Ishmael
March 8th 2003, 10:49 AM
Did New Zealand Help Coverup Indonesian Massacres?
Keith Locke, Green Party
Published in the Otago Daily Times and the Evening Post, 23rd November 1998
http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/other4880.html
New evidence has put the spotlight on two past atrocities by Indonesian forces in East Timor.
The first incident concerns the killing of five foreign journalists in East Timor in October 1975. It now turns out Indonesian troops executed them in cold blood, contrary to the previous story that they’d been caught in “cross-fire” during the attack on Balibo.
This has naturally caused a storm in Australia because three of the journalists killed were Australians. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has promised to further investigate the event.
Why hasn’t there been a parallel debate here? After all, one of the journalists killed was a New Zealander, Gary Cunningham.
Past Australian governments have been accused of downplaying the killings, and covering up what they knew, so as not to upset the Indonesians. Now, with the greater openness in Indonesia, the truth can no longer be concealed. Two very credible witnesses, one an East Timorese member of the Indonesian attacking force, have come forward and described how the journalists were taken into a house and executed.
New Zealand government documents show that our officials also played down the killings. On June 29 1976 the Secretary of Foreign Affairs wrote to his Minister, Brian Talboys, worried that the Australian government might seek compensation from Indonesia.
“If in fact the Australians do press ahead, largely in response to domestic political pressure, New Zealand will be faced with a difficult situation because of Mr Cunningham’s nationality.” To press a case, in conjunction with Australia “would harm our own relations with Indonesia”.
The Secretary proposed two ways to avoid this eventuality: firstly, to argue that there was “no clear-cut case against Indonesia” and secondly, to say that “Mr Cunningham, while a New Zealand citizen, was an Australian resident”..
Sixteen years later another New Zealand citizen, Kamal Bamadhaj was killed in the Dili massacre. Over 100 Timorese were also killed when Indonesian troops opened fire on protesters at a Dili cemetery on November 12, 1991.
Foreign Minister Don McKinnon didn’t respond strongly to that massacre. He said we should wait for the results of the Indonesian government’s inquiry. That inquiry turned out to be a farce, claiming only 19 protesters had been killed.
Our Foreign Minister was also very “diplomatic” in 1994, when a US court ordered the Indonesian general in charge during the massacre to pay Kamal’s mother, Helen Todd, $32 million in punitive damages. Mr McKinnon agreed only to ask the Indonesians “what they were doing about the judgement and if they are going to appeal against it.”
Now it’s been proved that the Dili massacre was even worse than first thought. The Sydney Morning Herald has provided evidence of a second and third massacre shortly after the cemetery massacre. The former Governor of East Timor, Mario Carrascalao, told the Herald of 20 to 50 wounded demonstrators being executed on a river bank, and the later burial of a “truckload” of Timorese at a rubbish tip.
What’s got Australian politicians up in arms is the Herald’s claim that Canberra knew of the further killings at the time, but publicly denied them.
Is the New Zealand government guilty of a similar public coverup? Our Foreign Affairs officials work closely with their Australian counterparts and may well have got information from them about the further massacres. There was clearly some internal interest in the issue. On December 10 1991 Mr Gibson of Foreign Affairs met with a visiting East Timorese resistance representative, Francisco Pang. The notes of the meeting, released under the Official Information Act, report Mr Gibson asking Mr Pang about “allegations of subsequent killings”. Mr Pang replied “that there was abolutely no doubt that they had occurred and noted that an American journalist had taken photographs of one burial site.”
Australia’s role in the cover-up of the subsequent massacres is will be looked by the Senate. The government and the Labor opposition agreed on a broad Senate investigation of the nation’s stance on East Timor since 1975. Shouldn’t we be conducting a similar inquiry here?
The Indonesian people are now reassessing the whole Suharto era. We should be conducting a parallel review of New Zealand’s relations with the Suharto regime, and particularly any coverups that we were part of.
We owe it to the memories of Gary Cunningham and Kamal Bamadhaj, two innocent New Zealanders killed by Suharto’s soldiers.
Keith Locke is the Green Party spokesperson on Foreign Affairs. The views expressed are his own.
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Keith Locke, Green Party
Published in the Otago Daily Times and the Evening Post, 23rd November 1998
http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/other4880.html
New evidence has put the spotlight on two past atrocities by Indonesian forces in East Timor.
The first incident concerns the killing of five foreign journalists in East Timor in October 1975. It now turns out Indonesian troops executed them in cold blood, contrary to the previous story that they’d been caught in “cross-fire” during the attack on Balibo.
This has naturally caused a storm in Australia because three of the journalists killed were Australians. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has promised to further investigate the event.
Why hasn’t there been a parallel debate here? After all, one of the journalists killed was a New Zealander, Gary Cunningham.
Past Australian governments have been accused of downplaying the killings, and covering up what they knew, so as not to upset the Indonesians. Now, with the greater openness in Indonesia, the truth can no longer be concealed. Two very credible witnesses, one an East Timorese member of the Indonesian attacking force, have come forward and described how the journalists were taken into a house and executed.
New Zealand government documents show that our officials also played down the killings. On June 29 1976 the Secretary of Foreign Affairs wrote to his Minister, Brian Talboys, worried that the Australian government might seek compensation from Indonesia.
“If in fact the Australians do press ahead, largely in response to domestic political pressure, New Zealand will be faced with a difficult situation because of Mr Cunningham’s nationality.” To press a case, in conjunction with Australia “would harm our own relations with Indonesia”.
The Secretary proposed two ways to avoid this eventuality: firstly, to argue that there was “no clear-cut case against Indonesia” and secondly, to say that “Mr Cunningham, while a New Zealand citizen, was an Australian resident”..
Sixteen years later another New Zealand citizen, Kamal Bamadhaj was killed in the Dili massacre. Over 100 Timorese were also killed when Indonesian troops opened fire on protesters at a Dili cemetery on November 12, 1991.
Foreign Minister Don McKinnon didn’t respond strongly to that massacre. He said we should wait for the results of the Indonesian government’s inquiry. That inquiry turned out to be a farce, claiming only 19 protesters had been killed.
Our Foreign Minister was also very “diplomatic” in 1994, when a US court ordered the Indonesian general in charge during the massacre to pay Kamal’s mother, Helen Todd, $32 million in punitive damages. Mr McKinnon agreed only to ask the Indonesians “what they were doing about the judgement and if they are going to appeal against it.”
Now it’s been proved that the Dili massacre was even worse than first thought. The Sydney Morning Herald has provided evidence of a second and third massacre shortly after the cemetery massacre. The former Governor of East Timor, Mario Carrascalao, told the Herald of 20 to 50 wounded demonstrators being executed on a river bank, and the later burial of a “truckload” of Timorese at a rubbish tip.
What’s got Australian politicians up in arms is the Herald’s claim that Canberra knew of the further killings at the time, but publicly denied them.
Is the New Zealand government guilty of a similar public coverup? Our Foreign Affairs officials work closely with their Australian counterparts and may well have got information from them about the further massacres. There was clearly some internal interest in the issue. On December 10 1991 Mr Gibson of Foreign Affairs met with a visiting East Timorese resistance representative, Francisco Pang. The notes of the meeting, released under the Official Information Act, report Mr Gibson asking Mr Pang about “allegations of subsequent killings”. Mr Pang replied “that there was abolutely no doubt that they had occurred and noted that an American journalist had taken photographs of one burial site.”
Australia’s role in the cover-up of the subsequent massacres is will be looked by the Senate. The government and the Labor opposition agreed on a broad Senate investigation of the nation’s stance on East Timor since 1975. Shouldn’t we be conducting a similar inquiry here?
The Indonesian people are now reassessing the whole Suharto era. We should be conducting a parallel review of New Zealand’s relations with the Suharto regime, and particularly any coverups that we were part of.
We owe it to the memories of Gary Cunningham and Kamal Bamadhaj, two innocent New Zealanders killed by Suharto’s soldiers.
Keith Locke is the Green Party spokesperson on Foreign Affairs. The views expressed are his own.
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