John Pilger,

You argue that a "holocaust happened in East Timor, telling us more about rapacious Western power, its propaganda and true aims, than even current colonial adventures".

You are obviously ashamed of being a Westerner as you crticise and criticise. Do you have actually any ideas about how we should restucture the balance of powers in international relations?

Have you thought about moving to one of the more altruistic and less corrupt nations of the world? It must be very hard for you if you live in a Western nation and enjoy a first world standard of living. Or have you already moved to a non-Western nation?

Sure, highlighting our past wrongs is important, but a little bit more balance would not go astray.

Thanks for that ,John.I was going to see the film but now I will give it a miss.There are enough lies going around without making a special trip and paying to hear some more.

AND PORTUGAL?

Pilger is obviously put out that the movie did not express his abiding hatred for the (Anglo) countries he continues to live in.

Apparantly Whitlam did use intelligence/information at hand to warn Shackleton (of the Balibo Five) BEFORE they reached East Timor.

According to Evan Williams who worked in Whitlam's Office at the time (1975) http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25914564-15803,00.html :

"When Shackleton interviewed Whitlam twice in 1975 before his departure for East Timor, Whitlam warned him that the situation was increasingly dangerous and that the Australian government had no way of protecting him or his colleagues. Those interviews are on record.

... The real villain of 1975 was Portugal, the worst European colonial power and the longest-surviving European dictatorship, which had done nothing to prepare for their inevitable withdrawal from the region.

...In 1999, Australian troops were part of the peacekeeping force that led to East Timorese independence and the creation of Timor-Leste. Australian troops are still helping to keep the peace in Timor-Leste. What Whitlam and others feared has come to pass: the presence of a militarily unstable and economically unviable client state on Australia's doorstep. Nowhere in Balibo are these facts acknowledged...."

Its all very convenient for some Timor Leste politicians gaining top prizes at the UN while their countrymen fought, starved and died. That leader is now President and is lauded in the movie. Other current leader lived in comparitive comfort in Jakarta for years - in a sort of gaol but having a phone, laptop and bribed guards running errands...

We can all highlight aspects.

Pilger should cover this aspect - Portugal and the half Portugese who now rule East Timor and revise its history.

Pete

With Konfrontasi (Confrontation) over Malaysia still very fresh in the minds of Indonesia, I find it strange that Indonesia did not first forewarn Australia, to test the waters, regarding East Timor.

"Balibo" is just what the title claims... a dramatization of the murder of five Australian Journalists told through the experiences of the sixth Journalist, executed in Dili a few days later. The political intrigue and conspiracy surrounding the sacrifice of East Timor has it's parallels in West Papua where the same neo-colonial theft of the resource wealth belonging to indigenous people is again being played out. John Pilger correctly draws attention to these omissions which should provide the script of a documentary when the East Timorese write their history; Not to be confused with the version that the present Government would write that seeks to deny common justice to the victims of Indonesian excesses. The present Government dominated by elites that deliberately destabilised the Alkatiri Government to establish cronyism,nepotism and corruption in their efforts to squander the proceeds of the Petroleum Fund set up as a source of future revenue to finance infrastructure priorities.

The tardy Australian intervention was too little too late and although warmly welcomed in the beginning has now damaged their early reputation and are seen by many as expressing political partisanship.

The early departure of the Portuguese needs to be viewed through the eyes of departing right wing governors who wanted no part of a liberated population and couldn't get off the island quick enough.

There is another seeker of truth coming to Australia in Nov 09.http://www.ae911truth.org/ They want nothing less than a open investigation into 911.They have 777 architects and engineers who do not believe the official conspiracy theory.Very few know about building 7 that came down in a controlled demolition fashion with no aircraft collision and was not included in the original enquiry.
END THE 911 CONSPIRACY THEORIES BY DEMANDING AN OPEN ENQUIRY.