§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action he has taken to institute an inquiry into the Balibo killings of 16 October 1975.
§ Mr. GoodladWe have no plans to institute an inquiry. The Australians took the lead at the time in investigating392W the deaths of five members of an Australian television team working in East Timor in October 1975. In view of the circumstances then prevailing in East Timor, there was no means of ascertaining the precise circumstances in which they died. No firm evidence was discovered of who was responsible for their deaths. It is most unlikely, at this distance from the events, that another inquiry would shed any new light on the matter.
§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what response his Department has made to the report of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights concerning the killings at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Rili in November 1991 and the subsequent investigation by the national commission of inquiry.
§ Mr. GoodladWe welcomed Indonesia's decision to invite the UN special rapporteur to visit East Timor last July. With our EU partners we are considering his report, and Indonesia's response, at the present session of the UN Commission on Human Rights.