This is an excerpt from Shackleton's last report before he was shot and stabbed to death by Indonesian soldiers.
"Something happened here last night that moved us very deeply. It was so far outside our experience as Australians, and so inextricably interwoven with the atmosphere of this place that we find it very difficult to convey to you watching in an Australian living room.
"Why, they ask, are the Indonesians invading us? Why, they ask, if the Indonesians believe that Fretilin is Communist, do they not send a delegation to Dili to find out?
"Why, they ask, are the Australians not helping us? When the Japanese invaded, they did help us. Why, they ask, are the Portuguese not helping us? We're still a Portuguese colony. Who, they ask, will pay for the terrible damage to our homes?"
The bodies of the five men were dressed in Fretilin military uniforms and burned.
In January 1997, the Melbourne Herald-Sun published photographs of a secret funeral - purporting to be that of the five journalists - in Jakarta in 1975. In attendance, wearing dark glasses, was Ambassador Woolcott. There was only one coffin.
To this day, the Australian government have made no formal public complaints or launched an official enquiry. It has since been revealed that senior officials conspired to cover up the details of the murders.
Furthermore, there is plenty of evidence that Australian government officials knew that the journalists were in danger and failed to warn them.
James Dunn, the last Australian consul in East Timor, says that his government knew about the Balibo invasion 12 days before it took place. Shackleton's wife, Shirley, has campaigned in vain for the truth for the last 25 years.
In 1989, she managed to reach Balibo to plant a tree in Greg's memory.
"As I knelt saying a few words to Greg," she said, "the most wonderful singing washed over me. On the other side of the road, a young people's choir started up. They had timed their practice to my being there. I shall never forget those voices. They came through the barrier the Indonesians had set between us, and they comforted me. They will never be defeated."
Further details of Australian complicity with Indonesia
In March 2000, Shirley Shackleton returned to East Timor for the first time since independence was realised. On returning, she wrote a moving article for johnpilger.com | 
