Trio sought for 1975 killings of journalists

The UN in East Timor is seeking three arrest warrants

United Nations police are seeking arrest warrants for three men suspected of the murder of two British journalists in East Timor 25 years ago, according to reports.

Television reporter Malcolm Rennie, 28, and cameraman Brian Peters, 29, were killed with three other newsmen as they covered a battle at Balibo on 16 October, 1975.

Mr Rennie, from Renfrewshire, and cameraman Brian Peters, from Bristol, were on assignment for Australia's Channel 9 when they died.

An Australian Government inquiry concurred with the Indonesian authorities who said the men died in crossfire between its troops and East Timorese soldiers.

Indications are that this will proceed as a war crimes charge. There were armed hostilities, and they, the journalists, were civilians

Prosecutor-General in Dili, Mohamed Othman

Among the three being sought for questioning is former Indonesian cabinet minister Mohammad Yunus Yosfiah, who was a special forces captain in 1975.

UN investigators also want to question another Indonesian, Christorus da Silva, and an East Timorese, Domingos Bere, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

If arrested, they could become the first senior Indonesian soldiers to answer war crime charges in East Timor.

Since the overwhelming vote for independence in 1999, East Timor has been under UN protection while the country makes the transition from Indonesian rule.

The three journalists who died along with the two Britons in Balibo were New Zealand cameraman Gary Cunningham, 27, Australian soundman Tony Stewart, 21, and reporter Greg Shackleton, 27 and a fellow Australian.

Sceptical relatives

Families of the bereaved have never accepted the Australian Government conclusion that the men died as a result of crossfire and a new witness has come forward to allege that the five men were shot deliberately by Indonesian troops anxious to suppress any news of atrocities.

UN civilian police investigators have asked the UN's Prosecutor-General in Dili, Mohamed Othman, to authorise the arrests of the three suspects.

Mr Othman said he would make a decision on whether to give that authorisation within the next week.

He told the Sydney Morning Herald that the three men being sought could be charged with crimes against humanity under the 1949 Geneva Convention.

Statute of limitations legislation in Indonesia and Portugal, which ruled East Timor until 1975, may rule out the possibility of a criminal prosecution.

"There is a review going on as to whether or not we have jurisdiction over the case," Mr Othman said.

"Indications are that this will proceed as a war crimes charge. There we have jurisdiction. That would be the most likely prosecution scenario. There were armed hostilities, and they [the journalists] were civilians."