ABC Home Radio TV News Local Environment More Subjects… Shop Search the ABC NewsRadio Now playing: Continuous news, finance, s Listen: Win Real Video Audio Photos Podcasts/RSS Email News Home Just In Australia World Business Entertainment Weather Sport The Drum Blogs Hot tags: australia, government-and-politics, sport, law-crime-and-justice, qld, courts-and-trials, environment, sa, adelaide-5000, business-economics-and-finance Print Email Share Add to My Stories Balibo Five were killed deliberately: soldier By Gavin Fang for AM Posted Mon Dec 7, 2009 6:47pm AEDT Search Updated Tue Dec 8, 2009 8:54am AEDT Slideshow: Photo 1 of 3 A former Indonesian soldier has come MY TAGS Help forward with new evidence about the environment killing of the Balibo Five, suggesting they government-and-politics were shot deliberately but not executed. health Gatot Purwanto says he decided to give his indigenous version of events after watching the offbeat controversial Australian movie Balibo, which science-and-technology depicts the newsmen being killed by Add Tag Page links here to Indonesian soldiers. follow news categories important to you. The now-retired soldier's story differs from Gatot Purwanto decided to give his version of events after watching the controversial movie View all tags | Tag cloud both the official Indonesian line - that the men were killed in crossfire - and the Video: Balibo Five widow on execution findings of an Australian coronial inquest. claims (ABC News Breakfast) MY STORIES Help Bookmark stories, video and Robert Connolly's movie Balibo is banned in Video: Balibo Five 'killed to stop news' (ABC News Breakfast) audio clips you may want to Indonesia, but last Thursday the country's access later. Independent Journalists Alliance decided to Video: Balibo five deliberately killed: screen it anyway. soldier (ABC News) In the crowd that night was Mr Purwanto, Audio: New account of Balibo five deaths (AM) who had more than a passing interest in the events in East Timor more than three Related Story: Indonesia slams Balibo as decades ago. propaganda The former Special Forces soldier was at Related Story: Indonesia bans Aussie film Balibo the day the five newsmen were killed. Related Story: AFP launches Balibo war crimes probe He says he was about 30 metres away when Indonesian soldiers fired on the Related Story: Federal Government 'failing' house the men were sheltering in. Balibo Five "We knew they were foreigners, but we Related Link: Special coverage: Actor LaPaglia pushes for Balibo action didn't think about whether they were journalists or not, because in a battle, the instinct is if they're not friends, then they could kill us," he said. The now 62-year-old says he was with Special Forces captain Yunus Yosfiah when the Balibo Five were spotted. A coronial inquest into the deaths of the men found Mr Yosfiah, who was later an Indonesian Government minister, ordered the killings. Awaiting orders Mr Purwanto disputes there was any order to execute the newsmen. He says the soldiers were still waiting for orders from Jakarta when the shooting happened. But in his version of events, Indonesian soldiers were well aware of who they were shooting at, although he claims they only fired after they were provoked. "After we surrounded them there were shots coming from their direction, so our people shot back," he said. Mr Purwanto says after the shooting the soldiers decided to burn the bodies of the newsmen to conceal what had happened. He says Indonesian soldiers did not want news leaking out about their invasion of East Timor. Doubts remain But Shirley Shackleton, the widow of one of the men killed at Balibo, says Mr Purwanto's version does not add up. Ms Shackleton says she still believes her husband Greg and the other men were executed on orders from Jakarta. "He (Mr Purwanto) says on the one hand they didn't die in crossfire, but then later on he says 'Oh we shot them because shots came from behind them', but there was no-one there shooting," she said. "He's curious. He seems to be trying to clear his conscience. I'm only supposing that, but at the same time he is trying to stick to the old story. He's just not saying crossfire." Despite the new claims, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah says the killings are best left in the past. "Well this is the account from one eyewitness. The Government has already said in the past that this is a case which has been closed," he said. Ms Shackleton says she will now be calling on the Australian Federal Police to question Mr Purwanto as part of the war crimes investigation into the killing of the newsmen. Tags: death, government-and-politics, foreign-affairs, information-and-communication, journalism, unrest-conflict-and-war, australia, east-timor, indonesia ARTS FEATURE WATCH Classic unearthed Panda dilemma Climate snapshots An antiques roadshow Jason Om tries to find out if Miner Jeff Drayton says through Tasmania has Wang Wang is just plain W he's hopeful the mining unearthed a painting by (r)ong W(r)ong. industry can afford to cut Australian artist Arthur its gas emissions. Streeton. 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Balibo film banned in Indonesia ALL ABOUT PODCASTING Geoff Thompson reported this story on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 12:29:00 ALL SPECIALS ELEANOR HALL: To Indonesia where the Government has banned the screening of the Australian movie Balibo. ALTERNATE WMA VERSION | MP3 DOWNLOAD The film about the death of five Australian journalists in East Timor, allegedly at the hands of the Indonesian military, was scheduled to be screened in Jakarta last night. MORE TO ADD? ALERT US » PRINT THIS STORY » Not only did the Government ban this screening but it has also informed the city's international film festival that it doesn't have permission to EMAIL A FRIEND show the movie next week. » Indonesia correspondent Geoff Thompson has more. more TOP STORIES JUST IN (Excerpt from film Balibo) Indonesia pursues people smuggling laws FILM EXCERPT: There were these five young journalists gone Man set alight by ex, court told missing... Test selectors keep faith for Perth GEOFF THOMPSON: It happened 35 years ago but still it seems Indonesia cannot stomach a film which makes the much-supported allegation that the journalists known as the Balibo-five were not killed in a crossfire but deliberately executed by the Indonesian military. AM Jakarta's Foreign Correspondents Club had planned to show the film last night, using a subtitled copy provided by Balibo's producers. However PM at the last minute, word was received that Indonesia's Film Censorship THE WORLD TODAY Agency planned to ban film. Based on legal advice the JFCC decided CORRESPONDENTS REPORT against showing the movie, says the club's president Jason Tedjasukmana. Program Websites 6 JASON TEDJASUKMANA: They said you'll be violating the law if you do it. It's a public space clearly. It says, you know, it'll be very difficult to defend. We're a non profit organisation without any money. So it's like are we willing to, like, somehow bankrupt this organisation for the sake of a film about, you know, what happened in, you know, it's just the risks and the benefits really don't really add up so we had to just go with this.