Indonesia bans Australian film about army killing newsmen

The Indonesian censorship board gave no reason for banning the award-winning film Balibo after a viewing on Tuesday, the Jakarta International Film Festival organizer Lalu Roisamri said.

Roisamri said he plans to appeal the censors' decision. The Australian movie starring Anthony LaPaglia has screened at several international film festivals since its release this year and was to have premiered at the Jakarta festival on Sunday.

A censorship board member declined to comment to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The deaths at the East Timorese border town of Balibo during a skirmish between Indonesian troops and East Timorese defenders in the weeks before a full-blown invasion left lasting friction between Australia and Indonesia.

Indonesia became the former Portuguese colony's ruler for the next 24 years before East Timor gained independence in 1999.

Indonesia maintains the five men from two rival Australian television news crews were accidentally killed in crossfire. Australian police recently launched a war crimes investigation.

"The festival is to create a discussion ... It seems ridiculous," Roisamri said of the decision.

"There is a very high interest in the movie. We should be open," he added.

The ban was announced two hours before the Jakarta Foreign Corespondents' Club planned to host a private screening in a cinema in the capital.

The club had taken legal advice and decided against showing the film, despite having no confirmation from the government on the ban, club president Jason Tedjasukmana said.

Tedjasukmana said the club could be breaking the law by screening a banned film in a public place.

"It was not an easy decision ... but we respect the Indonesian law," Tedjasukmana told the audience.

"This is a private screening, but it is a public place," he said. "So we are erring on the side of caution, and we are not going to show it today."

In September, Australia launched a war crimes investigation two years after an Australian coroner probing the five deaths found they were deliberate and probably ordered by senior Indonesian officers.

Indonesia has warned that the war crimes investigation could severely strain relations with Australia as it maintains the journalists were killed accidentally. The Australian government's official version agrees with that.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said last month that based on reviews, the movie was likely to offend the public and open old wounds. He has also dismissed the movie as fiction.

Associated Press