Reporter: Emma Alberici

Mark Colvin: A witness to the deaths of five Australian journalists in Timor in 1975 told a court today that he'd heard people yelling "there are whites, there are whites" before gunfire broke out.

The man, known only as Glebe Four, is the second witness to suggest in Sydney's He spoke to Emma Alberici.

Ben Saul: Most coronial inquests deal with deaths which happened within New South Wales, or to New South Wales citizens elsewhere in Australia. It's very significant to have a coronial inquest proceeding to investigate a death overseas.

Emma Alberici: Why was it left to the families of the Balibo Five to bring this death to the intention of the coroner 30 or so years later? Why wasn't this investigated by an Australian coroner sooner than now?

Ben Saul: Well, there has been a history of Australian governments not investigating this case for all sorts of political reasons. After East Timor became independent in 1999, the UN tried to investigate the killings of the Balibo journalists, but Indonesia refused to cooperate, and so no evidence could be taken from Indonesian citizens who were there at the time.

Emma Alberici: Shouldn't more pressure have been brought to bear on the Indonesians to cooperate?

Ben Saul: Well, there's a long political history between Australia and Indonesia on this issue.

Certainly members of the victims' families and other groups in the community have applied sustained pressure over the last 25-30 years to ensure that these killings weren't forgotten.

There is evidence to suggest that these killings were war crimes, in violation of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, which both Indonesia and Australia have signed up to, and the failure to fully investigate and, if appropriate, prosecute war crimes is very significant indeed.

Emma Alberici: If the coroner decides in her judgment to find that members of the Indonesian military, or indeed the Government, were responsible for the deaths of the journalists, what powers would Australia have to bring charges against those people, given the coronial inquest has no jurisdiction to compel witnesses from Indonesia to even appear before it?

Ben Saul: Australia for a long time has had war crimes legislation which allows Australia to prosecute those who are suspected of committing war crimes anywhere in the world. They don't have to be Australian nationals, the crime doesn't have to have taken place within Australia.

The problem is obtaining custody of the suspects, and to do that Australia would need to lodge an extradition request with the Indonesian authorities, and hope that the Indonesians agreed to extradite the suspect to Australia.

Emma Alberici: And if they didn't?

Ben Saul: Well, the extradition treaty between Australia and Indonesia provides that if either country refuses to extradite a national, then they have to submit the case to their own authorities for prosecution.

And that really would depend upon the Indonesian justice system as to whether they thought there was sufficient evidence to prosecute.

Beause there are high-level political and military figures in Indonesia arguably implicated in these killings, it's been very unlikely in the past that these kinds of cases would be seriously prosecuted and brought to trial.

This has been the problem with this case all along, I mean, there's been such a long history between Australia and Indonesia of Australia not, successive Australian governments really not doing their best to uncover the truth here.

Mark Colvin: Dr Ben Saul of the Centre for International Law at Sydney University, with Emma Alberici.