BLOOD ON WHOSE HANDS?

Australian diplomats in Jakarta and Canberra or Australian defence intelligence operatives? Senior ministers in the Whitlam government or senior public servants?

At first light on 16 October 1975, Indonesian special forces stormed the East Timor village of Balibo, killing five newsmen. A quarter of a century later, the fate of these unarmed civilians continues to nag at consciences in Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

Did highly-placed Australians secretly 'sign off' on Indonesia's plan to invade its neighbour? Did they know that the newsmen were targets? Did they choose to leave these young men to the mercy of the Indonesian Army?

In this book, a long-term analyst of Indonesian defence and foreign policy and a world-renowned expert on military intelligence uncover what Canberra has been hiding.

Here is a story that follows a trail of cover-ups and denials which reaches from Australia's capital to Jakarta... to five corpses in a small village in East Timor.

'A thoroughly researched indictment against successive Australian governments and the senior bureaucrats and intelligence elite of Australia, for connivance in the Indonesian invasion of East Timor and for a quarter century of cover up.'

--The Hon. Justice John Dowd AO, President, Australian Section, International Commission of Jurists

'This is an account of how the Australian secret intelligence community and pliant politicians conspired to suppress the truth about the murder of five TV journalists in Timor on 1975. Long overdue, convincing, restrained and truly shocking, it is a 'must read' for anyone concerned about the future of open government.'

-- Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty, a history of war correspondents.

Desmond Ball