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Cover-Up: The Inside Story of the Balibo Five
This provocative book reveals the previously hidden details of one of the most shameful episodes in Australia's history, providing a firsthand account of the deaths of five young television reporters killed by the Indonesian military in the East Timor border town of Balibo in 1975. The reporters died as they filmed the advance of Indonesian troops into the town. Cover Up tells their personal stories and of their families' heartbreaking struggle for the truth. It 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. Part memoir, part history, this searing book is as much an investigation of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor as it is a case study of the Balibo killings.
510 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 13, 2016
Journalism by Jolliffe of the highest order. In the modern world pretend media such as the Murdoch press will not report the truth unless it is their truth. Sad that this book exposes the appalling decisions by western governments, with specific reference to Australia, and the lack of interest by the media to the abysmal treatment of East Timor by Indonesia.
June 16, 2017
At times, I was sure that I was going to give this book 2 stars. It can often be too detailed, too interested in the minutiae, for someone who has watched the film and is just interested in getting to know a little bit more. Many scenes or points are revisited again and again from different perspectives, again and again and again. And again. I get it: this is a book of revelation, finally unearthing the truth - and therefore the facts really need to be got at. And different witnesses and their accounts are going to get you there. Maybe it was just me, but I found myself just wanting to get moving on.
The deaths of the five reporters in East Timor, as well as the killing of Roger East, is obviously horrific but I also found myself, after a hundred pages or so, equally as (or more) inquisitive about the 183,000 people who were killed by the Indonesian forces and the further 10,000 who were tortured. I mean, this is insanely horrific, especially given that this was happening so close to the north of Australia and only two or three decades ago. The piles of bodies of nearly 200 - children, elderly, families - who were just gunned down by a river and left to rot... these are things that I really wanted to know more about. While Jill Jolliffe does get into this stuff, it's always in the shadow of the larger interest of the five reporters that were killed. I suppose it's the same the world over. Literally thousands are starving to death in the world right now, but the death of someone who belongs to a first world country is closer to us, invades our world, penetrates through our barriers of denial, and so it screams far louder. I don't blame Jill Jolliffe for the primary focus of this book, though. The crimes were horrific. I just find it hard to balance 200 pages of endlessly, forensically analysing the probable way they died, and then one or two pages on literally thousands of innocent civilians who were brutally killed, for example forcing a pregnant woman to dig her own grave before shooting and killing her. I guess it's a larger problem that I'm bringing up.
Jill Jolliffe has certainly done an outstanding job; she's been following the story since it began in 1975 and has clearly gone through a great deal, risking her life numerous times and dealing with the pressures of potentially risking the lives of others. You've got to be a seriously indefatigable beast to do what she's done, so I do doff my hat. By the end of the book, I fully realised its importance. This is as much about how the government operates - what it chooses to admit and release, its own economic interests when it comes to war, etc. - than it is about the death of the five journalists and Roger East. Always question the government, the "facts" as they are presented to us. Never swallow them. Always know that someone, somewhere, is in a horrific situation and the cheese burgers in charge of the top governments in the world are probably psychopathic and don't care if ignoring it is advantageous to them.
Right, now for something light to read. Or maybe an episode of X-Files.
The deaths of the five reporters in East Timor, as well as the killing of Roger East, is obviously horrific but I also found myself, after a hundred pages or so, equally as (or more) inquisitive about the 183,000 people who were killed by the Indonesian forces and the further 10,000 who were tortured. I mean, this is insanely horrific, especially given that this was happening so close to the north of Australia and only two or three decades ago. The piles of bodies of nearly 200 - children, elderly, families - who were just gunned down by a river and left to rot... these are things that I really wanted to know more about. While Jill Jolliffe does get into this stuff, it's always in the shadow of the larger interest of the five reporters that were killed. I suppose it's the same the world over. Literally thousands are starving to death in the world right now, but the death of someone who belongs to a first world country is closer to us, invades our world, penetrates through our barriers of denial, and so it screams far louder. I don't blame Jill Jolliffe for the primary focus of this book, though. The crimes were horrific. I just find it hard to balance 200 pages of endlessly, forensically analysing the probable way they died, and then one or two pages on literally thousands of innocent civilians who were brutally killed, for example forcing a pregnant woman to dig her own grave before shooting and killing her. I guess it's a larger problem that I'm bringing up.
Jill Jolliffe has certainly done an outstanding job; she's been following the story since it began in 1975 and has clearly gone through a great deal, risking her life numerous times and dealing with the pressures of potentially risking the lives of others. You've got to be a seriously indefatigable beast to do what she's done, so I do doff my hat. By the end of the book, I fully realised its importance. This is as much about how the government operates - what it chooses to admit and release, its own economic interests when it comes to war, etc. - than it is about the death of the five journalists and Roger East. Always question the government, the "facts" as they are presented to us. Never swallow them. Always know that someone, somewhere, is in a horrific situation and the cheese burgers in charge of the top governments in the world are probably psychopathic and don't care if ignoring it is advantageous to them.
Right, now for something light to read. Or maybe an episode of X-Files.
November 10, 2017
Balibo should be mandatory reading for students of Australian history, and in particular, our political history. Jolliffe’s detailed account was revised and re-released to coincide with the screening of an Australian movie of the same name. It covers the political unrest in East Timor during Portuguese decolonisation, alongside a detailed investigation of the murder of the Balibo Five; Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham, and Tony Stewart of Channel Seven, and Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie of Channel Nine by Indonesian troops in Balibo, and the execution of an Australian freelance journalist, Roger East, in the following months.
The narrative is a searing indictment of the Australian government. Although Gough Whitlam’s government, and Whitlam himself, appear to have turned a blind eye to Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor (with oil as the final prize), and helped cover up information about the fate of the Balibo Five, every Australian government in office since the events in 1975 has followed the same policy. After years of struggle to bring the truth to light, a legal technicality allowed an inquest into Brian Peter’s death to be held at the Glebe Coroner’s Court in 2007. The evidence was strong enough for the killers (one was, by that time, a high-ranking Indonesian official), to be indicted. Despite this, the government remained deaf and blind to the fate of its citizens in East Timor, preferring to apologise to Indonesian Governor Sutiyoso when allegations of torture were made against him at the court.
Balibo is painful reading for an Australian citizen. This book strips away any belief that our government would always put the safety of its own citizens before profit and foreign policy alignments. While government officials may have been able to convince themselves that the Balibo Five died in cross-fire, eye-witness accounts leave no doubt that freelance journalist, Roger East, was dragged from a building with his hands tied behind his back, and along with a large group of Chinese Timorese, shot in the back of the head in reprisal for an earlier attack on Indonesian paratroopers. He was blonde with blue eyes and was heard screaming, “I am not from Fretilin, I am an Australian” before he was shot. It seems highly unlikely that the Indonesians mistook him for a Timorese national. But this book is not only concerned with the six innocent journalists lost in the turmoil in East Timor. It highlights how the Australian government’s initial cover-up paved the way for an Indonesian invasion, wherein thousands of innocent East Timorese were subjected to twenty-four years of military occupation that included massacres, torture and rape.
Obviously, this matter has moved no further since the 2007 inquest. The men indicted, Yunus Yosfiah and Christoforus da Silva, have not been brought to justice, but as Jolliffe points out, “times and regimes change, and when they do the trial of war criminals who previously enjoyed impunity can suddenly be on the agenda.” Until that time, one can only feel immense sympathy for the families of the journalists who died in East Timor, and relief that East Timor, despite all of the odds against it, has attained its independence.
The narrative is a searing indictment of the Australian government. Although Gough Whitlam’s government, and Whitlam himself, appear to have turned a blind eye to Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor (with oil as the final prize), and helped cover up information about the fate of the Balibo Five, every Australian government in office since the events in 1975 has followed the same policy. After years of struggle to bring the truth to light, a legal technicality allowed an inquest into Brian Peter’s death to be held at the Glebe Coroner’s Court in 2007. The evidence was strong enough for the killers (one was, by that time, a high-ranking Indonesian official), to be indicted. Despite this, the government remained deaf and blind to the fate of its citizens in East Timor, preferring to apologise to Indonesian Governor Sutiyoso when allegations of torture were made against him at the court.
Balibo is painful reading for an Australian citizen. This book strips away any belief that our government would always put the safety of its own citizens before profit and foreign policy alignments. While government officials may have been able to convince themselves that the Balibo Five died in cross-fire, eye-witness accounts leave no doubt that freelance journalist, Roger East, was dragged from a building with his hands tied behind his back, and along with a large group of Chinese Timorese, shot in the back of the head in reprisal for an earlier attack on Indonesian paratroopers. He was blonde with blue eyes and was heard screaming, “I am not from Fretilin, I am an Australian” before he was shot. It seems highly unlikely that the Indonesians mistook him for a Timorese national. But this book is not only concerned with the six innocent journalists lost in the turmoil in East Timor. It highlights how the Australian government’s initial cover-up paved the way for an Indonesian invasion, wherein thousands of innocent East Timorese were subjected to twenty-four years of military occupation that included massacres, torture and rape.
Obviously, this matter has moved no further since the 2007 inquest. The men indicted, Yunus Yosfiah and Christoforus da Silva, have not been brought to justice, but as Jolliffe points out, “times and regimes change, and when they do the trial of war criminals who previously enjoyed impunity can suddenly be on the agenda.” Until that time, one can only feel immense sympathy for the families of the journalists who died in East Timor, and relief that East Timor, despite all of the odds against it, has attained its independence.
November 13, 2009
In this era of Fox News and infotainment, it is easy to wonder where the 'real' journalists have gone - those who seek and report the truth no matter what the cost to themselves or those they report on. Jill Jolliffe has devoted over thirty years of her life to covering the crisis in East Timor, and in doing so also trying to uncover the true story behind the execution of six of her contemporaries - those who came to be known as 'The Balibo Five', and Roger East, another journo who went to investigate their deaths a few months after they occurred. What followed was a cover-up of epic proportions - which went all the way to the Australian Parliament.
East Timor has a long history of death and oppression, and the story of the Balibo Five is just one of many it shares. The fact that the Australian government was complicit in a cover-up in order to protect its own interests is a continuing injustice, and a dark moment of our history.
This is a must-read.
East Timor has a long history of death and oppression, and the story of the Balibo Five is just one of many it shares. The fact that the Australian government was complicit in a cover-up in order to protect its own interests is a continuing injustice, and a dark moment of our history.
This is a must-read.
July 1, 2019
This book was the culmination of Jolliffe's 25 years of exhaustive reporting and interviews as a journalist. I can't say enough about her dedication to investigating and reporting the truth - triangulating testimony and pointing out inconsistencies. This was chock full of details of which I took many pages of notes. Truly an educational text of the political history of Australia, Indonesia and East Timor from 1975-2001 and the horrifying circumstances of the Indonesian occupation.
My only regret is that I read the original edition, Cover-Up, as I couldn't get hold of a copy of the updated 2009 Balibo version in the US where it's sadly under-circulated. So I'm left wondering what's transpired with the UN investigations in those years (but alas there's the internet). Extremely well done book.
My only regret is that I read the original edition, Cover-Up, as I couldn't get hold of a copy of the updated 2009 Balibo version in the US where it's sadly under-circulated. So I'm left wondering what's transpired with the UN investigations in those years (but alas there's the internet). Extremely well done book.
February 16, 2012
Probably more 3.5 stars than 4. This is a really detailed book. Amazingly well researched by someone very familiar with the case. My complaints would be that I think the author is too close to the subject.
She was in Timor at the time of the first killing (nearly went to Balibo with the victims) as well as the murder of Roger East. She is obviously very upset and angry at what happened, rightly so of course, and while I don't doubt her facts I found her obvious passion a little jarring.
If this had been a memoir her emotional attachment to the case would have been great but this is meant to be an exposé and emotion should be put aside. I also think for a book originally called Cover Up (this version was added to, renamed & released to coincide with the movie) she didn't spend a lot of time proving the Australian government's complicity.
I would still recommend it and the movie.
She was in Timor at the time of the first killing (nearly went to Balibo with the victims) as well as the murder of Roger East. She is obviously very upset and angry at what happened, rightly so of course, and while I don't doubt her facts I found her obvious passion a little jarring.
If this had been a memoir her emotional attachment to the case would have been great but this is meant to be an exposé and emotion should be put aside. I also think for a book originally called Cover Up (this version was added to, renamed & released to coincide with the movie) she didn't spend a lot of time proving the Australian government's complicity.
I would still recommend it and the movie.
August 12, 2011
Tenaciously researched and painstakingly detailed account of the Indonesian military's murders of Australia's "Balibo 5" and Roger East in East Timor, and the decades of cover-ups that ensued. Jolliffe closes in on the truth by talking to everyone she can, then testing and triangulating the many, slightly contradictory, reports from eyewitnesses. You have to hope that where the book ends -- with the likely killers identified, but walking free -- is not the final chapter of this story.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews