Film review by Peter Mac
Punitive Damage, directed by Annie Goldson
An East Timor story:
A just cause is never a lost cause

As this review is being written, the United Nations is endeavouring to 
hold a referendum on independence for East Timor, which Indonesia has 
annexed and held in a bloody 24-year rule.

Punitive Damage provides a graphic description of that rule through 
the remarkable story of Kamal Bamadhaj, a young man of New Zealand and 
Malaysian parentage, who died as a result of the 1991 Dili Cemetery 
massacre.

Kamal was born in Malaysia in 1971. His parents later divorced, and he 
travelled to New Zealand with his journalist mother, Helen Todd.

Kamal developed a strong sympathy for the underdog, and after graduating 
from the University of New South Wales he helped to found a lobby group for 
the Indonesian student movement. He subsequently helped organise a protest 
by Indonesian villagers faced with eviction for construction of a new 
beachside resort.

This insight into the repressive Suharto regime was reinforced by a trip to 
East Timor, where he was profoundly shocked by the palpable atmosphere of 
fear and intimidation in the silent streets of Dili.

His friend, American journalist Alan Nairn, describes how during this 
period desperate East Timorese would approach visitors and beg for help, 
speaking in barely audible whispers of the multiple murders of family 
members by the Indonesian military or the militia.

In 1991, faced with mounting evidence of human rights abuses, the United 
Nations arranged a visit by a delegation from Portugal to verify evidence 
of the maltreatment of East Timorese.

The visit was, however, being stage-managed by local authorities to avoid 
contact with those who opposed Indonesian rule.

The military threatened to kill villagers who spoke out, "to the seventh 
generation", and had fresh mass graves dug to emphasise the point.

As a result, Kamal was asked by representatives of Fretilin in Australia to 
travel to East Timor to determine the delegation's agenda, so that pro-
independence forces could make contact.

Not long after his arrival, however, the murder of Resistance leader 
Sebastian Gomes and others in a church in the village of Matiel resulted in 
the fateful decision to hold a funeral procession through the streets of 
Dili.

Kamal decided to attend and photograph the procession, although he knew 
this would be extremely dangerous. On the way to the cemetery mourners 
produced home-made banners and the march became defiantly pro-independence.

However, at the graveside the mourners were subjected to a fully-fledged 
automatic rifle attack. Alan Nairn, who buried his film of the massacre for 
later retrieval, described the scene as dominated by the crackle of 
gunfire, the screams of the East Timorese and streets "slick with blood".

Nairn himself was beaten to the ground and suffered a severe head fracture. 
He realised that the soldiers were probably reluctant to use their guns 
against a citizen of the country that had supplied them, and was saved from 
execution by shouting that he was American, not Australian.

Kamal was shot in the arm and the chest. He staggered half a kilometre to a 
nearby village, where he was briefly interrogated and then shot again by an 
Indonesian intelligence official.

With great courage, a passing Red Cross ambulance driver picked him up and 
attempted to drive him to hospital. Stopped by police, he refused to hand 
Kamal over, and managed to get him to a nearby hospital.

However, the delay was fatal and Kamal died 20 minutes later.

In Britain, Helen Todd was informed that Kamal had been hurt. The 
Indonesian authorities offered no information and news of his death was 
finally provided by the Red Cross.

She flew to Jakarta, but was prevented from travelling to Dili by 
officials, who said that Kamal's body was being returned immediately to 
Jakarta.

Three days later a coffin arrived, but Helen was not permitted to identify 
the body, as the officials claimed he had been buried immediately and the 
features were unrecognisable.

Helen's brother, who helped lower the body into the grave that now bears 
Kamal's name, commented that the body seemed too tall. To this day it is 
not certain that the body is that of Kamal.

In 1994 a group of "boat people" arrived in Australia, one of whom 
identified the officer who had fired the fatal shot, and his accomplice.

Aware of potential international embarassment over the case, the Indonesian 
Government "punished" the two officers by sending them into exile — to 
study at Harvard University!

However, soon afterwards Helen Todd was advised that a lawsuit was possible 
under a 200 year-old US law concerning crimes against humanity. She 
authorised the case to proceed. Served with a writ, the main defendant, 
General Sington Panjai-Tan, fled to Jakarta. His accomplice also escaped.

Nevertheless, under US law the trial was able to proceed without 
representation by the accused. The Court found Panjai-Tan guilty and 
awarded US$3 million each to Helen and to Kamal's estate, as well as $16 
million in punitive damages against the defendant.

General Panjai-Tan dismissed the case as "a joke" and refused to pay 
anything. He later joined the Indonesian Public Service and has since 
enjoyed a number of promotions.

The American Centre for Constitutional Rights has continued to pursue the 
case. Helen Todd says that if she ever receives any of the damages she will 
donate it to the East Timorese victims of Indonesian rule.

Punitive Damage is illuminated by the testimony of Helen Todd. She 
displays remarkable courage and dignity throughout the film, in which she 
tells, in effect, the history of the East Timorese independence struggle 
through her son's story.

She describes her own suffering succinctly, noting that even now she still 
finds herself phantasising that Kamal will simply return.

She nevertheless notes that, unlike her, the East Timorese people have had 
no-one to talk to about their plight, let alone any avenue of redress. She 
also notes that Kamal's period of suffering was much shorter than that of 
many East Timorese.

Alan Nairn notes that Indonesia was granted America's blessing for the 1975 
invasion, which utilised US-made C130 transport planes, machine guns and 
M16 rifles. He asks pointedly why former US President George Bush and 
others were not on trial as well as those who killed Kamal that day in Dili 
Cemetery.

But the final word belongs to Kamal Bamadhaj himself, who once noted that: 
"Whether total genocide occurs in East Timor or not depends not only on the 
remarkably powerful will of the East Timorese people but on the will of 
humanity, of us all."

Punitive Damage is showing in Sydney at Chauvel, Paddington Town 
Hall (ph: 9361 5398) and Lumiere Cinema, 108 Lonsdale St, Melbourne (ph: 
9639 1055)