East Timor and who won the Café Pacific award for free speech. (Balibo won the film category).
The person playing the Tetum-speaking Australian investigator is Major Michael Stone, former SAS and now military advisor to the President of East Timor, José Ramos Horta.
Here in Balibo, 2010, from my perch high on the wall of the fort I see the little town of Balibo below me: The ‘Australian Flag House’ where Greg Shackleton famously painted the Australian flag in the mistaken belief this would protect him and his colleagues, now a monument to the memory of the Balibo Five.
Death house
Across the square, the “death house” is empty and crumbling. Here in 2000 I filmed recent bullet holes, lipstick “kiss marks” revealing this was a “kissing wall” – a place of rape and murder of women, and the iconic parachute emblem of Kopassus (Indonesian special forces).
Today the old house is starting to fall in on itself as if the load of horrors over a quarter of a century is too much for the architecture.
Out across the mountains, rain clouds flume through the valleys. Corn, green with the Wet Season, grows right up to the fort wall.
I ponder on Balibo the Movie in apposition to the real Balibo beneath me. I am no film critic, just a journalist who has paid to see, in Australia, the film three times.
This is a film that everybody in the Asia-Pacific region should see. It’s a story of the counterpoint to powerful “sheriff nations” and emerging nations with aspirations of freedom. It’s a story about how the affluent can be blind to hardship, poverty and violence less than an hour distant from Australia.
This is a film of our corner of the world. Do make the effort.
Bruce Honeywill has been a journalist for 25 years work in print, radio television and online, specialising in social and environmental issues in remote Northern Australia and East Timor. He has also been a journalism educator in Australia and New Zealand.
Jill Jolliffe’s book Cover-Up has been republished under the title of Balibo . Tony Maniaty’s book Shooting Balibo also tells the story. Balibo, the movie. Investigative journalist Peter Cronau, one of the founders of Pacific Media Watch, also has a forthcoming book about Roger East, The Last Reporter.
http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/02/media-anzacs-a-film-everybody-in-the-asia-pacific-region-should-see/
Balibo, the movie, has two special Amnesty International screenings in Auckland before going on general New Zealand cinema release on Thursday. The film, banned in Indonesia, tells the story of the murder of five members of two Australian-based television news crews in a tiny East Timorese border village in 1975. The narrative exposes the duplicity of the Australian government – and New Zealand – in covering the truth of the deaths for more than a quarter of a century.
In 2010, I stand on the wall of the old Portuguese fort overlooking the tiny mountain village of Balibo. I was here previously, 10 years ago.
East Timor then, for a short period, was an undeclared territory under United Nations sovereignty. The Indonesian military had just withdrawn after 24 years of occupation. As the Indonesian forces withdrew in late 1999, they and pro-Indonesian militia put the tiny impoverished nation to the torch in one of the horrors of recent history.
I worked for a time with journalist/author Jill Jolliffe filming eyewitness accounts of various witnesses to the violent deaths of these five journalists and camera crew. I followed, with my camera, witnesses’ graphic descriptions of the last minutes of the lives of the group now known as the Balibo Five.
The witnesses came from both the defending East Timorese military (Falantil) and pro-Indonesian militia working with Indonesian special forces. The witnesses described how the news crews were killed by the bullet and blade of the Indonesian military and its supporters.
These witness accounts added to the volumes of research collected by Jolliffe in what became her life obsession to see the truth of her colleagues’ deaths revealed.
Journalist Jill Jolliffe's original book Cover-Up has been republished as Balibo.
Jolliffe’s ensuing book Cover-Up not only told the story of the murders of the members of the news crews but exposed the complicity of the then Australian Labor government with the United States and Britain, in tacitly supporting the invasion of East Timor by Suharto’s Indonesia.
The book particularly focused on the Australian government’s “cover-up” of the truth of the deaths of the Balibo Five.
Chillingly accurate
The story of the Balibo Five was taken by screen writer/director Robert Connolly and producer John Maynard to become the feature film Balibo.
While honed to a partly fictional narrative to meet market expectations, the accounts of the deaths of the journalists and crew are chillingly accurate to the eyewitness accounts.
The Balibo Five working for the Seven and Nine Networks in Australia mirrored the cultural makeup of their grandfathers’ generation at Gallipoli – a Kiwi, three Aussies and a Pom all under the common flag of journalism and the world’s right to know.
The Balibo Five were all in their 20s; they distilled the excitement, anarchy and inexperience of television news in those early decades before the commodification we see today.
The two journalists in particular, Greg Shackleton and Malcolm Rennie, were young and ambitious at a time when the first rule of television journalism was “get the story”. The second rule “get the story first”.
Cameraman Gary Cunningham was born in Wellington in 1947. Described as “a big, affable fellow”, Cunningham worked with the New Zealand National Film Unit in Dunedin. He was seconded to the NZ Broadcasting Corporation as a news cameraman where he won an award for his coverage of the Wahine ferry disaster.
Cunningham moved to Australia to further his love of news cinematography. After two years at the Nine Network he moved to Channel Seven in whose employment he remained until his death.
Tragic heart
While the story of the murders of the Balibo Five is the throbbing, tragic heart of the film, the narrative follows the exploits of another journalist, Roger East (Anthony Lapaglia). The story of the events leading up to and following the death of the Balibo Five is seen through the eyes of East and his interactions with a young José Ramos Horta played by Oscar Isaac.
The premise for the film is a videtaped investigative interview with a fictional Juliana, beautifully played by Bea Viegas, an East Timorese woman in her first acting role. Juliana describes how she, as a girl, watched Roger East’s execution on the wharf at Dili.
The Balibo Five are strongly played by Damon Gameau (Shackleton), Gyton Grantley (Cunningham), Mark Winter (Tony Stewart), Nathan Phillips (Rennie) and Thomas Wright as Brian Peters. The cinematic approach uses hand-held cameras with high grain film for the Balibo Five story that interweaves with the more traditionally shot Roger East narrative.
The skilled depths of Lapaglia’s acting and his obvious passion for the project drives the story through the few little bumps brought about by the challenges of filming on location in Dili and Balibo (although the actual death scenes had to be filmed in Darwin as the reality was considered too violent for the still traumatised East Timorese of the border towns).
Deep duplicity
This film tells a story of deep duplicity of powerful governments prepared to throw away ethical and moral responsibilities for political expediency.
It is a film of journalists at work, and sends the message that when the proverbial “hits the fan” we are all on our own.
There are a couple of interesting sidelights to the film. The East Timorese video cameraman filming the evidence of Juliana is none other than José Belo, today’s most outspoken journalist in East Timor and who won the Café Pacific award for free speech. (Balibo won the film category).
The person playing the Tetum-speaking Australian investigator is Major Michael Stone, former SAS and now military advisor to the President of East Timor, José Ramos Horta.
Here in Balibo, 2010, from my perch high on the wall of the fort I see the little town of Balibo below me: The ‘Australian Flag House’ where Greg Shackleton famously painted the Australian flag in the mistaken belief this would protect him and his colleagues, now a monument to the memory of the Balibo Five.
Death house
Across the square, the “death house” is empty and crumbling. Here in 2000 I filmed recent bullet holes, lipstick “kiss marks” revealing this was a “kissing wall” – a place of rape and murder of women, and the iconic parachute emblem of Kopassus (Indonesian special forces).
Today the old house is starting to fall in on itself as if the load of horrors over a quarter of a century is too much for the architecture.
Out across the mountains, rain clouds flume through the valleys. Corn, green with the Wet Season, grows right up to the fort wall.
I ponder on Balibo the Movie in apposition to the real Balibo beneath me. I am no film critic, just a journalist who has paid to see, in Australia, the film three times.
This is a film that everybody in the Asia-Pacific region should see. It’s a story of the counterpoint to powerful “sheriff nations” and emerging nations with aspirations of freedom. It’s a story about how the affluent can be blind to hardship, poverty and violence less than an hour distant from Australia.
This is a film of our corner of the world. Do make the effort.
Bruce Honeywill has been a journalist for 25 years work in print, radio television and online, specialising in social and environmental issues in remote Northern Australia and East Timor. He has also been a journalism educator in Australia and New Zealand.
Jill Jolliffe’s book Cover-Up has been republished under the title of Balibo . Tony Maniaty’s book Shooting Balibo also tells the story. Balibo, the movie. Investigative journalist Peter Cronau, one of the founders of Pacific Media Watch, also has a forthcoming book about Roger East, The Last Reporter.
http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/02/media-anzacs-a-film-everybody-in-the-asia-pacific-region-should-see/
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Koori spirit in Balibo
By Paul Stewart.
The Koori ``spirit’’ has made it all the way to the small East Timorese village of ``BALIBO.’’
At the house where five journalists were murdered by invading Indonesian soldiers in 1975 it gave my great satisfaction recently to place one of Aunty Jan Brown’s Koori `Sprits Of The Dreaming’, above the photo of my brother Tony, 21, the youngest of all the journalists killed.
Aunty Jan, a proud Gumbaynggirr woman, is a true and close friend of my family and her unique hand painted ``Spirits’’ are classic works of art.
She is also a member of the Aboriginal Catholic Social Service (ACSS) who run a Community Centre for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people who live in Western Sydney including the Penrith, Mt Druitt, St Marys and Blacktown areas.
This fantastic bunch of women looks after many people in counseling/healing and support groups or art and craft activities.
``We are inspired by the actions of Mary Mackillop and the way she just helped everyone. She was also a firm believer in all children learning to read and write which we want young Koori kids to do.’’
A few years back I was real sick in hospital waiting for a new liver and was the prayers and messages of support from the women at the ACSS got me through some real tough times.
Readers of the Koori Mail may now be familiar with the incident at ``BALIBO’’ in East Timor, as this year a major film about the event starring Hollywood star Anthony La Paglia was released too much acclaim.
Along with Samson & Delilah it was one of the big winners at the recent Australian Film Institute awards.
I was lucky enough to get a new liver and came out of a hospital to work on the soundtrack for the movie.
A coupe of months back we actually won the 2010 ARIA award for ``Best Soundtrack’’ album where I met leading indigenous singer songwriter and ex-Pearl fisherman Seaman Dan from Broome, who won the award for ``Best World Music’’ album.
This year I got to return to East Timor to deliver some donated guitars but I was determined to get one of Aunty Jan’s Spirits Of The Dreaming up to the BALIBO House which was purchased by the Victorian Government several years ago and set up as a community centre.
While in the capital of East Timor Dili, I met a group of blind musicians who were ``blown away’’ and greatly impressed and encouraged when I played them some of the music of indigenous superstar Gurrumul Yunupingu
What many Kooris may not know is that many East Timorese people consider indigenous Australians their ``cousins.’’
Their elders up there tell their classic song-line story of a huge crocodile that lived in the Top End of Australia.
One day it went for a swim and where it put its head up above the water, became the island of East Timor.
I have been involved with helping the East Timorese in their fight for independence for 25 years now and have produced four compilation charity albums for the mob up there.
Generous and loving indigenous musicians to donate songs for East Timorese young mums, war widows, orphans and students include Archie Roach, Yothu Yindi, Kerri Anne Cox, The Briscoe Sisters, Christine Anu, Black Velvet and Liz Cavanagh.
Many of these albums featured artwork designed by leading Koori artist Donna Brown, also a proud Gumbaynggirr girl.
Big thanks also to the crew at 3 KND (Kool And Deadly) in Melbourne, for all the airplay as well and to Aunty Jan for her DEADLY piece of art
The Koori ``spirit’’ has made it all the way to the small East Timorese village of ``BALIBO.’’
At the house where five journalists were murdered by invading Indonesian soldiers in 1975 it gave my great satisfaction recently to place one of Aunty Jan Brown’s Koori `Sprits Of The Dreaming’, above the photo of my brother Tony, 21, the youngest of all the journalists killed.
Aunty Jan, a proud Gumbaynggirr woman, is a true and close friend of my family and her unique hand painted ``Spirits’’ are classic works of art.
She is also a member of the Aboriginal Catholic Social Service (ACSS) who run a Community Centre for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people who live in Western Sydney including the Penrith, Mt Druitt, St Marys and Blacktown areas.
This fantastic bunch of women looks after many people in counseling/healing and support groups or art and craft activities.
``We are inspired by the actions of Mary Mackillop and the way she just helped everyone. She was also a firm believer in all children learning to read and write which we want young Koori kids to do.’’
A few years back I was real sick in hospital waiting for a new liver and was the prayers and messages of support from the women at the ACSS got me through some real tough times.
Readers of the Koori Mail may now be familiar with the incident at ``BALIBO’’ in East Timor, as this year a major film about the event starring Hollywood star Anthony La Paglia was released too much acclaim.
Along with Samson & Delilah it was one of the big winners at the recent Australian Film Institute awards.
I was lucky enough to get a new liver and came out of a hospital to work on the soundtrack for the movie.
A coupe of months back we actually won the 2010 ARIA award for ``Best Soundtrack’’ album where I met leading indigenous singer songwriter and ex-Pearl fisherman Seaman Dan from Broome, who won the award for ``Best World Music’’ album.
This year I got to return to East Timor to deliver some donated guitars but I was determined to get one of Aunty Jan’s Spirits Of The Dreaming up to the BALIBO House which was purchased by the Victorian Government several years ago and set up as a community centre.
While in the capital of East Timor Dili, I met a group of blind musicians who were ``blown away’’ and greatly impressed and encouraged when I played them some of the music of indigenous superstar Gurrumul Yunupingu
What many Kooris may not know is that many East Timorese people consider indigenous Australians their ``cousins.’’
Their elders up there tell their classic song-line story of a huge crocodile that lived in the Top End of Australia.
One day it went for a swim and where it put its head up above the water, became the island of East Timor.
I have been involved with helping the East Timorese in their fight for independence for 25 years now and have produced four compilation charity albums for the mob up there.
Generous and loving indigenous musicians to donate songs for East Timorese young mums, war widows, orphans and students include Archie Roach, Yothu Yindi, Kerri Anne Cox, The Briscoe Sisters, Christine Anu, Black Velvet and Liz Cavanagh.
Many of these albums featured artwork designed by leading Koori artist Donna Brown, also a proud Gumbaynggirr girl.
Big thanks also to the crew at 3 KND (Kool And Deadly) in Melbourne, for all the airplay as well and to Aunty Jan for her DEADLY piece of art
Monday, December 7, 2009
Indonesia’s heavy-handed censorship backfires
In Indonesian political culture, there was a view that inconvenient or challenging truths should be suppressed in order to retain harmony. This view had largely disappeared from Indonesian political life in the 1950s, but was re-invented by former President Suharto in order to remove challenges to his personalised authoritarian rule between the mid-1960s and the end of the 1990s.
One consequent of this was that Indonesia has refused to accept culpability for the deaths of almost 200,000 people in East Timor between 1975 and 1999. So too Indonesia has steadfastly denied responsibility for the deaths of five Australian based journalists at Balibo in October 1975, maintaining the fiction that they were killed in a cross-fire.
Now, a former Indonesian special forces officer has confirmed what we have known from a range of sources for decades, that the ‘Balibo Five’, as they have become known, were murdered by Indonesian troops to cover up the first moments of Indonesia’s invasion of that tiny territory.
This stark admission by a former Indonesian army officer, who was at the scene of the crime, that the Balibo Five were murdered by Indonesian troops because they were reporting on an illegal invasion follows the banning and then illegal screening of the Australian movie ‘Balibo’ in Jakarta last week.
‘Balibo’ is a dramatised account of the murder of the Balibo Five, and the search for the truth of their murder by another Australian journalist, Roger East, who was himself murdered by Indonesian troops at Dili’s wharf almost two months later.
The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents’ Club intended to screen the movie last week, but was stopped by Indonesia’s censorship board, at the behest of the Indonesian military. An army spokesman has since said that the movie should not be screened because it would damage Indonesia’s international standing and harm Australia-Indonesia relations.
The army spokesman also said that the search for truth over the murder of the Balibo Five should be based on a ‘consensus’ on those events. This idea of ‘consensus’ also harks back to the Suharto era, in which a confluence of views, usually dominated by the most powerful source – the army – displaced verifiable truth.
Despite the army’s attempt to have ‘Balibo’ banned, an Indonesian sub-titled version was privately screened last Thursday night, and has since been screened to audiences of hundreds in Jakarta, including Indonesian journalists, pro-democracy and human rights activists and others . DVDs of the movie will hit Jakarta’s streets soon.
As Indonesia democratises, elements of its former authoritarian rule continue to resurface. As the progenitor for Indonesia’s descent into authoritarian militaristic rule the army has, unsurprisingly, been the slowest and most reluctant institution to reform. Yet the tide of openness that necessarily accompanies democratisation has continued to rise. That a retired Indonesian army officer has finally confirmed what we already knew is surprising only because he has broken ranks on the issue.
Indonesia’s has a profoundly troubled past, one of the smaller parts of which was the murder of the Balibo Five which has become, for outsiders at least, emblematic of the much greater horror visited upon the people of East Timor. There is also the murder of perhaps a half a million or more suspected communists and sympathisers in the mid-1960s, the gross human rights abuses and repression employed in West Papua, Aceh and upon trade unionists, activists and even many ordinary Indonesian citizens who lived under the Suharto regime.
The old political method of suppressing inconvenient truths continues to hold sway in Jakarta, but it is under real challenge. It may be expecting too much to hope for accountability for those responsible for the murder of the Balibo Five, much less the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, who have been murdered, tortured or imprisoned in Indonesia.
But it is encouraging that a film that was intended to open a door to the gross human rights violations in East Timor, through the device of focusing on the deaths of six newsmen, has had the type of impact that was hoped for it. And it is encouraging that the heavy-handed attempt to censor the film has had the opposite effect of burying the truth, but rather helping reveal it.
One consequent of this was that Indonesia has refused to accept culpability for the deaths of almost 200,000 people in East Timor between 1975 and 1999. So too Indonesia has steadfastly denied responsibility for the deaths of five Australian based journalists at Balibo in October 1975, maintaining the fiction that they were killed in a cross-fire.
Now, a former Indonesian special forces officer has confirmed what we have known from a range of sources for decades, that the ‘Balibo Five’, as they have become known, were murdered by Indonesian troops to cover up the first moments of Indonesia’s invasion of that tiny territory.
This stark admission by a former Indonesian army officer, who was at the scene of the crime, that the Balibo Five were murdered by Indonesian troops because they were reporting on an illegal invasion follows the banning and then illegal screening of the Australian movie ‘Balibo’ in Jakarta last week.
‘Balibo’ is a dramatised account of the murder of the Balibo Five, and the search for the truth of their murder by another Australian journalist, Roger East, who was himself murdered by Indonesian troops at Dili’s wharf almost two months later.
The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents’ Club intended to screen the movie last week, but was stopped by Indonesia’s censorship board, at the behest of the Indonesian military. An army spokesman has since said that the movie should not be screened because it would damage Indonesia’s international standing and harm Australia-Indonesia relations.
The army spokesman also said that the search for truth over the murder of the Balibo Five should be based on a ‘consensus’ on those events. This idea of ‘consensus’ also harks back to the Suharto era, in which a confluence of views, usually dominated by the most powerful source – the army – displaced verifiable truth.
Despite the army’s attempt to have ‘Balibo’ banned, an Indonesian sub-titled version was privately screened last Thursday night, and has since been screened to audiences of hundreds in Jakarta, including Indonesian journalists, pro-democracy and human rights activists and others . DVDs of the movie will hit Jakarta’s streets soon.
As Indonesia democratises, elements of its former authoritarian rule continue to resurface. As the progenitor for Indonesia’s descent into authoritarian militaristic rule the army has, unsurprisingly, been the slowest and most reluctant institution to reform. Yet the tide of openness that necessarily accompanies democratisation has continued to rise. That a retired Indonesian army officer has finally confirmed what we already knew is surprising only because he has broken ranks on the issue.
Indonesia’s has a profoundly troubled past, one of the smaller parts of which was the murder of the Balibo Five which has become, for outsiders at least, emblematic of the much greater horror visited upon the people of East Timor. There is also the murder of perhaps a half a million or more suspected communists and sympathisers in the mid-1960s, the gross human rights abuses and repression employed in West Papua, Aceh and upon trade unionists, activists and even many ordinary Indonesian citizens who lived under the Suharto regime.
The old political method of suppressing inconvenient truths continues to hold sway in Jakarta, but it is under real challenge. It may be expecting too much to hope for accountability for those responsible for the murder of the Balibo Five, much less the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, who have been murdered, tortured or imprisoned in Indonesia.
But it is encouraging that a film that was intended to open a door to the gross human rights violations in East Timor, through the device of focusing on the deaths of six newsmen, has had the type of impact that was hoped for it. And it is encouraging that the heavy-handed attempt to censor the film has had the opposite effect of burying the truth, but rather helping reveal it.
Monday, October 19, 2009
New developments at Balibo
Damien and Rae Kingsbury, and Victorian parliamentarian Judith Graley and her husband Stephen, visited Balibo on 6 October to progress plans for the further development of the Flag House and environs. Judith was in Timor-Leste on a scoping mission to assess the options for a parliamentary delegation visiting Timor-Leste in 2010, to begin an on-going dialogue with the parliement of Timor-Leste.
More locally, on behalf of the Balibo House Trust, Damien signed an MOU with the Flag House committee of management convenor, Rogerio Goncalves, and the following day with the Dili-based NGO Belun, committing all three parties to work together for the future of Balibo around the Flag House project. Belun has placed a worker at the Flag House, who will assist the committee of management with planning and seeking sources of funding. The Trust has also committed to providing capital for the development of varous projects associated with the Flag House.
In recent developments, new computers bought by the Trust have been installed by InfoTimor, and discussions are underway concerning the establishment of a satellite up-link to provide internet access to the Flag House. A new, larger generator was also recently installed, providing adequate reliable power for all the Flag House needs.
Damien Kingsbury took to the Flag House a framed poster from the movie 'Balibo' which had been signed by the cast and director. This is intended to hang above the pictures of the 'Balibo Five' and Roger East in the Flag House front room. InfoTimor has said it will soon take a copy of the movie 'Balibo', dubbed in Tetum, and hold a public screening in the town.
The Trust was also recently approached by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) about establishing an 'Uma Media' (Media House) at the Flag House. This move was supported by the Trust and has received in-principle support from the management committee. ICFJ representative Emmanuel Braz will hold further discussions about the establishment of the Uma Media at the Flag House, including a news and information gathering and distribution network and a small radio station. If the Uma media project goes ahead, the ICFJ will employ a local person to be a full-time worker at the Flag House.
Similar Uma Media have been established elsewhere in Timor-Leste and the proposal looks to be able to add yet another important and exciting element to the work that is going on in conjunction with the Flag House.
Funds were recently raised by a melbourne Rotary branch to help with the refurbishment of the kindergarten, which continues to be in need of repair, especially the fencing and playground. It is hoped work on this project can commence early in 2010.
Discussions also continue with the Ministry of State Administration about the refurbishment of the house in the old Portugese fort for visitors. People coming to Balibo for training from outlying villages often require a place to stay, and it is hoped that the 'Fort House' will be able to provide such accommodation, as well as for visitors and tourists coming from Dili and further afield. There is an in-principle agreement to develop the Fort House, with some technical details now being worked through.
At one level, progress on these projects seems too slow, perhaps more reflecting the impatience and excitement of the those involved. But after something of a lull in developing new projects at the Flag House, there is again significant movement, with 2010 holding the prospect of new, large developments for the Balibo community.
More locally, on behalf of the Balibo House Trust, Damien signed an MOU with the Flag House committee of management convenor, Rogerio Goncalves, and the following day with the Dili-based NGO Belun, committing all three parties to work together for the future of Balibo around the Flag House project. Belun has placed a worker at the Flag House, who will assist the committee of management with planning and seeking sources of funding. The Trust has also committed to providing capital for the development of varous projects associated with the Flag House.
In recent developments, new computers bought by the Trust have been installed by InfoTimor, and discussions are underway concerning the establishment of a satellite up-link to provide internet access to the Flag House. A new, larger generator was also recently installed, providing adequate reliable power for all the Flag House needs.
Damien Kingsbury took to the Flag House a framed poster from the movie 'Balibo' which had been signed by the cast and director. This is intended to hang above the pictures of the 'Balibo Five' and Roger East in the Flag House front room. InfoTimor has said it will soon take a copy of the movie 'Balibo', dubbed in Tetum, and hold a public screening in the town.
The Trust was also recently approached by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) about establishing an 'Uma Media' (Media House) at the Flag House. This move was supported by the Trust and has received in-principle support from the management committee. ICFJ representative Emmanuel Braz will hold further discussions about the establishment of the Uma Media at the Flag House, including a news and information gathering and distribution network and a small radio station. If the Uma media project goes ahead, the ICFJ will employ a local person to be a full-time worker at the Flag House.
Similar Uma Media have been established elsewhere in Timor-Leste and the proposal looks to be able to add yet another important and exciting element to the work that is going on in conjunction with the Flag House.
Funds were recently raised by a melbourne Rotary branch to help with the refurbishment of the kindergarten, which continues to be in need of repair, especially the fencing and playground. It is hoped work on this project can commence early in 2010.
Discussions also continue with the Ministry of State Administration about the refurbishment of the house in the old Portugese fort for visitors. People coming to Balibo for training from outlying villages often require a place to stay, and it is hoped that the 'Fort House' will be able to provide such accommodation, as well as for visitors and tourists coming from Dili and further afield. There is an in-principle agreement to develop the Fort House, with some technical details now being worked through.
At one level, progress on these projects seems too slow, perhaps more reflecting the impatience and excitement of the those involved. But after something of a lull in developing new projects at the Flag House, there is again significant movement, with 2010 holding the prospect of new, large developments for the Balibo community.
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