John Martinkus: A dirty little war

By GILBERT WONG

When Martinkus arrives in Dili in 1997, he is pointed in the direction of the beach where a headless, handless corpse lies in the shallows, a graphic symbol of the lawlessness and infighting that continues to wrack the country.

As a freelancer Martinkus survives by selling his stories. One thing he found in his early days in Timor was that foreign editors were not initially interested. It wasn't news until the United Nations intervened to bring back free elections and the semblance of law.

A freelancer who has had work published in this newspaper, Martinkus was a frequent visitor to the troubled country and based himself there full-time until the 1999 ballot.

In those years he gained close insights and contacts with the bands of Timorese fighters battling for independence, though judging by some passages Martinkus may have come too close for the general reader.

Random House

$32.95