Amy Coopes, Sydney – As forces from West Timor spilled into the Balibo town square on the morning of October 16, 1975, two Australian-based newsmen looked on, their cameras fixed on a helicopter as it swooped overhead.

It was a piece of footage which may have sealed their fate – incontrovertible evidence that Indonesia was invading East Timor.

Brian Peters and Gary Cunningham, cameramen from channels Seven and Nine, had been in the hotly contested border town for just three days when the dawn raid began. Keen to capture footage, the pair made their way to the town's ancient fort to film the pro-independence Fretilin forces in battle.

Within hours, Peters, a Briton, fellow Nine journalist and Briton Malcolm Rennie and their Seven colleagues Cunningham, of New Zealand, and Australians Tony Stewart and Greg Shackleton, were dead.

A NSW coroner today found the men – now known as the Balibo Five – were captured and killed by Indonesian troops to prevent news of the invasion getting out.

Shot or stabbed as they attempted to surrender while declaring themselves "Australian" and "journalists", Peters and his colleagues were then dressed in military uniform and photographed with weapons before their bodies were incinerated.

It was a deliberate and "horrific" act serious enough to warrant a war crimes investigation, Deputy NSW Coroner Dorelle Pinch ruled.

Her findings are at odds with three decades of "disinformation" by Indonesian authorities, who still maintain the men died in crossfire as Indonesian troops fought Fretilin defenders.

"For us it is a closed case and we are still in the position that they were killed because of crossfire between conflicting sides at the time," Indonesian foreign affairs spokesman Kristiarto Legowo said after the coronial findings were handed down. "Whatever the coroner's recommendation, it will not change Indonesia's position on that."

The inquest was the first and only public inquiry into the killings to be held on Australian soil, with testimony from scores of diplomatic and Timorese witnesses and former prime minister Gough Whitlam.

After filming at the fort that morning, Peters and Cunningham returned to the 'Chinese House' where they had been staying, as troops closed in.

No Timorese groups in the conflict had helicopters, and the newsmen had just secured proof that Indonesian forces were among the wave of soldiers storming Balibo.

What happened next was unclear, Ms Pinch said. There was evidence three of the men were shot. Another – probably Peters – was attacked in the street and the fifth man was stabbed as he was forced from the bathroom where he was hiding by Indonesian Special Forces Commander Christoforus da Silva.

However, eyewitnesses agreed on some points. "The journalists clearly identified themselves as Australians and as journalists," Ms Pinch said.

They were unarmed and wearing civilian clothing, and were not in the company of Fretilin soldiers. All of them, at one time or another, had their hands raised in the "universal" gesture of surrender.

"The journalists were not killed in any crossfire between Fretilin and Indonesian soldiers. They were not killed in the heat of battle," Ms Pinch said. "They were killed deliberately on orders given by the field commander, Yunus Yosfiah."

Captain Yosfiah, an Indonesian Special Forces commander, led the group of soldiers which confronted the five, and was allegedly the first to open fire, yelling "attack".

Witness Antonio Sarmento described soldiers wiping the men's blood across an Australian flag, which they had painted on the outer walls of their house in the hope it would offer them some protection.

Yosfiah, who later became Indonesia's information minister, also ordered the men be clothed in Portuguese military uniforms and placed alongside guns in an attempt to make them look like combatants, Mr Sarmento said.

After photographing and filming the corpses, Yosfiah ordered the men's bodies be burnt and warned those present never to tell anyone what had really happened.

No Indonesian officials gave evidence at the inquest. Yosfiah did not answer invitations to appear, but in interviews he has denied ordering the men's killing.

On its opening day, the inquest was told there was a tacit understanding Australia would support the invasion of East Timor so long as Indonesia's involvement was not made public.

If it were to become widely known, Australia warned it would need to publicly oppose the move. "It was of paramount importance that the presence of Indonesian troops remained secret," Ms Pinch said.

General Benny Murdani, commander of the invasion, met with Richard Woolcott, Australia's ambassador to Jakarta, the day before the Balibo Five were shot and said Australia had three options – to support Indonesia, oppose Indonesia or keep quiet.

Alan Renouf, then head of Australia's foreign affairs department, told the inquest he received a cable on October 15 indicating almost 4,000 troops would enter East Timor, and that Suharto would deny Indonesian involvement.

The Defence Signals Directorate intercepted numerous Indonesian military radio communications indicating the army was tailing the journalists and knew they were in Balibo ahead of the attack.

"Don't worry about it, we have good medicine for them," one commander said, according to former Indonesian soldier Fernando Mariz.

Commonwealth officials Ian Cunliffe and George Brownbill, who visited the Shoal Bay receiving station in 1977, told the inquest they were showed an intercepted Indonesian wire implying official orders were given to kill the five.

"As directed or in accordance with your instructions, five journalists have been located and shot," read the October 16 telegram, which has never again been seen despite some 2,500 hours of official searches.

A signal intercepted on October 17 said: "Among the dead are four white men. What are we going to do with the bodies?"

Office of Current Intelligence (OCI) analyst Gary Klintworth said he knew immediately it was the journalists and prepared a briefing, which he was then ordered to destroy by his boss John Bennetts.

Preserving good relations with Indonesia was considered "paramount", Dr Klintworth said, and releasing information suggesting Australia was eavesdropping was potentially damaging.

Prime minister Gough Whitlam did not confirm the deaths until October 21, when the Jakarta press began carrying reports. Many of the intelligence officers said they assumed Mr Whitlam and his senior ministers would have been informed as a matter of urgency.

But Mr Whitlam, who was at the time embroiled in the so-called loans crisis and other problems in the senate, said he wasn't told of the shooting until October 21. Mr Whitlam also told the inquest he could not recall seeing any of the crucial intercepts, and said he had twice warned Shackleton not to go to East Timor.

"I warned him the Australian government had no way of protecting him or his colleagues," Mr Whitlam told the coroner, adding it would have been "irresponsible" of Shackleton not to pass on this advice.

The newsmen, all in their 20s and with little experience of filming in theatres of war, declined two invitations to leave with retreating troops on the morning of October 16, telling one witness: "We are international journalists, they will not kill us".

Bill Morrison, Mr Whitlam's defence minister, said he knew within hours that the newsmen had been shot, but didn't pass on the information because it was "on the pain of death to go anywhere near (Whitlam's) office at that stage".

Ms Pinch accepted Mr Whitlam's testimony, adding there was no evidence to suggest he or subsequent governments knew the journalists had been murdered and had covered it up.

She also said there was no proof anyone except the Indonesian military knew of the plan to execute the journalists, despite then foreign minister Don Willessee's recent "deathbed confession" that the Australian government had advance warning.

"I am aware that there has been speculation that government agencies in Australia had forewarning that the journalists were to be killed," she said. "All of the evidence before this inquest is to the contrary."

The coroner's brief has been referred to federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock for consideration of war crimes charges. Ms Pinch also recommended urgent government action on the repatriation of the remains of the Balibo Five, which were buried in Jakarta without their families' consent.

A national industry-wide safety code for journalists was also recommended.

"They were murdered in cold blood – it was just getting someone to listen and help us," said Peters' sister Maureen Tolfree, a driving force behind the inquest. "I think Brian and all the other boys would have been proud of this moment."

Gary Cunningham's son, John Milkins, said it had taken decades, but the truth was finally out. "I believe that we are in a situation where after 32 years we finally have the truth and we have the iconic words 'war crimes'," he told reporters.

Ms Pinch said she hoped the inquest would "demonstrate that the truth is never too young to be told, nor too old".

"Few events have become as poignantly etched into the Australian psyche as the deaths of five Australian journalists in Balibo, Timor Leste, who have become known in Australian folklore as the Balibo Five," she said.