Kiwi soldiers lead daring rescue mission in Timor

By PATRICK GOWER and agencies

New Zealand troops led a rescue mission into West Timor last night after hundreds of militiamen attacked a United Nations office, killing four people.

Three RNZAF Iroquois helicopters flew two sorties and lifted 53 foreign workers to safety after the savage attacks in the border town of Atambua, just north of New Zealand's area of operations.

The militiamen, armed with machetes, stormed the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Atambua, and then set it on fire.

After an appeal for help, the rescue bid was given the go-ahead by Defence Minister Mark Burton and Defence Force Chief of Staff Carey Adamson in Wellington.

About 30 New Zealand soldiers were involved in the mission, which began at 9pm. The rescue took one hour and 15 minutes.

Reports from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, said that during the militia attack, three burned bodies were taken from the office.

A fourth worker was reported to have been dragged from the building, beaten to death and his body then burned in the street.

One of those killed was a woman doctor.

Diplomats in Jakarta said they had been told one of the victims was decapitated and his head paraded around the town.

The senior New Zealand officer in Dili, Brigadier Lou Gardiner, said he received a UN request for peacekeepers to help evacuate foreigners.

"Everything went very smoothly with everyone involved operating in a highly professional manner," Brigadier Gardiner said early today.

The New Zealand helicopters made two trips across the border with each helicopter ferrying out some 11 people at a time to the safety of East Timor.

The 53 foreigners were flown to the town of Balibo in the Australian area of operations, just inside the East Timorese border.

Four helicopters, three from New Zealand and one from Australia, were used for the evacuation.

The militiamen, who attacked in the early afternoon, were apparently reacting to the murder on Monday of a prominent militia leader accused of committing atrocities in East Timor last year.

A resident in Atambua said Indonesian security forces failed to stop the assault.

"I heard a lot of shooting and I saw 20 trucks carrying militias armed with machetes and home-made rifles," he said.

Police said the three killed in the UNHCR office were most likely a Croatian, an African named Samson and a Fijian. The nationality of the fourth was not known.

Three other foreign UN staff were reported missing, three others had escaped and one was badly injured.

By late afternoon, police and the military said they had regained control of Atambua.

West Timor military chief Colonel Jurefar said his troops did their best, but could not control the rioters who were wild with grief over the earlier death and mutilation of a comrade.

"We tried to quell the situation, but some just went wild.

"The whole incident was triggered by the death of a pro-integration leader the night before. He was mutilated with some parts of the body gone.

"His [comrades] could not take it and held a boisterous rally at the local government office and its surroundings, which include the UNHCR office."

The official Antara news agency said the murdered militiaman was one of 19 people officially named last week as being suspected of starting the pro-Jakarta bloodshed that erupted after East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence a year ago.

Chris Lom, of the International Organisation for Migration, whose Atambua office was also attacked today, said that in the West Timor capital of Kupang, 40 to 50 international staff were holding a meeting on possible evacuation.

"Essentially everyone is waiting to see what happens in Atambua."

He said the Atambua attacks were launched by hundreds of militia who had paraded through town with the body of their dead leader.

After that killing, "everyone had been advised to stay home, and shops were shut."

"But they had not expected the crowd to run amok. The balloon went up."

More than 120,000 refugees remain in West Timor, forced from their homes by pro-Indonesian militiamen after the vote. Many remain near Atambua.

Jake Morland, UNHCR spokesman in West Timor's capital Kupang, said 90 UNHCR staff elsewhere in the province were on standby for possible evacuation in case the violence spread.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said responsibility for establishing security in the refugee camps lay with the Indonesian army.

"They have proven ... probably more unable than unwilling to do so."

He would be raising his concerns at the UN general assembly in New York next Friday.

"This is a hugely serious matter, that somebody working with refugees as part of a humanitarian programme should be killed and in the end the responsibility rests with Indonesia to deal with that situation."

Herald Online feature: the Timor mission

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor