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.”