The Biak Massacre
November 1998
6 minutes 6 seconds
Steve Sailah reports
.
OPening sequence
:
Flag raising: Tape 4 @ 27 .25
guerillas/ flag ceremony: WIRTH
TAPE 4
21.25 upsot CHANTING
(another flag is News tape 7 @ 1.10)
upsot Bang/ bang
thought track TAPE Rebecca/ Paul "heard
bullets) little of Rebecca
TAPE 1 PAUL @ 3.17
"WE WOKE UP HEARING THE
GUNFIRE. . PEOPLE WERE SLEEPING
UNDERNEATH THE WATER TOWER, ARMY ALL
AROUND THEM, FIRING AND MOVING IN
TOWARDS THEM. " 3 .34
UPSOT FX SHOTS: M16
****** Result for Image/Page 2 ******
bullet holes
tape 16 @ 10.17 - 10.22
upsot woman crying (where is my
son?)
TRANSLATION TAPE:" OH JESUS HELP ME
TO FIND MY SON.”
VO: A MOTHER GRIEVES w1TH HER FAMILY
FOR THE SON STILL MISSING, BELIEVED
DEAD, AFTER HE HELPED LEAD A
DEMONSTRATION OF SEVERAL HUNDRED BIAK
PEOPLE DEMANDING INDEPENDENCE FROM
JAKARTA.
archive/opm armed guerillas/ raising
flag
Biak map/ Graphic Tape 7 @ 1. 10
ARCHIVE TAPE 15 @ 3.00 KIDS/FLAGS
Tape 10 @ 11.59 landscape Irian Jaya
Tape 13 @ 21.19 guerillas in
jungle
SINCE INDONESIA TOOK CONTROL OF IRIAN
JAYA FROM THE DUTCH IN THE MID 1960S,
PEOPLE IN BIAK -- AN ISLAND OFF THE
IRIAN JAYA COAST -- HAD DREAMT OF
INDEPENDENCE FROM JAKARTA.
QUITE RECENTLY THE ISLAND
REMAINED A RELATIVELY PEACEFUL
BACKWATER AS THE FREE WEST PAPUA
MOVEMENT, OR OPM, LAINTAINED A GUERILLA
STRUGGLE AGAINST INDONESIAN TROOPS .
BUT IN JULY, EMBOLDENED BY THE FALL OF
PRESIDENT SUHARTO AND SENSING WINDS OF
POLITICAL CHANGE, PEOPLE IN BIAK PAN UF
THE "MORNING STAR" FLAG OF THE O. P.M.
shots around water tower, OPM graffiti
water tower/Miexner tape 2 @ 18
.20
water tower/ Cornelius tape
bullet casings/ bullet holes
woman holds casings
Indon troops tape 12 @ 12 . 14
soldier tape 15 @ 5.50
TAPE 18 @ 48.06 color still of
soldier
with Irian Jayan native
AS THE O. P.M. FLAG FLEW OVER THE WATER
TOWER BY THE BIAK WHARVES, THE
PROTESTORS FELL ASLEEP. . . BUT THEN WERE
ABRUPTLY AWOKEN AS INDONESIAN TROOPS
SWEPT THROUGH AT DAWN.
upsot lady pink dress Tape 16 4 . 49-59
TRANSLATION TAPE :
"We heard the sound of the bullets and
the forces coming up. . if you
want to
live get out...
two young men in their 20s (Joseph
Eyer, 24)
upsot Tape 16
@ 5.42
- 6.10
TRANSLATION TAPE:
“in front of us there are six bodies,
all of them have bullet wounds, six
people, whether they used rubber
bullets we don't know, but there was
blood everywhere, they took them on a
truck. “
upsot Tape 16 @ 6.24
TRANSLATION TAPE :
“They put the butt of the weapon here
and here, in my eyes and in my chest
here, and also on my back.
"
bullet holes/ Biak Tape 2, @ 19.30
Meixner tape 2
: shoes left behind @
21.30
WITH IRIAN JAYA EFFECTIVELY UNDER
MILITARY RULE, FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS OF
MASSACRES ARE DIFFICULT TO VERIFY .
BUT NOW REPORTS OF ATROCITIES ARE
FILTERING OUT. THE 7 .30 REPORT HAS
RECEIVED VIDEO TAPES SECRETLY FILMED Itu
BIAK DURING AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE
ARMY CRACKDOWN.
upsot Tape 1 @ 33.31
One man they shoot him here
. . . intestines coming out . . . WE SAW HIM,
PEOPLE COMING, HIS JACKET. . he
just
die. .. HE WAS A TEACHER. . .
"
THIS MAN LUCKY TO HAVE SURVIVED SHOWS
WHERE HE WAS SHOT IN THE BACK, THE BULLET
EMERGING FROM HIS STOMACH
upsot Tape 17 @ 3.13
TRANSLATION TAPE
ACCORDING TO THIS MAN -- TORTURED AND
ABUSED FOR BEING CHRISTIAN .
upsot TAPE 16 @ 14.04
- 14.18
TRANSLATION TAPE:
The soldiers said
where is your god now that you praise
night and day, where is he now, is he
helping you now?
upsot Rebecca/ Biak audio
actuality
tape 2 @ 15.50
'I We 've been hearing gunshots..
. our
neighbours house, barricading, gunshot
close to our house . 't
VO: BUSINESS CONSULTANT REBECCA CASEY,
AND ENGLISH TEACHER PAUL MEIXNER
(PRON: MIKE' S-NER) WERE IN BIAK AT THE
TIME. . THEY SUPPORT ACCOUNTS OF
A
MASSACRE .
Interview Paul Meixner/Rebecca
Casey
paul TAPE 1 @ 10.37
"WE COULD HEAR THE GUNSHOTS FOR 4 HOUR
AND WE COULD SEE NOBODY IN THE
STREET . . ARMY COMING UP AND
DOWN
SOMETIMES. " 10.42
butt to Tape 1 @ 4.31 REBECCA
"From what we heard the troops were
pursuing people who ran and after they
shot as many people as they could they
went into houses around the dock area
and got everybody they could out ,
rounded them up, took them down to the
docks, and started torturing them in
various ways .
4 .56
upsot Cab music/ drivealong/Miexner tap
2 @ 5-6 mins.
Biak street/ Cornelius tape 11
upsot chickens FX/Corne1ius
tape
opm graffiti Miexner tape 2 @ 22 . 00
opm sign on wall: Cornelius
tape 11
vacant docks/ Miexner tape 2 22 . 15
Indon navy: tape TAPE 14 @ 30. 00
& 31.10
Rex tape 12 overlay
BUT THE WORST ATROCITY MAY HAVE OCCURED
AT SEA, ACCORDING TO INDONESIAN
CHURCHES AND HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS .
THEY SAY THAT AFTER THE DEMONSTRATION
IN BIAK MORE THAN A HUNDRED PEOPLE WERE
TAKEN AWAY IN TWO INDONESIAN PATROL
BOATS .
REX RUMAKIEK (PRON: ROO MAR KEY AK)
BORN IN BIAK, NOW THE OPM'S
REPRESENTATIVE IN AUSTRALIA, SAYS
THEY'VE NEVER BEEN SEEN SINCE
3„vce .
Rex tape 12 @ 12.18
"We have reports that some people
,
estimated over 100 have been herded
aboard two ships and taken offshore,
and there women were raped, and
the
torture take place, and the bodies wen
thrown overboard. butt Rex to 8 .
50 “we
have a long history. . missing
people
never come back.. they are dead.
'”
PNG tsunami bodies/ tape 6 @ 15 .
23
THERE ' S NO INDEPENDENT CONFIRMATION OF
THE SCALE OF THE MASSACRE. INDONESIAN
OFFICIALS DENY IT OCCURED, CLAIMING
BODIES LATER WASHED ASHORE WERE VICTIMS
OF THE PAPUA NEW GUINEA TIDAL WAVE 11
DAYS LATER.
WE CONTACTED THE INDONESIAN AMBASSADOR
TO COMMENT ON THE CLAIMS, BUT HE
DECLINED, SAYING HE HAD NOTHING TO ADD
TO WHAT IS COMING OUT OF JAKARTA
upsot Village scene
MEANWHILE, THE PEOPLE OF BIAK ARE LEFT
WITH THEIR GRIEF .
upsot
LIKE THIS WOMAN WHO LOST HER SON
“If they killed him, please return his body so I
Can bury him properly, even if it’s rotten…
Please return his body.”