Summary heading

CRS A11683 – Tape recordings of interviews with East Timorese witnesses concerning the deaths of Australian based journalists in 1975. 

Function and purpose

This series consists of multiple copies of recorded interviews with East Timorese officials and eyewitnesses about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of five Australian journalists at Balibo, East Timor in October 1975. The series also contains a file of partial transcripts of these interviews.

Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie and Gary Cunningham (the ‘Balibo Five’) were killed on 16 October 1975 when Indonesian military and pro-Indonesian East Timorese militia forces attacked FRETILIN positions in the East Timorese border town of Balibo. The journalists were in then Portuguese Timor covering the violent struggle for power between rival Timorese factions.

According to the official Indonesian version of events, the journalists were killed when the ‘Chinese House’ in Balibo was hit by mortar fire during an anti-FRETILIN (UDT / APODETI / KOTA) militia force attack on the town. FRETILIN fighters were said to have been in the building when it was targeted.

The deaths immediately attracted considerable media attention in Australia, and remained an emotive issue thereafter. In the late 1990s, the incident was subject to two official Australian inquiries, with the Second Sherman Inquiry concluding that the journalists had ‘more likely than not’ been killed by Indonesian soldiers during the attack on the town (1).

Department of Foreign Affairs officers made four of the five interviews in this series during 1976 investigations into the killings. Three were recorded by an investigative team of diplomats from the Australian Embassy in Jakarta (Allan Taylor, Colin Rutter and Richard Johnson) which visited East Timor twice in April and May 1976:

First visit to Balibo (29 April 1976):

·         Interview with Lopez da Cruz (Vice President of the Provisional Government of East Timor); Tomas Goncalves (APODETI commander at Balibo on 16 October 1975); Joao Tavares [‘Mr Travares’] (UDT Commander at Balibo on 16 October 1975) and other local officials.

Second Visit to Bailbo (9 May 1976):

·         Interview with the Liurai (Raja) of Atsabe (Chairman of the Advisory Council of East Timor), his son Tomas Goncalves and Joao Tavares,

Visit to Atambua, West Timor (9 May 1976):

·         Interview with Lay Kam Nhag (owner of the building in which the ‘Balibo Five’ died).

These three recorded interviews do not cover all of the discussions the diplomats had in East Timor, and the associated transcripts are of the English language portions of the interviews only (2). The interviews, along with photographs, documents and other material formed the basis of their report, which became known as the ‘Taylor Report’.

The fourth interview recorded by a Departmental officer was between Geoffrey Price, Assistant Secretary, Consular and Immigration Branch and Jose Celestino Martins in Melbourne on 10 May 1976. Martins was a former leader of KOTA who claimed to be in and around Balibo on the day of the attack, and contradicted the Indonesian version of events. He had been brought to Australia by the Australian Journalists’ Association (AJA) as part of its campaign for a judicial inquiry into the deaths.

The fifth recording is of an interview between Guido dos Santos and journalists Tony Maniaty and Jill Jolliffe and former diplomat James Dunn. Santos was one of the last FRETILIN fighters to retreat from Balibo on the day of the attack, and reported having witnessed the death of one of the journalists. This interview was recorded in Dili in late October 1975 (3). Solicitors acting for the AJA forwarded a copy to the Department of Foreign Affairs on 11 May 1976 (4).

The file of transcripts (item 16 in the series) contains copies of transcripts of the five interviews. The transcripts of the Balibo and Atambua interviews are only partial, since they cover only the English language portions of the tapes. 

Using the series

There are multiple copies of each interview in the series, recorded to different media. All five interviews were originally recorded onto cassette tape and later copied onto 17.5 cm reels. In 2000, DFAT had the interviews Balibo, Atambua and Jose Martins interviews copied again, this time to compact disc. Later, the NAA made reference copy CDs of all the tapes and reels that had been transferred.

The cassette tapes and 17.5 cm reels cannot be issued to the Reading Room because of preservation considerations. The CD copies made by DFAT are available for public access in Canberra, while the NAA reference copy set is held in Sydney. The table below gives the item numbers for the various copies of each interview:

Interview	Cassette Tape	17.5 cm reels	DFAT CDs	NAA Reference Copy CDs
Lopez da Cruz, Thomas Goncalves and Joao Tavares (Balibo, 29 April 1976)	A11683, 1 A11683, 2 (part)	A11683, 12	A11683, 17 A11683, 18	A11683, 1 A11683, 2 A11683, 12 Part 1
Raja of Atsabe, Lopez da Cruz, Thomas Goncalves and Joao Tavares (Balibo, 9 May 1976)	A11683, 2 (part) A11683, 5 (part)	A11683, 12	A11683, 19 A11683, 20 A11683, 21 (part)	A11683, 4 Part 1 A11683, 4 Part 2 A11683, 5 (Part) A11683, 12 Part 3 A11683, 12 Part 4
Lay Kam Nhag (Atambua, 9 May 1976)	A11683, 5	A11683, 13	A11683, 21 (part)	A11683, 5 (part) A11683, 13
Jose Celistino Martins (Melbourne 10 May 1976)	A11683, 9	A11683, 14	A11683, 22 A11683, 23	A11683, 14 Part 1 A11683, 14 Part 2
Guido dos Santos (Dili, 27 October 1975)	A11683, 10	A11683, 15 (?)	Not applicable	A11683, 10 A11683, 15

 

The file of transcripts (item 16) is held in Canberra.

Language of material

Except for the Jose Martins interview, which was conducted largely in English, the interviews were conducted through interpreters using Portuguese, Tetum or a mixture of both languages. The interpreter for the interview in Balibo on April 29 1976 was Lopez da Cruz. Mario Carrascalao (later Governor of East Timor) acted as interpreter in Balibo on 9 May 1976, while the son of Lay Kam Nhag did so for the interview in Atambua.

Physical characteristics

As mentioned above, copies of the audio recordings are in three different formats: cassette tape, 17.5 cm reels and compact disc.  

System of arrangement and control

A single number system was imposed on the series by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade prior to transfer.

Relationships with other records

The transcripts that are contained in item [16] are copies of those found on CRS A1838, 3038/10/12/4 Parts 2 and 3.

This series contains audiovisual formats. As audiovisual formats are either redundant or susceptible to deterioration, some items in this series have been copied to ensure their preservation. Preservation copying involves the creation of preservation, duplicating and reference copies. These copies can be found in the following series:

Preservation copies: C5476, Audio preservation copies of A11683, Tape recordings and transcripts of interviews with East Timorese witnesses concerning the death of Australian based journalists in 1975

Duplicating copies: C5477, Audio duplicating copies of A11683, Tape recordings and transcripts of interviews with East Timorese witnesses concerning the death of Australian based journalists in 1975

Reference copies: C5478, Audio reference copies of A11683, Tape recordings and transcripts of interviews with East Timorese concerning the deaths of Australian based journalists in 1975

Series history

The series was transferred to NAA from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in August 2000. The series was part of the accelerated release of documents relating to the Indonesian incorporation of Portuguese Timor covering the period from 25 April 1975 to 17 July 1976. This was authorised by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade under s. 56(1) of the Archives Act 1983.

Subsequent to transfer, the audio material in the series was transferred to the National Archives’ Sydney repository for special storage with the audio-visual collection. Reference copy CDs of the tapes and reels were made at this time.  

The DFAT set of CD copies of the Balibo, Atambua and Jose Martins interviews were never formally transferred, but apparently came into custody at the time of the accelerated release. The items were housed in a security vault and made accessible to researchers. These items were registered as part of the series in December 2005 and assigned the control symbols [17] – [23].

Custodial history

The following is known about the custodial history of items in the series prior to transfer into NAA custody. The Australian Embassy in Jakarta forwarded three cassette tapes containing the interviews recorded in Balibo and Atambua, along with transcripts of the English language portions of the tapes, photographs and other documents relating to the ‘Taylor Report’ to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra in late May 1976 (5). The transcripts (along with those of other interviews in the series) were then filed on CRS A1838, 3038/10/12/4 Parts 2 and 3. It is possible the tapes, like the photographs received at the same time, were retained in the Indonesia Section of the Department (6). Further tapes and audio material were forwarded to the Department from the Jakarta Embassy on 31 July 1984. One A4 envelope labelled ‘The Balibo Tapes’ appears to have contained 17.5 cm reels; the other smaller envelope labelled ‘Balibo Affair – Original Cassettes’ apparently contained two piles of cassettes (7).

The series was actually assembled by the Historical Records Unit of DFAT around June 2000 during preparations for the accelerated release of documents relating to the Indonesian incorporation of Portuguese Timor. The file of transcripts was assembled at this time, as evidenced by the following notation on the front cover: ‘Removed from A1838. 3038/10/12/4 P3 & 4 by E Nathan, 2/6/2000 (Elizabeth Nathan was in charge of the Historical Records Unit)’ The DFAT CD copies of the Balibo, Atambua and Jose Martins interviews were made at this time by ScreenSound Australia. 

Quantity in agency custody

 

Disposal history

The items in this series are subject to a disposal freeze.  

Publication note

DFAT published many of the documents on the Indonesian incorporation of Portuguese Timor released under the accelerated release provisions of the Archives Act 1983 in book form: Wendy Way (Ed), Australia and the Indonesian Incorporation of Portuguese Timor, 1974 – 1976 (Carlton, 2000). 

End notes

(1)   Tom Sherman, Second Report on the Deaths of Australian-based Journalists in East Timor in 1975 (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 1999), p. 141.

(2)   Inward cablegram from Ambassador Woolcott, Jakarta to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Canberra 13 May 1976. CRS A1838/406, 1520/54/1/2 Part 3 and Letter AR Taylor, Australian Embassy in Jakarta to the Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs, Canberra, 26 May 1976. CRS A1838/319, 3038/10/12/4 Part 4.

(3)   Jill Jolliffe, Cover Up: The Inside Story of the Balibo Five (Melbourne, 2001), pp. 81-82. 

(4)   Letter from Gair and Brahe Solicitors, Melbourne to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, 11 May 1976. CRS A1838/319, 3038/10/12/4 Part 4.

(5)   Letter, AR Taylor, Australian Embassy in Jakarta to The Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs, Canberra, 26 May 1976.

     CRS A1838/319, 3038/10/12/4 Part 4.

(6) See series note for A11692 - Colour photographic negatives and contact prints of East Timor, two number series

(7) NAA Series File for CRS A11683.

Sources