REVIEW BY HELEN JARVIS
Death in Balibo, lies in Canberra
By Hamish McDonald and Desmond Ball
St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000. 199 pp., $24.95.
"Blood on whose hands?" is the subtitle on the striking cover of this powerful book, which recounts the horrific details of the planning and execution of Indonesia's October 1975 attack on Balibo, in which five Australian-based journalists were cold-bloodedly killed.
The book exposes clearly and boldly the extent to which a range of Australian authorities knew exactly what was going to happen, what was happening and what had happened, and did precisely nothing to stop it, nor to inform those who stood in harm's way, let alone to attempt to save them.
Balibo is of course but one incident in the terrible 25-year history of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. It is worthy of particular attention, however, because it was the start of this bloody story, and because it shows more sharply than any other incident the extent of the Australian government's complicity with Indonesia, and the depths to which it would sink as a result: to denial of information surrounding the deaths of its own nationals, and to cavalier connivance in the suppression of half a million of our nearest neighbours.
Clearly established in this book is the fact that Australian diplomats in Jakarta were receiving daily briefings on Indonesia's plans, and that they received details of the actual Balibo invasion on October 13, 1975, some three days before it took place.
This information was transmitted to Canberra but, although it was widely known that the journalists had gone into the proposed battlefield area, their reports being screened on Australian television on October 14, no attempt was made to inform them of the danger they were facing.
Australian signals intelligence followed every detail of the attack through radio intercepts, which proved beyond doubt that the Indonesian forces knew in advance of the journalists' presence and planned to eliminate them: "Don't worry. We have proper medicine to give them."
Despite knowing that the journalists had been killed, almost as the events took place, successive governments (ALP and Liberal) continued to play out a game, feigning ignorance and making fake attempts to establish the truth. The 1976 investigation by diplomat Allan Taylor and the two Sherman inquiries of 1996 and 1999 all had terms of reference guaranteeing that nothing too embarrassing would emerge, and failed to disclose the shocking truths laid out here by two of Australia's most tenacious and informed writers on current policy and intelligence matters.
Some of the key sources still remain unnamed, and therefore their stories still not properly and officially told. The book reveals apparent tampering with records and removal or perhaps destruction of key documents. It is to be hoped that the forthcoming coronial inquiry in New South Wales will break through the official wall of silence and place some testimonies on the public record.
Australian governments put principle aside and for 35 years supported the government that repressed its own people as well as those on its periphery. It is high time that these policies were scrutinised and exposed.
The combination of long-time Indonesia watcher Hamish McDonald with security and intelligence scholar Desmond Ball is a potent one, and the result of their work will be required reading for many different sectors. Many of the questions they ask still need to be answered, and the lessons learned if we are ever to gain a foreign policy that would prevent a repeat of the story told in this book.