Industrial Workers of the World

Two simple words - “I’m Australian” - will take on harrowing new connotations, viewers simultaneously confronted with both their meaning and their futility. Chalk Balibo down as a must-see and take a cold shower afterwards. http://blogs.crikey.com.au/cinetology/2009/07/21/balibo-film-review-a-dynamite-aussie-expose/

We saw Balibo film today. It is set in East Timor where 5 journalists from Oz were murdered by invading Indonesian military in 1975 when they crossed the border of West/East Timor.

It is told mostly from perspective of another Oz journo Roger East who showed up soon after to find out what happened to them and was subsequently murdered too - in Dili by the Kopassus (SAS death squad style dudes) who were parachuted in by Suharto regime with US blessing;

Prez Ford & Kissinger visited Soeharto Inc and day after they departed invasion began... Oz govt of Whitlam and then Fraser etc supplied intelligence to Indon's "anti-commo purge" of East Timor - really Indon's capture of strategic oil and gas resources when Portugal departed its colonies.

In Indonesia the Javanese rule over all the other islanders like English in Britain over Irish, Scottish & Welsh...colonise, imperial expansion, imprison, torture and exploit indigenous land owners take their land. (how unusual ? - NOT ! )

I recommend a viewing to see how the script unfolds - considering the huge subject, it is well told. It is written by the director Robert Connelly and playwright David Williamson based on Jill Jolliffe's book (she evacuated from Dili when the Indonesians invaded).

Film site with related material http://www.balibo.com.au/

The book Cover-up by Jill Jolliffe http://www.scribepublications.com.au/book/balibo more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balibo_Five http://balibohouse.com/ http://www.friendsofbalibo.blogspot.com/ http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/hass/Timor/index.html http://etan.org/news/kissinger/default.htm http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=9266&page=0 http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/netw/200908/programs/RN0811H028D9082009T214000.htm http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/flagfather/default.htm

Roger East? http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/stories/2008/2444721.htm

“There are no secrets that time does not reveal”, recites Australian director Robert Connolly (The Bank, Three Dollars), echoing the words of 16th century French dramatist Jean Racine. Connolly’s latest film, the factual political thriller Balibo, greatly attests to Racine’s wisdom. It brings to the fore a damning piece of Australasian history that, for the last 34 years, the Australian and Indonesian government have desperately attempted to bury. http://cutprintreview.com/features/interviews/robert-connolly-and-damon-gameau-talk-balibo/

COMMENT on BACKGROUND Genocide was attempted by General Suharto on 600,000 to 1 million Indonesian left-wingers in 1966, many of whom were just village union spokespersons. A fake 'left-wing coup' threat was used to spark the mass murders, rapes & stealing of land of those killed.

This was not only known to the British, US and Australian intelligence services and military (but probably aided and abetted by them as well), committed with the deliberate intention of wiping the Indonesian Communist Party (world's 3rd largest after the USSR and China) from the face of the earth.

Despite his recurring tendency to commit mass murder on his own citizens, Suharto was the darling of the West for opening resource-rich Indonesia up eg West Papua gold mine to the foreign exploitation his predecessor Sukarno would not allow. Suharto died peacefully with a billion or two - stolen from the poor - in the bank.

Then US President Ford and Henry Kissinger visited Suharto and the next day the invasion of East Timor began. The Australian Prime Minister at the time Whitlam was either incompetently ignorant or probably just a liar when he claimed he did not know of the fate of the Balibo 5 or Roger East. Whitlam was replaced after a "crisis" of blocked supply bill in the Senate by Malcolm Fraser, appointed by the Governor General Kerr. After winning a Murdoch & Packer media dominated election Fraser was similarly uninterested in East Timor or the Balibo 5 & East.