An Indonesian military officer who went on to become a general and cabinet minister shot and killed unarmed British and Australian journalists during the secret invasion of East Timor, an Australian inquest heard yesterday.

A former East Timorese militiaman said that during the 1975 invasion Yunus Yosfiah, then a captain in Indonesia’s special forces, began shooting at the foreigners, including the British television journalists Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters. He said that Indonesian officers ordered that the bodies should be burned, and he was instructed to lie to Australian investigators about the deaths.

“I believe Yunus killed Brian Peters,” the anonymous witness told the Glebe Coroner’s Court in Sydney. “Yunus was the first to shoot. He didn’t give the journalists time to shout, he just shot at them.”

The man, a former supporter of the Indonesian invasion identified by the codename “Glebe 2”, said that after General Yunus’s shots, twenty other soldiers and militiamen joined in the firing. The testimony supports what campaigners and relatives have long maintained - that rather than being killed in crossfire, as Indonesia claims, the so-called “Balibo Five” were murdered to prevent them reporting on the secret invasion of East Timor.

Claims that General Yunus was involved in the incident have been made before but, 31 years after the deaths, and despite repeated official inquiries by the Australian Government, this is the first time they have been tested in a court.

The Sydney coroner is conducting an inquest into the death of Mr Peters, 26, a cameraman for Australia’s Channel 9 television, who went to Balibo to investigate reports of Japanese infiltration with Mr Rennie, 29. With them were three competitors from Channel Seven - Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart and Gary Cunningham.

Recently-released diplomatic cables reveal the extent to which the British and Australian governments colluded in the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony which fought a guerrilla war until a UN referendum in which its people voted for independence in 1999.

The British Ambassador to Jakarta recommended that the Government should deny knowledge of Indonesian brutality, which cost as many as 200,000 lives.

General Yunus denied any part in the deaths of the journalists yesterday, although he declined to testify at the inquest. “It is all lies,” he said from his home in Jakarta.

An Indonesian military officer who went on to become a general and cabinet minister shot and killed unarmed British and Australian journalists during the secret invasion of East Timor, an Australian inquest heard yesterday.

A former East Timorese militiaman said that during the 1975 invasion Yunus Yosfiah, then a captain in Indonesia’s special forces, began shooting at the foreigners, including the British television journalists Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters. He said that Indonesian officers ordered that the bodies should be burned, and he was instructed to lie to Australian investigators about the deaths.

“I believe Yunus killed Brian Peters,” the anonymous witness told the Glebe Coroner’s Court in Sydney. “Yunus was the first to shoot. He didn’t give the journalists time to shout, he just shot at them.”

The man, a former supporter of the Indonesian invasion identified by the codename “Glebe 2”, said that after General Yunus’s shots, twenty other soldiers and militiamen joined in the firing. The testimony supports what campaigners and relatives have long maintained - that rather than being killed in crossfire, as Indonesia claims, the so-called “Balibo Five” were murdered to prevent them reporting on the secret invasion of East Timor.

Claims that General Yunus was involved in the incident have been made before but, 31 years after the deaths, and despite repeated official inquiries by the Australian Government, this is the first time they have been tested in a court.

The Sydney coroner is conducting an inquest into the death of Mr Peters, 26, a cameraman for Australia’s Channel 9 television, who went to Balibo to investigate reports of Japanese infiltration with Mr Rennie, 29. With them were three competitors from Channel Seven - Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart and Gary Cunningham.

Recently-released diplomatic cables reveal the extent to which the British and Australian governments colluded in the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony which fought a guerrilla war until a UN referendum in which its people voted for independence in 1999.

The British Ambassador to Jakarta recommended that the Government should deny knowledge of Indonesian brutality, which cost as many as 200,000 lives.

General Yunus denied any part in the deaths of the journalists yesterday, although he declined to testify at the inquest. “It is all lies,” he said from his home in Jakarta.

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