Reporter: Emma Alberici
Mark Colvin: A witness at the inquest into the death of the newsman Brian Peters in East Timor in 1975 wept today, as he described seeing the five dead Australian journalists in a house in Balibo.
Another witness identified Brian Peters as the first of the five to be gunned down outside what was known as the "Chinese house". Previous official reports have suggested the journalists were accidentally shot in the crossfire of war.
But the East Timorese witness told the court today that there were was no fighting at all between the Fretilin independence movement and the Indonesians in Balibo when the Australians were killed.
Emma Alberici reports
Emma Alberici: Over the past four days, the coronial inquest into the death of Brian Peters has heard from four East Timorese men, all of whom have requested their names be suppressed for fear of reprisals back home.
Their evidence has been explosive, and while much of it has been suggested before, it was never presented to an open, independent court
Previous inquiries into the deaths of the five Australian journalists in Balibo, East Timor in 1975, concluded that they had most probably been caught in the crossfire of war.
But none of the witnesses giving evidence in Sydney this week have corroborated that story. Each of them has detailed a shocking scene of white men surrendering and Indonesian men shooting at them en masse with AK-47 rifles.
It was more than 31 years ago but the emotion of seeing innocent bystanders killed was too much for the man referred to as Glebe Three, as he broke down in the witness box.
With his voice quivering, he reached for a tissue, wiped the tears away and told Deputy State Coroner Dorelle Pinch, of the scene he witnessed as he walked into the Chinese house in Balibo and saw five dead white men in civilian clothes, three sitting down and two lying down. All in pools of blood, either shot or stabbed to death.
He later recalled seeing smoke coming from the Chinese house and being told the bodies of the Australian men were being burned. Fairfax Correspondent, Hamish McDonald co-wrote the book Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra.
Hamish McDonald: Even in the four days of the hearing so far, there's been a noticeable convergence of stories on some central elements of what happened.
One is that it looks like Brian Peters, the Channel Nine cameraman was the first to be shot in the square, as he tried to surrender to the Indonesian Special Forces.
The others may have fled into a Chinese house nearby and three seem to have been shot or knifed to death inside that house, and one other knifed to death as he tried to take shelter outside the house.
Emma Alberici: If we take it they were shot or stabbed, why?
Hamish McDonald: I think it's become clear that the Indonesians thought they had a green light from Gough Whitlam's government to go ahead with this covert attack, and that the Whitlam government would do all it can, would bend over backwards not to condemn it.
However, this was premised on there not being glaring evidence that the Indonesians were doing it. So, it was essentially to maintain the Indonesian cover story that these were local pro-Indonesian forces doing this, fighting back against Fretilin.
Emma Alberici: But if it comes to light that the Australian Government of 1975 under Gough Whitlam knew the Indonesians were about to invade Balibo, and that indeed they also knew there were five Australian journalists in Balibo, there will be a lot of questions to answer I imagine.
Hamish McDonald: Well, I think it's already been conclusively proven that the Whitlam Government was briefed by the Indonesians about what they were going to do and didn't protest beforehand except to say, keep it hidden.
The foreknowledge of the Australian journalists being in the way of that attack is the main issue to be really proven. That would be extremely embarrassing if it was shown that they were knowingly sacrificed for this operation.
Mark Colvin: The journalist and author, Hamish McDonald, speaking to Emma Alberici.