Balibo Murderer Implicates Indonesian Government - International Injustice/Law

Successive Australian Labor and Liberal governments since 1975, have all been in possession of accurate information in relation to the murders of the 'Balibo five'. Information was obtained directly from eyewitness accounts and ADF communications (signals corp) who were monitoring events as they occurred.

For those who imagined that Australian government cowardice and the appalling habit of abandoning citizens is peculiar to John Howard and his lackey government think and research again. Gareth Evans, former Labor government minister, is a wealth of information regarding sordid deals involving the oil rich Timor Straits – disregarding the crimes of the politically well-connected, Yunus Yosfiah, was implicit to the arrangements made at that time.

Australia is the laughing stock of the region, for obvious (cowardly) reasons. It is time Australia abandoned its cringe mentality instead of its citizens! Until we assert our sovereign right and cease kow-towing to other nations (America/Indonesia) we will continue to be regarded as a piece of convenient real estate or a soft target by various groups that wish to gain notoriety. The enemy is FEAR not neighbouring nations or ‘terrorist’ bogey men.

We would issue the following warning to the powers:

You are dealing with a well-coordinated and highly skilled group of civilians and ex-military personnel. We are aware that Australia is perfectly able to defend itself in the region – need we remind you that skill and technology, not population numbers are the critical factors. Failure to repatriate Hicks and bring the Indonesian murderer to justice may result in those responsible accepting full responsibility for their inaction!

We are also aware of other sordid activities of previous governments; Paul Keating’s little enterprise of a money laundering Casino on Christmas Island is a perfect example. The Casino gained notoriety for its high rolling, socially prominent, Indonesian clientele bearing suitcases of cash from Indonesia – how many hundreds of millions Paul? If Geoff Clark can ‘go down’ thirty-five years after an ‘event’ then no one is safe from the ‘Law’, are they, Richo?

It is clear the two major Australian political parties are unable to lead Australia into the future as an Independent Republic. We operate on a new paradigm and morality, one that has no regard for present and past corrupt, cowardly, lackey governments, ministers, bureaucrats and corporate directors (of the Macquarie Group genus in particular).

Gentlemen, your brazen actions would indicate that you may be labouring under the misapprehension that you are invulnerable or immortal. Let me assure you how accessible and perfectly vulnerable you all are! A nation is not a convenient piece of real estate; it is the land and its people, some of whom have had enough of exploiters and the cowardly, lackey cringe!

With special reference to the ‘aluminium tubing’ Prime Minister and his front bench – did you really think you would get away with it? Please inform your boss, Dick Cheney, that Australia is a wonderful place for a heart attack holiday.

[You have been advised, you miserable, murdering, cowardly, scum!]

Related:
http://cleaves.zapto.org/clv/newswire.php?story_id=173&condense_comments=false#comment215

A former senior Federal Government official with the highest possible intelligence clearances today insisted he had seen an intercepted Indonesian Army signal indicating that five Australian journalists at Balibo had been deliberately targeted and killed.

George Brownbill told the NSW Coroners Court that he had seen the signal while visiting the highly secret Defence Signals Directorate base at Shoal Bay near Darwin in March 1977.

Mr Brownbill had been visiting the base as secretary to the Hope Royal Commission into the intelligence services.

A young man had shown him a translated Indonesian Army message stating that "as directed or in accordance with your instructions the five journalists have been located and shot".

Under questioning from counsel assisting the coroner Mark Tedeschi, QC, he insisted that his memory of the message was clear.

On being told that this message had not been produced by the Defence Department to either the 1999 inquiry into the Balibo killings by former National Crime Commission chairman Tom Sherman or the current inquest, Mr Brownbill said there were several possibilities about what had happened to it, including that it had been destroyed either by accident or improperly.

But he said there was another possibility: that it still existed but had been assessed by the authorities as "continuing to be deniable" and that it was not produced in the public interest for national security reasons.

He said that, on the basis of his experience with the Hope Royal Commission, the message could have been placed in a part of the records "where its existence became deniable".

Mr Tedeschi asked if the knowledge of this message had weighed on his mind as he became aware of the efforts of bereaved families to find out what had happened to the five Channel Nine and Channel Seven newsmen.

"From time to time I was distressed by their distress, knowing that whatever was known to the Australian Government but not known to them might have been of assistance to them," he said.

"But knowing also that it was not my place to blow any whistle and, indeed, it was not something I could lawfully do."

Copyright © 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald.

A SYDNEY coroner yesterday issued an arrest warrant for a former Indonesian minister to be compelled to give evidence about his role in the killing of five Australian-based newsmen in Balibo, East Timor, 31 years ago.

A deputy state coroner, Dorelle Pinch, also revealed that the former prime minister Gough Whitlam had been interviewed by a court lawyer and might be ordered to appear at her inquest into the deaths, along with other senior figures in his government.

The arrest warrant against retired Indonesian lieutenant-general Mohammad Yunus Yosfiah, who was information minister in 1998-99 and remains a member of parliament, can only be executed if he enters Australia. As he has not been charged with any offence, he cannot be the subject of an extradition request.

Ms Pinch said it had been issued because Mr Yosfiah had refused repeated invitations to appear, most recently this week. "It's an indication of how seriously I regard the necessity of having him here," she said.

Mr Yosfiah yesterday laughed when told of the warrant.

"Let it be. How can they do that?" he told Australian Associated Press. Asked if he was concerned, he said: "No, why must I worry? I don't feel guilty."

This week Mr Yosfiah was identified by a former Canberra intelligence analyst, Colonel Geoff Cameron, as having led special forces in the covert October 16, 1975, attack on Balibo in which five newsmen from the Nine and Seven networks died.

Former members of local militias with the Indonesian troops have told the Coroners Court that former captain Yosfiah ordered the newsmen killed as they tried to surrender. One said he had led the shooting.

On Wednesday, a former navy linguist at the Defence Signals Directorate listening station in Darwin said he had been called by Mr Whitlam's department within an hour of his report that five Australian journalists had just been killed and their bodies "incinerated or burnt to a crisp".

Ms Pinch said evidence heard over the past four weeks was taking the inquest into the "inner sanctum" of Canberra privy to sensitive intelligence.

In October 1975, this comprised Mr Whitlam, his foreign minister, Don Willesee; his defence minister, Bill Morrison; their department heads, and the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

"It seems likely that this group of people people will be able to give relevant evidence," she said.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Mark Tedeschi, QC, had interviewed Mr Whitlam within the past week to obtain evidence. His statement would be studied before hearings resume on May 1.

Aside from Mr Whitlam, the surviving members are Mr Morrison, the former Prime Minister's Department head John Menadue, and the then Department of Foreign Affairs secretary, Alan Renouf.

Copyright © 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald.

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