Australia court urges Indonesia war crimes charges

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A coroner urged the Australian government on Friday to seek war crimes charges against former Indonesian military officers over the 1975 killing of five Australian newsmen during Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.

New South Wales state deputy coroner Dorelle Pinch ruled the five Australians, known as the Balibo five, had been deliberately tracked and killed by Indonesian forces who were moving into Balibo, just across the border in East Timor, in October 1975 ahead of a full invasion of the former Portuguese colony.

"The journalists were not incidental casualties in the fighting, they were captured, then deliberately killed despite protesting their status," Pinch ruled on Friday.

Her finding is at odds with Indonesia's long-held version that the newsmen were killed in crossfire during a firefight at Balibo.

Pinch named former Indonesian Special Forces captain Yunus Yosfiah, a retired general and now a senior Indonesian lawmaker, as the man who ordered the killings to stop any reports that special forces were involved in the attack on Balibo.

She also said there was strong circumstantial evidence that the orders to kill the newsmen came ultimately from the head of the Indonesian special forces, Major-General Benny Murdani.

Indonesia said the coroner's finding would not change its position.

"The coroner's court has a very limited jurisdiction and its decision won't change our stance about what happened," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo told a news conference. "It won't change our position that it is a closed case."

The Indonesian military said the coroner's verdict was an Australian domestic affair.

"I wonder how did they (the coroner) come up with such a conclusion," military spokesman Sagom Tamboen said.

"For us, our own resolution to past cases in East Timor is the best way," he said, referring to Indonesia's rights tribunal for East Timor abuses and the truth commission set up by Dili and Jakarta.

All military and police officers charged in the rights tribunal were either acquitted or had their convictions overturned on appeal.

In March, Pinch issued a warrant for Yunus's arrest after he refused to come to Australia to give evidence in the case.

Yunus, who was information minister in the cabinet of former president B.J. Habibie, has called his accusers liars.

Another former Indonesian army officer whom the coroner said took part in the killings, Christoforus da Silva, is thought to be living in retirement on Flores island.

Murdani, who was armed forces chief between 1983 and 1988, died three years ago.

TENSION

The deaths of the Balibo five -- Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Gary Cunningham, Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie -- have been a long-running source of tension between Australia and Indonesia, with relatives accusing both countries of a cover-up.

Pinch said she would now ask the Australian government to consider pursuing war crimes charges against those involved.

Her finding ends a 30-year campaign by relatives of the dead journalists and cameramen, who believed the men were deliberately killed.

"Proper respect has now been paid to these Australian citizens who have been brushed aside," Shackleton's widow Shirley told reporters outside the court.

Pinch ruled there was no evidence to support claims the Australian government had advance notice of Indonesia's plan to invade East Timor after the withdrawal of the territory's former Portuguese rulers.

The invasion led to 24 years of Indonesian control of East Timor, a country of about 920,000 people which voted in 1999 to break free of Indonesian rule and which gained full independence in 2002.

Pinch also recommended that Australian and Indonesian authorities work together to find the remains of the five men and return them to Australia for burial.

(Additional reporting by Ahmad Pathoni in Jakarta; Editing by Roger Crabb)