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by Victor Tjahjadi and Bronwyn Curran JAKARTA (AFP) - At least three foreign UN staff working to repatriate East Timorese refugees were killed and several others injured in a savage attack by hundreds of pro-Indonesian militia on UN offices in West Timor Wednesday, UN officials said.
The UN evacuated all relief workers from the area after hundreds of machete-wielding militiamen went on the rampage, burning down the UN refugee agency's office and other buildings. Some 54 survivors of the attack in the border town of Atambua, three of them injured, were flown to safety by UN helicopters to neighboring East Timor. However, more than 1,000 militia members continued to rampage unchecked through the town hunting down foreigners, local police said. Hospital authorities in Atambua, where the attack took place in broad daylight 100 meters (yards) from a local police station, said the bodies of the three - an American, an Ethiopian and a Croatian - were in a local morgue. All had died of machete "slash wounds" before their bodies were burned, hospital director Johhny Laoh said. Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was unable to confirm eyewitness reports a fourth foreigner was dragged from a hotel and killed near the UNHCR office in Atambua, UN officials said. But a Brazilian embassy official in Jakarta said he had received second-hand reports the fourth victim was a Brazilian citizen who was either badly injured or killed. Diplomatic sources in Jakarta also said there were second-hand reports that two people had been murdered south of the town. In New York, refugee agency chief Sadako Ogata told journalists on the sidelines of a UN Millennium Summit that the three victims were UNHCR staff. Ogata identified the three murdered staffers as U.S. national Carlos Casaeres, Ethiopian Samson Aregaheyen, and Croat Peril Simundze. "This is the worst security incident that the UN Human Rights Commission has faced," she said. Less than an hour earlier, heads of state from around the world attending the summit, including Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, observed a minute's silence for the slain aid workers. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the Millennium summit the UNHCR office was "deliberately attacked by militia opposed to independence of East Timor." U.S. President Bill Clinton said he was "deeply saddened" and called on Indonesian authorities "to put a stop to these abuses." Atambua police chief Superintendent Simatupang told AFP by phone that police had earlier warned UNHCR staff to leave the office, but UN officials said there had been no warning. The three who died had "refused" to leave, Simatupang said. Long after nightfall, an assistant to Simatupang told AFP that "more than 1,000" militia were still on the streets. "The situation is very tense," the adjutant, Tomas, said. The attack was the deadliest since the UNHCR arrived to help repatriate tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees in camps in the border area, and came amidst growing international calls for Indonesia to disband and disarm the militia who are backed by the national military. The militia is blamed for the wave of violence, murder and arson across the territory when East Timor voted for independence last year. Earlier, Chris Lom of the International Organization for Migration told AFP the Atambua attacks were launched by hundreds of militia who had been parading through town with the body of a dead militia leader, killed by unknown assassins the day before. The Antara news agency identified the dead militiaman as Olivio Mendosa Moruk, one of three militia leaders named by Jakarta as suspects in the violence after last year's independence vote. Jake Moreland of the UNHCR in the West Timor capital of Kupang said all UN staff - about 80 - were now barricaded in a Kupang hotel protected by the Indonesian military ahead of a planned evacuation on Thursday morning. Major General Kiki Syahnakri, the Bali-based commander of the area that oversees West Timor who rushed to Kupang, said a battalion of reinforcements was expected to arrive in West Timor Thursday. "Police have been deployed in Kupang to secure the city while similar security measures have been taken in Atambua. We are expecting an additional battalion of troops to arrive there tomorrow morning," Syahnakri told AFP. |
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