Liam Bartlett: Balibo 5

The passing of time is a strange thing. We flew from Darwin to Dili, capital of East Timor and then drove for four hours to the tiny, dusty border town of Balibo and, almost 34 years to the day since five Australians were murdered there, it was as if nothing had changed.

Standing in the middle of what the locals call the "Chinese House" you can still see the spray of bullet holes in the walls where the Indonesian soldiers executed three of the Aussie newsmen. Sure, the roof is now missing, either blown off or rotted away and the doors and window shutters have suffered the same fate but it has been left untouched and unused since that horrific morning of October 16, 1975.

From what has been pieced together from witness reports and the 2007 NSW coroner's inquest, we now know that Channel 9 reporter Malcolm Rennie, Channel 7 cameraman Gary Cunningham and his colleague Greg Shackleton were gunned down inside the main room of this building. Gary's surviving brother and sister, Greig and Ann came with us as part of their long and continuing pursuit of justice and I admired them enormously as they confronted the scene of their brother's death. And because time does appear to have stood still in this village, it seems to make it somehow easier to re-live those final moments.

Looking out on the street, it is not hard to imagine Channel 9 cameraman Brian Peters walking towards the gathered Indonesian special forces. Or the youngest of the group, sound recordist Tony Stewart trying to make a run for it out the back, only to be trapped and eventually stabbed to death.

We knew it would be a confronting story to put together and it was. Not for the obvious reason that these men were murdered doing largely the same work we do but more for the inaction of our own government over a crime that would not be tolerated in any other walk of life. Can you imagine for example, a mass murder of 5 people in a suburban home in Brisbane or Melbourne where a coroner later names the killers and eyewitnesses confirm their role and yet the police bring nobody in? Sounds ludicrous doesn't it? Not for the Balibo 5. These murdered Australians have had their human rights cancelled with the stroke of a pen and the use of one word; politics.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the Indonesian government stubbornly hold their line that these men were accidentally killed in crossfire. If it wasn't so serious it would be positively Python-esque. Their official mouthpiece in Jakarta told us we should move on for the sake of good relations as it was a 'long time ago'. Unfortunately for them, there is no statute of limitations on war crimes but then, successive Australian governments since Gough Whitlam have shown no zeal whatsoever in bringing the killers, to justice. Even the timing of the latest Federal police investigation reeks of political pragmatism. Despite having a full brief on the case delivered to the AFP in January last year, it took 18 months to begin a formal war crimes investigation and that just happened to get underway exactly one week after the national release of the movie 'Balibo'.

It remains a national disgrace that there is no will to solve this shocking crime. But we've proved that, despite the passage of 34 years, there's still a way. If those in authority in Canberra are fair dinkum about justice, then finding those who are still alive, to tell the tale first hand, is not that hard. With the help of Jill Jolliffe - an excellent investigative author who wrote the original expose on this sordid tale; 'Cover-Up' - we tracked down a witness to the killings who was less than 3 metres away, in the doorway of the Chinese house when the shooting began. 'Alberto' was a young porter for the Indonesian military at the time, but bravely agreed to be filmed and go public in an effort to send a message to the Australian government and put those responsible behind bars. If dirt-poor but proud people like Alberto have the integrity to speak up, surely we are strong enough to push it all the way to Jakarta.

See Liam Bartlett's full report on the Balibo 5 this Sunday on Nine's 60 Minutes.