Australia probes journalist killings in East Timor

Australia hopes it relations with Indonesia won't be damaged by its launch of a war crimes investigation into the 1975 killing of five Australian-based journalists during an attack by Indonesian forces in East Timor, the Australian foreign minister said Thursday.

The Australian Federal Police probe announced Wednesday comes two years after an Australian coroner investigating the deaths found they were deliberate and probably ordered by senior Indonesian officers.

The coroner's findings contradicted the Indonesian and Australian governments' official version of events: that the journalists were killed accidentally in a crossfire between Indonesian troops and East Timorese defenders.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he told the Indonesian ambassador in Canberra on Wednesday that the decision to investigate was not made by his government but by independent police chiefs.

"There's no point beating about the bush; Indonesia is surprised by this decision," Smith told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "We don't regard these as issues that will disturb the fundamentals of the relationship."

The findings by New South Wales state deputy coroner Dorelle Pinch in 2007 strained Australia-Indonesia diplomatic ties because it named three former senior officers of Indonesia's special military forces who likely ordering the killings, and suggested they should face possible war crimes charges.

Indonesia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah warned that the new investigation could obstruct bilateral relations.

"We are forward looking in our approach in our bilateral relations with Australia and we don't want to see this issue become another hurdle on how we approach the bilateral relations," Faizasyah told ABC radio in an interview broadcast Thursday.

The bodies of the five journalists - two Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander known as the "Balibo five" - were found burned in the East Timorese town of Balibo. Indonesian special forces and their East Timorese proxies attacked the town Oct. 16, 1975.

Pinch investigated the death of Brian Peters, 29, a British-born cameraman working for an Australian television network. Pinch - who heard evidence from witnesses and viewed secret intelligence documents during the six-week inquest - concluded Peters was killed by members of the Indonesian Special Forces to prevent him from revealing that the commandos participated in the Balibo attack.

Indonesia invaded East Timor after the small half island descended into civil war following the end of Portuguese colonial rule. Indonesia's invasion plans were secret at the time, and direct involvement of Indonesian troops in operations in East Timor was highly sensitive.

The coroner, required to make findings only on Peters, said it was impossible to separate the death of one of the journalists from the others and that her conclusions applied equally to all of them.

The other journalists were Malcolm Rennie, 28, from Britain, Australians Gregory Shackleton, 29, and Tony Stewart, 21, and 27-year-old New Zealander Gary Cunningham.

Pinch's investigation was referred to Australia's attorney general, who then turned the case over to the federal police in January 2008. The agency said it waited until Aug. 20 to launch an investigation and notified the journalists' families Tuesday.

If sufficient evidence of criminal acts is found, the police will ask the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to consider charges.

The announcement of the police investigation comes one month after the release of the film "Balibo," which depicts the journalists being shot on the orders of Indonesian army officers. The film will be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend.