Author(s): Jill Jolliffe

Politics

Balibo provides a unique account of the deaths of the five young television reporters who were killed by the Indonesian military as they filmed the advance of Indonesian infantry troops into the East Timor border town of Balibo in October 1975. This book tells their personal stories, and of their families' heart-breaking struggle for the truth. Jill Jolliffe argues that the Australian government was always aware of the circumstances of the killings, and that its cover-up was a key factor in Indonesia's decision to invade and occupy East Timor, and its subsequent long reign of terror. The author's quest to identify and indict the Balibo killers is intertwined with East Timor's recent tragic history. In following their trail, she uncovers evidence of another massacre in which hundreds of innocent villagers were machine-gunned years later. Part memoir, part history, this book is as much an investigation of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor as it is a case study of the Balibo killings.