http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/08/04/in-search-truth-%E2%80%98balibo-five%E2%80%99-victims-still-missing.html
In search of the truth: 'Balibo Five' victims still missing Shirley Shackleton, Melbourne | Wed, 08/04/2010 9:36 AM | Opinion In his book Butir-Butir Budaya Jawa (Items of Javanese Culture), Gen. Soeharto, stated, "There are five categories of lies which are not punishable". First, those you tell in a social gathering; second, those you tell your bride on your wedding day; third, those you tell to protect your wealth; fourth, those necessary to protect your life; and fifth, those you need to protect your family." When I visited the single gravesite (July 10, 2010) said to contain the remains of five Western journalists including the British reporter, Brian Peters and cameraman Malcolm Rennie of Channel 9 TV; and the Channel 7 team comprising New Zealand cameraman Gary Cunningham and two Australians, the reporter Greg Shackleton and sound recordist, Tony Stewart, several Indonesian and Australian journalists were surprised to see a single grave. The newsmen had been reported missing on Oct. 16 after a huge politically motivated attack was launched by the Indonesian military led by Dading Kalbuadi against the shared border of Indonesian occupied West Timor and Portuguese Timor. Over the next weeks while president Soeharto denied any intention to invade Portuguese Timor the missing men remained missing. On Dec. 3, I opened a telegram from Jakarta with shaking hands. I cannot exaggerate the hope that flared in my heart. Were they alive? Doctor Will, the Australian consulate medical officer in Jakarta, stated that he had been given the remains of the journalists to identify and the most he could say was that they were "possibly human". My knees buckled as I tried to make sense of those words. Even though DNA testing was not the exact science it is today, a sliver of skin, a strand of hair or part of a fingernail is sufficient proof to distinguish a human being. I burst from the house like a lunatic, muttering insanely as I walked along the beach crying out my rage and frustration. Why weren't the remains sent home to Australia? Why on earth had they been sent to Jakarta? Later that same day I received a phone call from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. It contained elements of black comedy. If I wanted the bodies brought home it would cost me US$48,000: "Do you understand, Mrs. Shackleton, you will have to pay?" My hands shook as I picked up the telegram and read it again. The creature at the other end of the telephone obviously did not know that I knew what constituted "the bodies". Possibly human? It was a trap the enormity of which I could not fathom. I took a deep breath. "Are they in five coffins?" "Ah . . . [a long silence] . . . er, no." "Are they in five suitcases?" "No." "Are they stuffed in a shoebox?" An even longer silence. Taking a deep breath I read out the telegram without divulging the writer's identity. With mounting fury I said they could do what they bloody-well liked because what they had up there wasn't my husband or his colleagues. They were definitely human. "It is time for the insults to Brian, Tony, Greg, Gary and Malcolm to cease; I want my husband's remains repatriated to Melbourne. "The "diplomat" immediately wrote a report which I have seen at Australia House in London, suggesting I had given permission to hold a burial ceremony in Jakarta, but that I had refused to send flowers (though one of the outward cables details that five lots of flowers were supplied for the bogus funeral arranged by Australian diplomat, Richard Woolcott which took place at Karet Cemetery at Tanah Abang, Jakarta, Dec. 5, 1975). No family members were invited. There was only one coffin. Two days later, Dec. 7 Indonesia invaded East Timor. The propaganda pretended that the journalist's should not have been in Balibo, and so it was their own fault that they had been killed. Blame the victims was the order of the day. The propaganda maintained that the journalists had been killed in cross-fire by warring Timorese and the huge attack by Indonesian forces was never mentioned. Nor did the men who use weasel words admit that the five corpses were burned three times by the Indonesian military. The original coffin was moved in 1979 to Tanah Kusir Cemetary, at Kebayoran Lama. On my visit to Jakarta I discovered that the five newsmen are not the only missing aspects to the new grave said to contain their remains; the headstone and the protective slab are missing. The new grave is no less a crime scene than the original one was and the murder of the journalists at Balibo in 1975 remains a war crime. Jenny Dee at the Australian Consulate in Jakarta claims to be paying someone to look after the grave of the Balibo Five. In 31 years didn't they notice that the headstone and protective slab were missing, or did they just neglect to tell us as usual? Who authorized the grave to be moved? Was the new grave sanctified? By whom? How likely is it that the numerous coffins that were moved correspond with the names of the deceased on the headstones? I suggest there is a good chance that the Indonesian people will be putting flowers on the graves of strangers. Vague allusions have been made that repatriation will cause trouble between Australia and Indonesia; consider this: University of NSW academic and ex-army intelligence operative Clinton Fernandes sent me this: ''Australian aid to Indonesia is half a billion dollars a year. There are 16,000 Indonesian students studying in Australia and $15 billion a year in bilateral investment and trade each year,'' he said. In June 2008, prime minister Rudd announced: "A strengthened $2.5 billion five year development partnership with Indonesia, the Australia-Indonesia Partnership [2008-2013]; Indonesia and Australia have a healthy trade and economic relationship with two-way trade [merchandise and services] worth $10.3 billion in 2007-2008, making Indonesia our 13th largest trading partner, and two-way investment worth around $4.5 billion in 2007-2008." As if the return of the remains of the Balibo Five would cause our two countries to give up all that money? I always doubted the validity of the remains said to be Greg, Tony, Gary, Malcolm and Brian especially when they were referred to as dust - I thought at first they might mean ash but now I believe that the killers and officials knew what they were talking about: the remains of the five human beings that arrived in the Australian Consulate in Jakarta in 1975 were bone dust. The"remains" delivered in a shoe-box lay around in the basement of the Australian Consulate in Jakarta for three weeks before they were handed back to the Indonesians for burial ... and the official story at that time was that the Balibo Five were still missing. I believe that evidence I have discovered makes it imperative for the coffin of the so-called Balibo Five to be opened ... the grave has been desecrated. I can supply photographic evidence of both graves and outward and inward cablegrams sent at the time. The inquest at Glebe Coroner's court found that the newsmen were murdered in Balibo in cold blood by members of Team Susi led by Capt. Yunus Yosfiah and that Falintil had withdrawn from Balibo and the journalists were not armed; any gunshots came from the Indonesian military. Years later I tracked Dr. Will down. He said he had not sent me the telegram, but whoever did knew precisely what he had written in his report. It is time for the insults to Brian, Tony, Greg, Gary and Malcolm to cease; I want my husband's remains repatriated to Melbourne and the majority of the next-of-kin agree. We can all have what we want; if anyone wants their relative to stay in Jakarta, this can be done. I implore you, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to open the grave said to contain the remains of my husband and his colleagues and close forever the weeping sore that clouds the relationship between our two countries. The writer is the widow of Greg Shackleton, Australian journalist for Channel Seven who was killed in Balibo. Her book The Circle of Silence, a personal testimony before, during and after Balibo, was published recently.
