What a Week for East Timor

Ten years on from Independence the bike race, concert and ceremonies this week celebrate the world's youngest country. There's between 40-80% unemployment but also slowly improving economics and increased security and policing [since the attempted assasination of Jose Ramos Horta 18 months ago]!!

Australia played it tough with oil and gas contracts early on but hopefully the resource rich little territory can begin to benefit from it's resources and move beyond the pain and disappointment of the world's inaction at the time of the Indonesian invasion in 1975.

Take a sobering moment this week if you catch any of the celebratory footage and get yourself to the cinema to watch "Balibo."

I wasn't quite aware enough in those years [Year 8 but not very worldly aware] of the 5 Aussie journalists and the editor who were killed by the Indonesians as it's supected they had captured footage of the invasion in progress from their Balibo base. The house they shared had a painted Aussie flag on the wall. It was painted by Greg Shackleton who we heard about when he disappeared and were reminded of ocassionally when in later years his wife, Shirley appeared on a weekly kids TV show doing craft and then popped up on other peograms to share the unknown part of her background.

The film is distressing but significant and is a story which must be told. It's framed in the film as part of a young woman's sharing with the 'truth and reconciliation' processes undertaken in East Timor.

Anthony LaPaglia plays ABC correspondent Roger East who is drawn to East Timor by a young Horta and who is determined to explore what happened to the five journo's but ends up in the firing line in the 'Dili massacre.'

There are some very human and very real characters and a touch of humour in this otherwise sad but important story. Make sure that the framing of the film reminds you that while 6 Aussie journos lost their lives, it was part of an intervention where thousands of East Timorese were killed and held under miltary rule from then until 1999.

The whole story is a follow on from the so called Western New Guinea "act of free choice" or vote against independence from 1969 and characterised the miltary rule of Indonesia in various territories of the region. Like the film, these stories need to be told in the interests of truth and reconciliation.

"Act of Free Choice" is the title of a David Bridie album where the mood of the music is all about who we are as societies and countries, our values, how we treat each other and captures the emotions of such history reflectively.