Balibo Five

The Australian flag in Balibo

The Balibo Five was a group of journalists for Australian commercial television networks who were murdered in the period leading up to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The Balibo Five were based in the town of Balibo in East Timor (then Portuguese Timor), where they were killed on 16 October 1975 during Indonesian incursions before the invasion.[1] Roger East travelled to Balibo soon after to investigate the likely deaths of the Five and was later executed by members of the Indonesian military on the docks of Dili.

In 2007, an Australian coroner ruled that they had been deliberately killed by Indonesian special forces soldiers.[2] The official Indonesian version is that the men were killed by cross-fire during the battle for the town. According to The Economist, the Australian Government has never challenged this view in order to avoid damaging relations with Indonesia.[3]

After the ruling, newly elected Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd declared "those responsible should be held to account... You can't just sweep this to one side".[4][5] However, no meaningful action was taken after he was elected. The owner of the house at the time was a Chinese family, who had fled across the border as refugees to the neighbouring Indonesian village of Atumbua. From there they travelled to Portugal and finally settled in Australia. The Patriarch was named Gum Nyiang Lay.

  1. ^ Kennedy, Les (17 October 2005). "New search for answers on Balibo Five". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 13 January 2006. Retrieved 12 February 2007.
  2. ^ McDonald, Hamish (17 November 2007). "Balibo Five deliberately killed: coroner". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 21 November 2016.
  3. ^ "The Balibo five". The Economist. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  4. ^ "The Balibo five". The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited. 27 August 2009. Archived from the original on 12 April 2016.
  5. ^ Dorling, Philip; McKenzie, Nick (17 December 2010). "Balibo five: our secret blacklist". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 27 September 2015.