AUSTRALIA:A coroner urged the Australian government yesterday to seek war crimes charges against former Indonesian military officers over the 1975 killing of five Australian newsmen during Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.
New South Wales state deputy coroner Dorelle Pinch ruled that the five Australians, known as the Balibo five, had been deliberately tracked and killed by Indonesian forces who were moving into Balibo, just across the border in East Timor, in October 1975 ahead of a full invasion of the former Portuguese colony.
"The journalists were not incidental casualties in the fighting. They were captured, then deliberately killed despite protesting their status," Ms Pinch ruled.
Her finding is at odds with Indonesia's long-held version that the newsmen were killed in crossfire during a firefight at Balibo.
Ms Pinch named former Indonesian special forces captain Yunus Yosfiah, a retired general and now a senior Indonesian lawmaker, as the man who ordered the killings to stop reports that special forces were involved in the attack on Balibo.
She also said there was strong circumstantial evidence that the orders to kill the newsmen came ultimately from the head of the Indonesian special forces, Maj Gen Benny Murdani.
Indonesia said the coroner's finding would not change its position. "The coroner's court has a very limited jurisdiction and its decision won't change our stance about what happened," said foreign ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo. "It won't change our position that it is a closed case."
The Indonesian military said the coroner's verdict was an Australian domestic affair.
"I wonder how did they [ the coroner] come up with such a conclusion," said military spokesman Sagom Tamboen.
"For us, our own resolution to past cases in East Timor is the best way," he added, referring to Indonesia's rights tribunal for East Timor abuses and the truth commission set up by Dili and Jakarta. All military and police officers charged in the tribunal were either acquitted or had their convictions overturned on appeal.
In March Ms Pinch issued a warrant for Gen Yunus's arrest after he refused to come to Australia to give evidence in the case, calling his accusers liars.
Another former Indonesian army officer whom the coroner said took part in the killings, Christoforus da Silva, is thought to be living in retirement on Flores island.
Maj Gen Murdani, who was armed forces chief between 1983 and 1988, died three years ago.
The deaths of the Balibo five - Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Gary Cunningham, Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie - have been a long-running source of tension between Australia and Indonesia, with relatives accusing both countries of a cover-up.
Ms Pinch said she would now ask the Australian government to consider pursuing war crimes charges against those involved.
Her finding ends a 30-year campaign by relatives of the dead journalists and cameramen, who believed the men were deliberately killed. "Proper respect has now been paid to these Australian citizens who have been brushed aside," said Shackleton's widow, Shirley, outside the court.
Ms Pinch also recommended that Australian and Indonesian authorities work together to find the remains of the five men and return them to Australia for burial.