John Milkins
BALIBO – The family victim of the five journalist
(The Balibo Five) who assinated by the Indonesian special forces on October 16,
1975 in Balibo are still seeking justice, because it is nearly 42 years but no
any justice for them.
John
Milkins, son of Channel 7 cameraman Gary Cunningham, who was among the Balibo
Five, considering their death is still a tragedy for the family but acknowledge that the most
suffering is the people of Timor – Leste especially for those who lost their
family members during the Indonesian time.
“So
we feel part of the much bigger picture, I’m feel connected to the people of
Timor – Leste that lost their mothers, brothers, sisters and sons, daughters
all of their family. We always be connected,” Milkins told Timor Post in
Balibo, Tuesday (02/05/2017).
Milkins
added, their visit
to Balibo is not every year but depends on their time. They spend a lot of time
working in Australia to support The Balibo Trust.
John Milkins, son of Channel 7
cameraman Gary Cunningham with his son Bet Milkins in Balibo.“We
come to visit when we can. Mostly we try working in Australia to support Balibo
House Trust, I am the secretary of the Balibo House Trust and support the
Balibo Community learning center on board…come stay here at Balibo Hotel and to
see the progress that the community making. It’s amazing that how much the
progress are they have made,” he says.
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Balibo Five
(L-R): Gary Cunningham, Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Greg Shackleton and Tony
Stewart. Credit: MEAA.
Milkins
explain, when he visit Balibo he feels, because it’s about the connection and
it’s about looking toward the future, it’s about sharing a positive future with
the people of Balibo and all of us have a better future if we are working
together. So this work with the community in Balibo is very much focus on
looking forwards.
“As
families we still want answers, and Australian government refuse us to tell us
what they know and I remind, very disappointed and angry about that”.
“They
hiding the truth and I think we want to know the truth and many Timorese said
to us your family were martyrs and the government should tell the truth about
that”.
Due
to the world press freedom day, he says it is important to have a free and an
independent press in any countrys it is a sign of a democracy and the sign they
can be trust in the way the countries organize. The politician need to be hold
to account to the political promises they make in elections, but it is two ways
relationship the press mass must be unbias and independent.
“They
must be able to write what they observe, not they feel but they must be able
write independently free. That is the fundamental. Access to unbias
independente information I think is a cornestone of democracy. So this is
should be a free press”.
Younger
brother of Gary Cunningham says, he first came in 2003 for the opening the Flag
House and then in 2009 and 2015.
“But
today is the most important because here is extended family and it is nice for
those who has not been here before to experience the emotion, the feeling and
the lovely in this place and the special for the local Balibo people,” Greig
says.
Balibo Five families (L – R): Ben Milikins, Greig Cunningham, Ann
Cunningham, John Milkins and Heather Norman in Balibo. Photo/Raimundos Oki
Greig
Cunningham explains, it is positive, you have to be and also so many changes
over the years. So it’s improve dramatically part most of the road here but
just even the facilities in Balibo in 2003 it was … Balibo is nothing.
“It
is excited thing the other part my brother died here but it is not a negative
thing. Something you have to reinforce remember him but also look forward, look
for the people here what we do,” he says.
Related
to the international press freedom day, he says it is an important day because
all over the world recently press freedom is been cutback and this happening
here in Timor and even in civilize country like in Australia.
On October 16,
1975, five young journalists working for Australia’s Seven and Nine networks,
reporter Greg Shackleton, camera operator Gary Cunningham, sound recordist Tony
Stewart (all from Seven), reporter Malcolm Rennie and camera operator Brian
Peters (both from Nine), were brutally murdered in the town of Balibo, just 10
kilometers from the Indonesia-East Timor border. The Balibo Five as they have
come to be collectively known as were killed by Indonesian military troops
after witnessing an incursion by Indonesian soldiers.
In 2009, the AFP
announced that it would conduct a war crimes investigation into the deaths of
the Balibo Five. This came after the NSW Deputy Coroner Dorelle Pinch’s 2007
inquest into Brian Peter’s death had found that Peter’s, in company with the
other slain journalists, had “died at Balibo in Timor Leste on 16 October 1975
from wounds sustained when he was shot and/or stabbed deliberately, and not in
the heat of battle, by members of the Indonesian Special Forces, including
Christoforus da Silva and Captain Yunus Yosfiah on the orders of Captain
Yosfiah, to prevent him from revealing that Indonesian Special Forces had
participated in the attack on Balibo. There is strong circumstantial evidence
that those orders emanated from the Head of the Indonesian Special Forces,
Major-General Benny Murdani.” Today, no one has been held responsible for the
murders. (oki)
A version of this article appears in print on April 30, 2017, on page 1 of the Timor Post edition with the headline:
Kazu Balibo Five
John Milkins: Ami hakarak hatene lia loos.
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