Memorial for journalists killed in invasion of East Timor

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Memorial for journalists killed in invasion of East Timor

Memorial for journalists killed in invasion of East Timor

By Craig Cormick

CANBERRA — Despite 23 years having passed, the deaths of the six Australian-based journalists killed in the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975 will not be forgotten, according to activist Shirley Shackleton, the widow of one of the murdered men.

On November 15 — the PEN International Day of the Imprisoned Writer — Shackleton planted a tree here, part of a memorial to the journalists.

The ceremony was organised by the Canberra branch of PEN International, a writers' organisation dedicated to human rights and freedom of expression.

Shackleton told the 40 assembled guests that she had planted two trees previously in memory of her husband, Greg, one in Melbourne and one at Balibo in East Timor.

"My husband and his friends weren't expecting to be murdered", she said. She said the killings marked a watershed because after 1975 many military regimes declared open slather on journalists.

A plaque laid by the tree is dedicated to the six journalists killed in the Indonesian invasion: Greg Shackleton, Brian Peters, Gary Cunningham, Tony Stewart, and Malcolm Rennie, all killed at Balibo on October 16, 1975, and Roger East, killed in Dili on December 8.

The tree is the third in the PEN Memorial Walk. Previous trees planted commemorate Nigerian activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and indigenous Australian poet Robert Walker.

Canberra PEN plans to add a tree each year in memory of a writer who has been killed in prison, or killed because of their beliefs.

"What shakes me is that this whole area could be full of trees in 20 years", Shackleton observed.

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