Cover-Up
Jill Jolliffe
'In this detailed and compelling account, Jolliffe brings to the story a unique authority, as she has covered the Timor story for 26 years … The story of the families' years of unresolved grief, told here for the first time, is a shocking and disgraceful one … Jolliffe tells, at long last, the story the Balibo five obtained but were unable to report.'
Tom Hyland (Age)'She has gone to impressive lengths to track down those involved officially or unofficially in the events at Balibo, despite Indonesian and United National rules that denied her offical entrance to East Timor for 24 years.'
John Graham (Canberra Times)'In Cover-Up, Jolliffe follows the Balibo story from the outset. She painstakingly documents the investigations of the deaths and the machinations by the Australian and Indonesian governments to keep truth hidden. This book presents evidence concerning the killings of the journalists (including allegations against Indonesia's former information minister Yunus Yosfiah) and, perhaps more importantly for Australian readers, details about Australian officials who continued to lie while knowing full well what happened.
'Jolliffe draws links between those responsible for the deaths of the Balibo Five and their involvement later in some of Timor's worst massacres. It is an important work. This should be essential reading to anyone who defended Australia's pre-September 1999 policy on Timor or, for that matter, anyone contemplating a career in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.'
John Martinkus (The Bulletin)This book reveals the previously hidden details of one of the most shameful episodes in Australia’s history. The result of over twenty years of personal investigations and tireless research, Cover-Up provides a unique first-hand account of the deaths of the five young television reporters who were killed by the Indonesian military as they filmed the advance of Indonesian infantry troops into the East Timor border town of Balibo in October 1975.
This book tells their personal stories, and of their families’ heart-breaking struggle for the truth. Jill Jolliffe argues that the Australian government was always aware of the circumstances of the killings, and that its cover-up was a key factor in Indonesia’s decision to invade and occupy East Timor, and its subsequent long reign of terror.
In Cover-Up, the author’s quest to identify and indict the Balibo killers is intertwined with East Timor’s recent tragic history. In following their trail, Ms Jolliffe uncovers evidence of another massacre in which hundreds of innocent villagers were machine-gunned years later. Part memoir, part history, this searing book is as much an investigation of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor as it is a case study of the Balibo killings.
'Jolliffe has a long association with East Timor and the independence movement. She was in East Timor when the Balibo incident occured, and met the Balibo Five. Their deaths deeply affected her. Over the years, she has maintained an unwavering commitment to bringing out the truth about what happened to them on that mid-October morning.
'Ever since the invasion of Dili on December 7, 1975, when she was the last journalist to leave, Jolliffe has been meticulously assembling evidence of how the newsmen met their end, and who was responsible.
'This book brings all her evidence together. The centrepiece is the most comprehensive collection so far of interviews of East Timorese with links to the Balibo incident, which highlights the abundance of evidence available for the prosecution of those responsible, among them Captain Yunus Yosfiah (now a retired lieutenant-general), and a Kopassus (special forces) sergeant, Christoforus da Silva. Interwoven with this extraordinarily detailed work are strands of a personal memoir.'
Jim Dunn (Sydney Morning Herald)Jill Jolliffe
Jill Jolliffe has been following the Balibo Five story for 26 years. She witnessed the first incursions of Indonesian regular troops into the territory in September 1975, reported on the death of her five colleagues at Balibo in October, and was evacuated from Dili by International Red Cross four days before Indonesian paratroopers attacked the capital on 7 December 1975.
In 1978 Ms Jolliffe moved to Portugal, where she continued to follow the East Timor story and to work as a correspondent for The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and the BBC, among others. She now lives in Darwin and reports regularly from East Timor.
Extent: 392pp
Size: 234mm x 153mm
ISBN (10): 0908011 687
ISBN (13): 9780908011681
RRP: $35.00
Pub date: October 2001
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