8 Dec 2009

Families doubt new claims over Balibo deaths

7:11 pm on 8 December 2009

Family of the journalists killed in the lead-up to Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975 are pouring doubt on new claims surrounding the case.

New Zealand journalist Gary Cunningham and four Australian and British colleagues were killed in the East Timorese town of Balibo.

A coroner's inquest found the men were illegally killed by Indonesian soldiers.

The Indonesian government says they were caught in crossfire. But a retired army colonel, Gatot Purwanto, has told Tempo news magazine that a rational decision was made to kill the men.

Colonel Purwanto made the revelation after seeing the Australian film Balibo, saying he and his fellow soldiers had been surprised to find the men in the border town.

He claims his superior tried to ask the Indonesian government what to do about the journalists as soldiers surrounded a house where they were hiding.

Colonel Purwanto says those soldiers decided to open fire, before the government responded, after they were "provoked" by gunfire from the journalists' direction.

However, Greig Cunningham, who lost his brother Gary, and Shirley Shackleton, who lost her husband, Greg, say there was no shooting before the killings and the comments mask the reality of the crime.

Mr Cunningham says he is sceptical of the colonel's comments, saying they do not gel with other evidence from Timorese eye witnesses who say they saw no firing coming from the house.

Mr Cunningham says the latest comments are just a variation on the old idea that the journalists were killed in crossfire.

The Indonesian government says the case is best left in the past.