There is little doubt that our police should have gone about their attempt to persuade retired Lieutenant General Sutiyoso, now Governor of Jakarta, to appear before the Balibo coronial enquiry differently, but in the main the apologies have been much overdone.
Sutiyoso, then a captain, was part of the invading force that entered Balibo on that fateful day in October 1975. Maybe he had nothing to do with the murder of the journalists, but he was a Kopassus colleague of then Captain Yunus Yosfiah, who ordered this war crime, and it is very hard to believe that he knew nothing about this incident.
This raises the question: was it his anger that caused him to flee back to Jakarta, or did he find the prospect of being questioned about Balibo daunting?
What a service he would have offered both countries if he had been prepared to enlighten the Coroner about what he did and what he knew. I was disappointed to learn that our Defence Chief, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston – for whom I have considerable respect – had strongly backed Sutoyoso, stating that he was not at Balibo in 1975.
Certainly as a member of 'Tim Susi' he was part of that operation – codenamed 'Operasi Flambuyant' – and given the geography of the operation area, he could hardly have avoided being in Balibo at one stage or another. Indeed at that time it was on the only road to the rest of East Timor. Whether he witnessed the killings is, of course, another matter. While he deserves the presumption of innocence his role has never been properly investigated.
The Balibo coronial enquiry has led to some extraordinary revelations – at least, extraordinary to those unfamiliar with the unfolding of events in 1975. The incident involving retired Sutiyoso is a warning that the coronial report could have an impact on the Canberra-Jakarta relationship. Essentially the problem is not with the coronial enquiry, but with those responsible for this atrocity and those who, in the past, took the unacceptable step of covering up this crime against humanity. It could well, of course, be several months before the coroner hands down her findings, and, in the light of the evidence presented to the court, the impact of the outcome could well range well beyond the issue of the cause and manner of the deaths of those journalists who met a cruel end on that fateful day in October 1975, when I, too, was in troubled East Timor.
The testimony of former Australian diplomats and intelligence officers has exposed the shamefully indifferent response of the Whitlam Government to what it knew to be an extremely serious war crime and the equally shameful failure of Fraser Coalition Government to take up the issue.
The case implicitly goes well beyond the Balibo incident. These testimonies exposed other ugly realities that are really outside the focus of the coronial enquiry. One is the fact that although the Whitlam government knew that Indonesia was about to commit a grave violation of the UN Charter, it did nothing to deter this crime. And Australia had a heavy responsibility to take some action. East Timor was not just a neighbour: its people had selflessly helped Australians during our darkest hours in 1942, at a cost that was itself a huge humanitarian disaster. In this respect, nor can the Fraser Government escape blame.
The Balibo atrocity was a grim warning of what lay ahead for these people, but our Governments couldn't even bring themselves to protest this virtual execution of five of its journalists, let alone help the Timorese. Australia went on to support the annexation, not even protesting the terrible atrocities that accompanied it – the mass executions, the torture and the widespread raping of women – a terrible ordeal that claimed over 180,000 lives, memories of which lie trauma-like behind the instability, insecurity, and lacking in self-confidence still prevalent in East Timor today. Details of that ordeal are set out in the UN-sponsored CAVR report, which has attracted little attention from our politicians.
To spare those Indonesian military commanders involved in past atrocities from exposure and recrimination surely constitutes an offence to the memory of the Balibo victims. Then there are the tens of thousands of East Timorese who were to fall victim of a brutal military culture whose full exposure is in the national interest of both countries. It is also counterproductive to the important relationship between our two nations.
Thus it is time to look beyond Balibo, to make use of the findings of the coronial inquest to take in the lessons of this tragic affair – to end the lying and the deceit. The truth may be ugly and shocking but its exposure will give both Indonesians and Australians an opportunity to start afresh, dispensing with a relationship technique that has for so long been embedded in opportunism, political expediency and pretentious rhetoric.
To use this experience to change direction would surely be the best way to honour the memory of five journalists who lost their lives in an attempt to expose a culture of deception and lying that has continued to demean the relationship. What is so lamentable is that 32 years after the Balibo incident neither Indonesian nor Australian government officials can bring themselves to end a policy so often mired in deception and cover-up!