INDONESIA: UNITED NATIONS EVACUATE 240 STAFF FROM WEST TIMOR AFTER THREE U.N WORKERS ARE KILLED BY MILITIA

Record ID: 337924

  • Title: INDONESIA: UNITED NATIONS EVACUATE 240 STAFF FROM WEST TIMOR AFTER THREE U.N WORKERS ARE KILLED BY MILITIA
  • Date: 7th September 2000
  • Summary: WEST-EAST TIMOR BORDER, INDONESIA (SEPTEMBER 7, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF INTERNATIONAL AID STAFF BOARDING UNITED NATIONS HELICOPTER/ AUSTRALIAN TROOPS SUPERVISING EVACUATION 0.14 2. WIDE OF UNITED NATIONS HELICOPTER TAKING OFF (2 SHOTS) 0.53 DILI, EAST TIMOR (SEPTEMBER 7, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 3. SMV. U.N. STAFF TAKING OUT COFFINS CARRYING BODIES OF UNHCR STAFF KILLED IN WEST TIMOR BY SUSPECTED TIMORESE MILITIAS 1.15 4. PAN COFFIN COVERED BY UNITED NATIONS FLAG, PAN TO MORE COFFINS BEING CARRIED OFF HELICOPTER (2 SHOTS) 1.48 5. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) HEAD OF UNHCR MISSION IN ATAMBUA, WEST TIMOR, ALIAS BIN SAYING: "Those eleven (11 Indonesian soldiers) that guarded there (the UNHCR compound) certainly did not have or certainly did not show the professionalism in terms of crowd control. In other words there was no serious attempt to stop the crowd, to convince or to engage them. They (the soldiers) were brushed aside and a group of militias just ran in" 2.19 6. SLV UNHCR STAFF EVACUATED FROM WEST TIMOR, STANDING IN BACK OF TRUCK 2.23 7. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) HEAD OF UNHCR MISSION IN ATAMBUA, WEST TIMOR, ALIAS BIN SAYING: "Yes, we have it from a good source that some of them (militias) were seen with modern weapons" 2.30 8. SLV PAN OF UNHCR VEHICLES AND LOCAL STAFF IN COMPOUND IN DILI 2.39 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd September 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: WEST-EAST TIMOR BORDER, INDONESIA/ DILI, EAST TIMOR
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA3LTHXA83468HJX1BQM7AT1VF0
  • Story Text: The United Nations has pulled all its staff out of the
    Indonesian province of West Timor after pro-Jakarta gangs
    butchered three U.N. workers, provoking strong international
    anger.



    U.N. officials said on Thursday (September 7) that
    nearly 240 U.N. staff and their dependants had either left for
    East Timor overland or had flown to the resort island of Bali.

    Indonesia's military said the murders were due to a local
    row, but there were fears it was part of a darker strategy to
    damage an already weak President Abdurrahman Wahid.

    The three men, from the United States, Croatia and
    Ethiopia, re hacked to death by machete-wielding militiamen
    who attacked their office, easily barging past an Indonesian
    police guard.

    The bodies of the three men were flown to the East
    Timorese capital Dili on Thursday.

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
    staff were working in refugee camps in the border town of
    Atambua where militias forced tens of thousands of East
    Timorese to flee last year after they voted to end Jakarta's
    rule.

    The head of the UNHCR mission in Atambua, Alias Bin, told
    Reuters Television in Dili on Thursday that the soldiers
    guarding the U.N. agency's headquarters did little to stop the
    50 or so militiamen from attacking the compound.

    "Those eleven (11 Indonesian soldiers) that guarded there
    (the UNHCR compound) certainly did not have or certainly did
    not show the professionalism in terms of crowd control. In
    other words there was no serious attempt to stop the crowd, to
    convince or to engage them. They (the soldiers) were brushed
    aside and a group of militias just ran in," said Alias Bin.

    Bin, who fled the compound as it was being attacked and
    was given shelter by a West Timorese family living nearby,
    said he had since heard eyewitness accounts that the militias
    were armed with "modern weapons".









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