Balibo is a town in

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-w ...

situated approximately from the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

n border. It is located in the

subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, In ...

of Balibo,

Bobonaro District Bobonaro ( pt, Município Bobonaro, , or ) is a municipality (and was formerly a district) in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste commonly known as East Timor. It is the second-most western municipality on the east half of the island. It ...

. It was estimated by

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

that 70 per cent of the town was destroyed during the militia violence that preceded the vote on East Timorese independence. Balibo achieved notoriety as the site of the killing of five

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

n-based

journalists A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

now known as the

Balibo Five The Balibo Five was a group of journalists for Australian commercial television networks who were murdered in the period leading up to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The Balibo Five were based in the town of Balibo in East Timor (then ...

, by Indonesian forces in the 1970s. Australian reporters from Channels 7, 9 and the ABC were covering an incursion by Indonesia into what was then

Portuguese Timor Portuguese Timor ( pt, Timor Português) was a colonial possession of Portugal that existed between 1702 and 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies. The first Europeans to arrive in th ...

. The reporters from Channels 7 and 9 were killed on October 16th, 1975 by Indonesian Special Forces, to prevent information about the invasion from being released. In December 1975, another Australian reporter, Roger East, who was investigating the deaths of the other five, was reportedly seized by Indonesian soldiers, and then shot by a firing squad. The town is home to a 400-year-old fort, which was the scene of several battles during the Indonesian invasion in 1975. The Balibo Five were also filming from the fort when Indonesian forces landed in Balibo on the day they died. The fort has been converted into a hotel as of 2016 by the Balibo House Trust, with support from the Rotary Club of Port Melbourne. The

Balibo Declaration The Provisional Government of East Timor (PGET), ( id, Pemerintah Sementara Timor Timur (PSTT), pt, Governo Provisório de Timor Leste), was an Indonesian supported puppet provisional government in present day East Timor that was formed on 17 De ...

, which criticised the declaration of independence and was later used by the Indonesian government as partial justification for its invasion, was said to have been signed here but was actually drafted by Indonesian intelligence and signed in

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and ...

, Indonesia. During the

INTERFET The International Force East Timor (INTERFET) was a multinational non-United Nations peacemaking task force, organised and led by Australia in accordance with United Nations resolutions to address the humanitarian and security crisis that took ...

mission after the Indonesian withdrawal, the fort was used as a base for approximately one thousand

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troops, as part of

Operation Lavarack Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

performed an unplugged concert in Balibo to entertain

troops in 1999, as part of the Tour of Duty series of concerts. In 2003, the government of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

purchased the house where the five journalists had stayed, as it had fallen into disrepair, and renovated it to serve as a creche, library and vocational training centre. International aid organizations have also been involved in other reconstruction work in the town, such as the rebuilding of a dormitory for schoolchildren from remote communities that had been razed during the militia attacks.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in East Timor Bobonaro Municipality

See also

References