Anthony Estrena Pelicula

"Balibo", una película sobre el asesinato de periodistas extranjeros en Timor Oriental


"Balibo", una película sobre el asesinato de periodistas extranjeros en Timor Oriental

Por Agencia EFE – 24/07/2009

Sidney (Australia), 24 jul (EFE).- Una intriga política sobre el asesinato de periodistas extranjeros durante la invasión de Timor Oriental por Indonesia en 1975, se estrena hoy cargada de polémica en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Melbourne.

"Balibo", dirigida por Robert Connolly y protagonizado por Anthony LaPaglia, es el primer largometraje que se ha hecho sobre el suceso y a su estreno acudirán, entre otros, el presidente de Timor Oriental, José Ramos Horta, y el realizador estadounidense Quentin Tarantino.

También se sentarán en las butacas familiares de los reporteros muertos a tiros hace más de tres décadas.

"Fue un asesinato a sangre fría de seis personas inocentes", dijo esta mañana antes de ver el film Ramos Horta, quien añadió que los corresponsales no fueron las únicas víctimas de las atrocidades de los militares indonesios.

"Entre 100.000 y 200.000 timorenses perdieron la vida, no sabemos cuántos, pero muchos, y muchos murieron de hambre cuando se vieron desplazados" por la invasión, recordó el Nobel de la Paz.

Sin embargo, Ramos Horta no responsabilizó únicamente a Indonesia de la tragedia, pues señaló a Australia, Estados Unidos, Reino Unido y Japón como cómplices por su apoyo al régimen del general Suharto, quien ordenó la intervención en la ex colonia portuguesa.

La viuda de uno de los periodistas, Shirley Shackleton, espera que el Gobierno australiano aproveche el estreno para cumplir su promesa de repatriar las cenizas de los fallecidos, que todavía se encuentran en una fosa común en un cementerio de Yakarta.

"Aún están en aquel agujero en Indonesia dos años después de que (el primer ministro australiano, Kevin) Rudd dijera que traería los restos a casa. Si hay una pizca de cenizas de Greg, quiero que estén aquí", indicó la mujer.

Shackelton espera que "Balibo" también sirva para llevar ante la justicia a los responsables del ataque contra los periodistas.

En especial, la viuda mencionó a Mohammad Yunus Yosfiah, el comandante indonesio quien estaba al mando de la unidad militar destacada en la población de Timor Oriental que da nombre a la película y donde comenzó la invasión el 16 de octubre de 1975.

Ramos Horta es menos optimista y duda que algún día llegue a celebrarse un juicio por crímenes contra la humanidad, pues los mayores crímenes en su país fueron llevados a cabo entre los propios timorenses.

Además, consideró que Indonesia "aún es un vecino muy poderoso que sigue en transición para consolidar su democracia".

"Es muy poco posible que un Gobierno indonesio en un futuro inmediato se sienta suficientemente fuerte como para que lleve a la justicia a militares que perpetraron barbaridades en Timor Oriental, y sólo allí sino también en Aceh y en Irian Jaya (antiguo nombre de Papúa) y otros lugares.

Hace dos años, una investigación judicial realizada en Australia concluyó que las víctimas fueron asesinadas por el Ejército indonesio para evitar que los medios de comunicación se hicieran eco de la brutal invasión de Timor por parte de Indonesia.

Sin embargo, ni Camberra ni Yakarta han reconocido estos hechos.

Los investigadores australianos concluyeron que los periodistas murieron por "las heridas recibidas al ser apuñalados o disparados de forma deliberada, y no en una situación de lucha" por miembros de los temidos Kopassus, las notorias Fuerzas Especiales indonesias.

Dos británicos -Brian Peters y Malcolm Rennie-, dos australianos -Greg Shackleton y Tony Stewart- y el neozelandés Gary Cunningham son ahora conocidos como los "Cinco de Balibo", los únicos corresponsales extranjeros que permanecieron en Timor Oriental cuando Indonesia se preparaba para invadir el territorio.

Semanas después, otro reportero australiano, Roger East, también fue ejecutado cuando las tropas indonesias entraron en la capital, Dili.

Indonesia ocupó Timor Oriental de 1975 a 1999, cuando la ex colonia lusa aprobó en referéndum la independencia, que finalmente logró en 2002 como una de las naciones más pobres del mundo.

© EFE 2009. Está expresamente prohibida la redistribución y la redifusión de todo o parte de los contenidos de los servicios de Efe, sin previo y expreso consentimiento de la Agencia EFE S.A.
Related articles

* "Balibo", una película sobre el asesinato de periodistas ...
epa - european pressphoto agency - 24/07/2009
* Óscar Isaac protagoniza filme australiano
Prensa Libre (Guatemala) - 23/07/2009
* Melbourne estrena un drama sobre los periodistas asesinados en ...
Terra.com - 23/07/2009
* More coverage (1) »

Anthony LaPaglia shot Balibo between series of Without a Trace
Article from: Herald Sun

* Font size: Decrease Increase
* Email article: Email
* Print article: Print

Neala Johnson

August 13, 2009 12:00am

ANTHONY LaPaglia is a household name in the States for his work on Without A Trace. But the Aussie expat came home to tell a very important story.

You play Australian journalist Roger East in Balibo -- he was killed by the Indonesian military while investigating the deaths of five fellow Aussie journalists in East Timor in 1975. Was it important to you to tell an Australian story?

Yeah, I haven't done a movie here since Lantana (2001) -- not because I haven't wanted to, just because I haven't really been offered anything. But to me, this is not specifically an Australian story -- this is going on everywhere, still. There's this rampant genocide, more or less, in the name of religion or whatever people want to hide behind, and it's going on all over the world.

Read Leigh Paatsch's review of Balibo, and the rest of this week's cinema releases

You brought this story to the director, Robert Connolly. Why were you so compelled by it?

The relevance that it has on a global basis was staggering to me. It's an hour and a half from Darwin, and even here a lot of people go, "Where is it?" If I ask anybody in the United States about East Timor, they have no clue, they don't know where it is, let alone anything that happened there, and that per capita it's one of the more substantial cases of genocide. It's not so much the geography that counts, what counts is they don't know what's gone on there, or what's going on there. Stuff is still going on up in the hills. We ran into a group of militia in the mountains, and I gotta tell ya, no movie quite captures the smell and the aura of those guys -- they're very, very tough. You wouldn't mess with them, not for a second.

Did you run from the militia?

We were shooting a scene, and I didn't know they were coming. I don't think anybody else did either. But this truck of militia just pulled up. You see this stuff in the movies, but when the real thing pulls up, the whole atmosphere changes. An energy radiates off these guys, of how tough they are. They've definitely killed people, for sure. There's a hardness to them, it's very raw. Robert is very gung-ho. He said, "This is gonna be great, maybe they'd chase you down the hallway".

Somebody talked to them and they were told they were going to be playing Indonesian soldiers, and they kinda laughed. In the scene, which didn't make it into the film, we ran down this hallway, and the soldiers came in and they absolutely demolished the hallway. Everybody was just standing there slack-jawed. One of the Timorese guys said, "We didn't need you to demolish everything". And they said, "Well, you told us to play Indonesian soldiers. That's what they'd do". So they were method actors in the truest sense.

There was a report you were injured on set.

It was overblown. A charge from a squib went off in the wrong direction and put a little hole in my arm (laughs). I ended up in the Darwin burns unit for a couple of visits, but it wasn't a big deal.

That would just make more art on your heavily tattooed arms, wouldn't it?

Yup (laughs). It actually wrecked a piece of art, but never mind.

You shot Balibo between the final two seasons of your TV series Without a Trace. Were you a wreck during that final season?

Oh, it was very difficult. I had such an amazing experience in East Timor. I had a tough month readjusting. It felt like what I was doing was really trivial, even though the show has been very kind to me over the years. I enjoyed doing it, I would say most of it. You just realise it's a product, really. Filling space between commercials is what it is.

What is it about East Timor?

It really gets under your skin. It's the most beautiful and infuriating place I've been. After a while, it became emotionally challenging because there's almost not a person you could meet in East Timor that hadn't lost a father, a brother, a sister, an uncle, someone, during the occupation from 1975-99. Through all of that, what I admired so much was the upbeat, resilient quality of the Timorese. Really amazing.

What's infuriating about it?

You land at the airport and there's this enormous refugee tent city right there. You drive four miles down the road, and the Chinese have built this huge government building and there's no one in there. Out the front are parked about 12 bullet-proof BMW SUVs -- gifts from the Kuwait government. Nobody drives them, because if they broke down there's nothing to fix them, and possibly they would get stoned to death for driving them. This is a country with no post office, though I kind of like that.

You said you've retired from acting. Are you committed to any future projects?

I've basically put everything on hold for about a year, because I've either been chasing it or doing it for 25 years-plus and never really taken a break from it. I just feel it's time to take a break.

What are you going to do?

I have a daughter (Bridget, 6). She can occupy quite a bit of time. I have a lot of books to catch up on, and a lot of movies. Spend time with Gia (Carides, his wife). Clean out my closet. All the stuff you put on hold 'cos you simply don't have time. Almost from the day Without a Trace ended I was getting sent material to do another series or a film, and I realised I would not read whatever they sent me. I'm just not ready to go back to it.

Will you go back to LA when your promotional duties here for Balibo are done?

I don't really have a definite plan. I think we're just gonna sit in Sydney for a while and see how it goes. I've been away almost 30 years and have a whole other life built in another country -- I don't know how easy the transition would be. But I've always said to my wife, we don't have to choose one or the other. We can do both.

There's talk of a Happy Feet sequel. You could stay in Sydney to do another of those.

Oh, I'd have to talk to Dr George (Miller), I dunno. I'd do it in a heartbeat. I had fun.

Balibo opens today.