INDONESIA BANS SCREENING OF THE FILM BALIBO
The following statement was released by Andrew Alcock, the Information Officer of the Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA Inc last night:
“It should come as no surprise to learn that Indonesian authorities are planning to ban the screening of the Australian film Balibo at the coming Jakarta International Film Festival. As a result, the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents’ Club felt it necessary to cancel a planned screening of the film.
Balibo tells the story of the Balibo 5, a group of Australian-based journalists who were murdered by the Indonesian military (TNI) on 16 October 1975 at Balibo and Roger East who was also murdered by the TNI in December 1975 in Dili during the early days of Indonesia’s illegal invasion of East Timor.
Australian Indonesian apologists have claimed for some time that since the demise of Suharto that Indonesia is a democratic country.
This latest move by Indonesian authorities is an indication that the Indonesian republic has a long way to go before it can be described as a democratic nation. The Indonesian government needs to allow much more freedom for its citizens and needs to have greater control over the TNI before it earns this description.
In addition, no country can claim to be a democracy when it continues to allow war criminals in its armed forces who have committed genocide and sickening human rights abuses to be free without facing justice.
Over the past four decades these officers have committed such crimes in West Papua, East Timor, Acheh and some parts of Indonesia itself. Some of them are still violating human rights in West Papua today.
One of the worst violaters of human rights was General Wiranto and he was allowed to openly participate in the 2009 Indonesian presidential elections.
Responsible governments of democratic nations should cease all military cooperation and supply of arms the TNI and only resume these activities when:
* all the war criminals in its ranks have been brought to justice
* monies taken corruptly by the Suharto family and the TNI have been recovered and used to pay reparations to their victims
* the Indonesian government has paid reparations to those countries in the region for the damage that the TNI has caused
* TNI troops in West Papua are withdrawn and the people be allowed to have a UN administered independence referendum
If the Indonesian Government refuses to cooperate, these matters should be dealt with in the International Criminal Court as many of the crimes rival those committed by the Nazis during World War 2 and the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.
There are many Indonesian citizens who want these actions to be taken because they too have suffered at the hands of the TNI. It should be When the Australian Federal Police recently announced it would investigate the events in in 1975 Balibo to determine whether war crimes had been committed, KONTRAS, an Indonesian human rights group welcomed the initiative”
Andrew (Andy) Alcock
AETFA SA Inc
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