Balibo whitewash – Aussies bowing heads to Jakarta or in shame?

Balibo whitewash – Aussies bowing heads to Jakarta or in shame?
By Balibo
Apr 25, 2007, 07:52

Reason enough for proud Australians to both boycott Indonesia and remember who did what at election time?

Brian Peters, murdered by the Indonesian hate state?

A five man news team from Australia was killed as Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975. The official report endorsed by both Canberra and Jakarta is that the men died in crossfire between Indonesian troops and the Timorese; of course how come their camera equipment somehow got destroyed by fire was just a minor embarrassing flaw in the official line. After a member of that team, Brian Peters’ family fought year after year to earn the right to the truth, the truth clearly is far from what the official reports state and clearly implicates one of Indonesia’s leading statesmen, Yunus Yosfiah, the former commander of the invading RI forces in Timor, in murder and former Australian premier Gough Whitlam is a cover-up; but now comes the ugly prospect that the Indonesian butchers will get off the hook by token of another Australian endorsed cover-up to whitewash the original cover-up, “naturally”.

Yunus Yosfiah, RI Hero = Murdering Coward?

Instead of being caught in crossfire as claimed by Indonesia and so readily accepted by Australia, the Australian news team it has been established were shot and or stabbed to death and then their bodies were burnt, probably twice. Reports from Timorese and even former Indonesian soldiers state that a group of Indonesian invaders commanded by Yunus Yosfiah sought out the five men, who they knew were foreigners and murdered them in cold blood; it is even claimed by some that Yunus Yosfiah gave the order to fire and even fired the first shot at close range himself. Yunus Yosfiah went on to become the Indonesian armed forces most decorated man, information minister under Suharto (memories of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf), law maker (really) and now leading politician with the Islamic United Development Party (don’t be fooled by those sell out Australian newspaper groups who omit the “Islamic” part of this party’s full name).

Gough Whitlam, Australian traitor?

Also out from the inquest comes, or rather came news from several Australian intelligence officers who manned an Australian Defence Signals Directorate radio listening post on the day in 1975 that they clearly heard Indonesian forces signal Jakarta over the incident and that the Indonesian forces signals showed they committed pre-meditated murder. One George Brownbill said while he was the secretary of the Royal Commission into Intelligence and Security, he visited the listening station at Shoal Bay in the Northern Territories and has a clear memory of seeing an intercepted Indonesian army message that said in accordance with instructions, the journalists had been located and shot. What also came out of the inquest is that the Australian prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister at that time would have been notified. No surprise to proponents of the view that Canberra repeatedly sells out to Jakarta and that Australians are so intimidated by a perceived Indonesian threat that the Australian Federal Government has instructed the coroner to hear evidence regarding the listening post intercepts in private on the basis that public access to what is said could pose a current threat to national security!

Hands up if you want to be Indonesian?

Ha, ha, ha? How can what the Aussie signals corps intercepted between murderous Indonesian TNI (army) thugs and their hate filled masters in Jakarta in 1975 possibly threaten Australian national security today? It seems the only way national security could be at risk is if the truth comes out the Indonesian Government would be typically both embarrassed and angry at Canberra; criminals get angry at their victims when they act as witnesses. As everyone knows this likely means Jakarta would take punitive action against Australia for daring to release the embarrassing truth, similar tactics to those used against Singapore over extradition. Many people would point to the recent Howard / Downer sell out on Australia’s international human rights obligations in their so called “Security Pact” with Jakarta to show that Howard and his federal lackeys not just bend over backwards for Jakarta but figuratively drop their “kecks” as well.

Mr. Howard appears to always play the phobia card of national security and immigration at election time, but it seems on the first count he leads a government of yellow striped liverish losers and on the second count an administration of cowardly, cheating bullies; how quickly Australians forget they are mostly “illegal” immigrants themselves. When other western nations at least seem to hold onto some modicum of sustainable national pride, it has to be asked how did the once proud Anzac’s (Apologies to New Zealand) come to this? Wake up Australia, Indonesia has one of the world’s least effective armed forces (because their role is to make money and suppress their own people first, fact) and signed agreements are things you just don’t renege upon unless, perhaps, you are Indonesian. Thank God Australia has people like Coroner Darrelle Pinch with the decency and balls to stand up for what is right by actually issuing a summons against RI hero Yunus Yosfiah to come and account for himself at the inquest, even though the summons can not be enforced in Indonesia, at least it opens a door for people to see the truth.

Across the Timor Sea and Indian Ocean in Jakarta when asked how Yunus Yosfiah felt about the summons and the inquiry into the death of these five men he replied he felt nothing. He even laughed as he said "Ask the Indonesian Government. Remember I'm an Indonesian citizen." But in true tell-tale Indonesian does not know when to shut up fashion in frantic attempt to sustain their untenable ego, pride and machismo, Yunus Yosfiah let something slip when he was asked if he was worried, he said "No, why must I worry? I don't feel guilty." Not that he was innocent, but that he did not feel guilty, as clear a sign as any that he murdered those unarmed foreigners in cold blood but is not guilty because he was simply following orders. If we are right Mr. Yosfiah, and we would put money on it that we are, you are guilty under International law under the Geneva Convention as being ordered to murder civilians does not make you personally innocent, in fact the reverse. So now we can only hope the truth does come out and the Republic of Indonesia will do an uncharacteristically honorable things and put Yunus Yosfiah in an International war crimes or human rights court, along with his implicated subordinates and superiors (thoughts of Suharto of course).

The Indonesian Government’s Foreign Affairs spokesman Kriastiarto Soeryo Legowo said "For the Indonesian Government it's a closed case. We believe they were victims, they were killed in the process of a gun fight at that time.” (sure they were victims and a gun fight can be one sided. Then in seeming “harmony” with the Australian Federal Government’s decision to have certain evidence heard behind closed doors, Kriastiarto Soeryo Legowo went on to say "At the moment, we don't see new evidence to justify the reopening of the case." No of course not, if the evidence is to be held behind closed doors, Indonesia is let off the hook by Howard et al yet again. So are we about to see the dirt being neatly swept under the rug once more, lost innocent lives dishonored yet again, guilty men walking not just free but through the corridors of power and with their ugly pompous heads held high, all in the name of western foreign policy? Sydney Australia’s Glebe Coroners Court resumes the inquest into the death of Brian Peters from May 1 to May 18 2007 but as their spokesman John Merrick says “The hearing is open to the public for most of the time”.

We hope enough westerners will have enough decency to make sure the truth comes out and justice is served, and to stay away from anything Indonesian until it does.