Two days ago, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott met with new Indonesian president Joko Wododo and Indonesia was hailed as our nation’s “new best friend”.
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Yesterday, federal police dropped their investigation into the brutal torture and murder of five Australian journalists in Timor in 1975. The investigation had been running for more than a decade and stemmed from NSW coronial findings that the men were deliberately killed on the orders on an Indonesian field commander.
Among the five slain men, or Balibo Five, as they became known, was Malcolm Rennie.
Malcolm spent his childhood in Maitland and for 10 years his family lived in a home on the corner of Cumberland and Nerang streets, East Maitland. Malcolm went to Maitland Boys High and his father was an accountant at Rutherford textiles firm, Bradmill.
Malcolm’s body has lain in a single coffin with the remains of fellow journalists Brian Peters, Gary Cunningham, Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart in Balibo since the 1975 murders.
In 2009, one of Malcolm’s former Maitland school friends approached the Mercury to raise a call to bring his body home. The Mercury began a campaign to raise awareness and helped bring the screening of the feature film Balibo to Maitland in 2009.
Yesterday’s news that the AFP have dropped their investigation into the killings will send shockwaves through the hearts of all who attended.
It should also reignite the call to bring the men’s bodies home.
The sceptical among us may be forgiven for questioning the timing of the AFP announcement. Regardless, the Mercury hopes Mr Abbott will capitalise on his new-found relationship with Joko Wododo and take this opportunity to lobby for the return of the men’s remains.
To bring closure to this dark tale, they must be returned.