KILLINGS IN EAST TIMOR, 16 OCTOBER 1975

Early day motion 1606, tabled 24 July 1998 by Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 52 members.

That this House notes that the British television newsmen Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters were murdered, with three other Australian-based newsmen, at Balibo, East Timor, on 16th October 1975, to prevent them from informing the world that Indonesia had begin its invasion of East Timor; notes that on 22nd May 1998 the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists protested to President Habibie over the appointment of Lieutenant-General Yunus Yosfiah as Indonesia's Information Minister, given his alleged role in the murder of Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters and their colleagues from another television company; notes, further, that the willingness of successive British governments to accept Australian government assumptions that the newsmen died by accident in a civil war appears to have been interpreted by the Indonesian military as British Government approval for genocide in East Timor; and therefore urges Her Majesty's Government to institute its own inquiry into the Balibo murders of 16th October 1975 without further delay.

Signatures by party: Labour 31, Liberal Democrat 14, Conservative 2, Scottish National Party 2, Independent 1, Plaid Cymru 1, UUP 1.