§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on his policy on the deaths of newsmen in Balibo, East Timor in 1975. [156198]
§ Mr. BattleThe British Government continue to take an active interest in this case. When I met Sergio Vieira de Mello, Head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), in London on 6 March, I asked him about the UN investigation into the deaths. Mr. de Mello confirmed that the UN police report had been submitted to Mr. Othman, the UN Prosecutor General, who has said that there are grounds to continue with the investigations but that the case is not yet ready for trial. We will continue to monitor developments closely.