22 October 2014

Media Information: Call on Minister McCully to pursue the case of journalist Gary Cunningham and the Balibo Five

West Papua Action is deeply concerned at the lack of any clear outcome from the Australian Federal Police inquiry into the 1975 deaths of the ‘Balibo Five’ including NZ journalist Gary Cunningham. This ‘case closed’ response does not add up – given the findings of the 2007 coronial hearing which concluded that a war crimes trial under the terms of the Geneva Convention should be seriously considered. WPAA has faxed to Foreign Minister McCully to urge that the Government take a proactive stance and in particular ask the Australian authorities :

1. Did the Australian Federal Police conduct interviews with all the witnesses who appeared before the coronial enquiry?
2. Did the Australian Police endeavour to extradite Yunus Yosfiah or any other Indonesian figure involved with this war crime?
3. What attempts were made to gain the cooperation of the Indonesian Government to release their records of the events surrounding the deaths of the journalists? How successful were these endeavours?

The letter follows.

22 October 2014.

Hon Mr Murray McCully,
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Parliament Buildings,
Wellington.

Dear Mr McCully,

We were very concerned to learn about the outcome of the Australian Federal Police inquiry into the 1975 deaths of the ‘Balibo Five’. We note that you plan to make further enquiries of the Australian authorities about this case, in the light of the fact that one of the five, Gary Cunningham was a New Zealand citizen.

We are surprised and disappointed that there will be no move to prosecute those alleged to be responsible for the deaths of the five journalists under the terms of the Geneva Convention. As you know in 2007 the Sydney Coroner Dorelle Pinch conducted a nine month long investigation into the deaths and she was able to conclude that the men were all killed deliberately after having made it clear that they were non-combatants. She said that there was strong circumstantial evidence that linked the highest level of the Indonesian command. The coroner named two members of the Indonesian Special Forces Christoforus da Silva and Captain Yunus Yosfiah Retired Lt General Yunus Yosfiah who is alleged to have given the orders to kill is alive and safe in Jakarta today.

We believe that the Sydney coronial hearing was conducted with great thoroughness – it involved the perusal of a mountain of confidential Australian government records, the hearing of evidence from the top echelons of the foreign affairs and intelligence bureaucracy, the appearance of Timorese witnesses including crucial evidence from several Timorese who were on the Indonesian side at the time of the Balibo killings.

We urge you to ask the Australian Federal Police:

4. Did the Australian Federal Police conduct interviews with all the witnesses who appeared before the coronial enquiry?
5. Did the Australian Police endeavour to extradite Yunus Yosfiah or any other Indonesian figure involved with this war crime?
6. What attempts were made to gain the cooperation of the Indonesian Government to release their records of the events surrounding the deaths of the journalists? How successful were these endeavours?

The historical record shows that New Zealand has relied on Australia to take the initiative in the numerous inquiries that have taken place over the years into the deaths of journalists. It is time we became more proactive in the search for the truth.

This case is intimately tied to the whole issue of impunity for crimes against humanity in Timor Leste. Despite a United Nations backed tribunal held in Dili, a Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation which interviewed nearly 8,000 witnesses, and a bilateral Truth and Friendship Commission, no ranking Indonesian military personnel have been called to account for their crimes. A number charged before the UN backed tribunal a decade ago went on to serve in conflict-beset West Papua. A warrant of arrest was issued for General Wiranto in 2004 but he refused to appear before the tribunal and continues to play a key role in the Indonesian political scene.

New Zealander Gary Cunningham is a hero for peace as he and his colleagues were trying to expose Indonesia’s illegal incursion into the then Portuguese territory. Had the events not been covered up at the time a terrible 24 year long war might have been prevented.

For the sake of the Balibo Five and the hundreds of thousands of victims of Indonesia’s past brutal occupation of Timor Leste this matter cannot be allowed to drop. As Dorelle Pinch concluded the hearing: “The truth is never too young to be told, nor too old.’

Yours sincerely,

Maire Leadbeater (for West Papua Action Auckland)

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