SYDNEY (Sydney Morning Herald / Pacific Media Watch): Justice may be some time coming for five journalists killed by the Indonesian military in Timor-Leste in 1975 because the Australian police are apparently reluctant to ask the Indonesian government for help in pursuing the killers, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
Journalists Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Anthony Stewart, Gary Cunningham and Gregory Shackleton - of Britain, New Zealand and Australia - became known as the Balibo Five after they were gunned down in Balibo, Timor-Leste, by Indonesian special forces in 1975.
The journalists were in East Timor to cover the looming invasion of the country by Indonesia.
Roger East, an Australian journalist who travelled to East Timor later on in 1975 to investigate the killings of the Balibo Five was also killed by the Indonesian military.
The Australian Federal Police finally began investigating their murders five years ago after a New South Wales magistrate found that they had been "killed deliberately on orders given by the [Indonesian] field commander, Captain Yunus Yosfiah".
Yosfiah, who became Minister of Information in Indonesia in the late 1990s, is listed as "the most decorated member of the Indonesian army".
But while the investigation into the killings has been active for the past five years, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today that the Australian Federal Police had not bothered to ask the Indonesian government or police for assistance in arresting the killers. In fact, the Australian Federal Police have had no interaction with the Indonesian police at all, according to information they provided in response to a parliamentary question.
The Indonesian government has previously said that it was not happy that the 1975 murders were being investigated.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Federal Police say it has made "international inquiries" in connection with the case but have refused to say what these enquiries are.
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