Slain UN man's last words

By STAFF REPORTERS and AGENCIES

"We sit here like bait, unarmed, waiting for the wave to hit." These were among the last words of one the United Nations workers brutally murdered by militiamen in the West Timor town of Atambua.

His message came hours before a daring rescue mission by New Zealand troops based in neighboring East Timor, which plucked 43 of his colleagues to safety.

Carlos Caseras, a 33-year-old Puerto Rican, and two colleagues barricaded themselves in the town's United Nations office when they heard a mob was heading to Atambua.

In an e-mail sent to friends from inside the building, he described how the town of Atambua suddenly shut down when word spread that truckloads of militia men were heading their way.

"At this very moment, we are barricaded in the office. A militia leader was murdered last night. He was decapitated and had his heart and penis cut out.

"Segments of Timorese society must be some of the most violent and gory people on Earth."

Mr Caseras wrote that the streets were deserted and ominously quiet and most of the staff had been sent home to safety when word came of impending trouble.

"I'm glad that a couple of weeks ago we bought rows and rows of barbed wire."

But the barbed wire proved less effective and the violence of the militiamen more furious than he had expected.

The United Nations post was demolished in the attack, and Mr Caseras and his two colleagues were brutally murdered.

Witnesses said militiamen beat and stabbed them to death before burning their bodies in the street. Other workers were hit and cut by machetes and axes before escaping.

Three helicopters from Hobsonville-based No 3 squadron, stationed at Suai in East Timor, flew across the border at 1000m, out of range of small-arms fire.

When they were confident it was safe, they landed and began the evacuation of 43 UN employees.

Ten New Zealand soldiers stayed on the ground to coordinate the evacuation as the helicopters made two round trips to Balibo in the Australian sector of East Timor.

Squadron Leader Mark Cook, the air mission commander, said there were no nerves during the swift operation.

"I had a fair amount on my plate running the air mission at the time. We have four radios in the aeroplane and people were constantly talking on them, all four of them.

"We did not have exact details of numbers of people and that sort of thing before we launched.

"It was very much a case of getting on the ground there, assessing the situation and then modifying our initial plan as circumstances unfolded."

The evacuation from West Timor continued yesterday as 96 UN and other aid workers - with the bodies of the three murdered workers - were trucked out to the East Timor border.

One survivor, office manager Alias Bin Ahmad, said he and other officials had long known they would be targeted by militia groups and had pleaded with the Indonesian military to protect them.

"The writing was on the wall, but we thought we had taken adequate precautions," he said.

"We were not there to be killed, we were there to assist poor refugees who are still there and are literally trapped."

Indonesian security forces, who had earlier assured the UN that they would protect its Atambua operations, stood by as the mob torched the office, witnesses said.

Indonesian military spokesman Air Vice-Marshal Graito Usodo said one man had been arrested and troops were hunting more suspects after the attack.

But he said they did not want to arrest too many at once.

"There are thousands of them - we have to be careful."

UN officials said it was the worst attack on the organisation's civilian personnel anywhere in the world.

New Zealand is concerned that the killings could prompt a major escalation in guerrilla warfare along the troubled border between West and East Timor.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff warned yesterday that foreign peacekeepers could be bogged down in East Timor for a "considerable period."

New Zealand is scheduled to withdraw its 550 peacekeeping troops - most of whom are stationed at Suai near the border with West Timor - by the end of next May.

But Mr Goff now says the Government will be flexible about pulling out.

He told Parliament the departure of UN personnel meant the refugee camps in West Timor could turn into breeding grounds for militia factions opposed to East Timor independence.

He drew parallels with Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan and the Gaza Strip, saying West Timor's equivalents would also become recruitment centres for the militia who would attract disenchanted and alienated youths growing up in the camps.

Indonesia is now under intense diplomatic pressure to secure the camps by disarming militia and separating them from refugees. Jakarta earned an immediate rebuke from world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York for the organisation's Millennium Summit.

Prime Minister Helen Clark, who is in New York, received assurances from Indonesia's embarrassed President Wahid that two of his country's best battalions would be sent to West Timor to replace pro-militia detachments.

But Helen Clark and Mr Goff were pessimistic about the chances of such undertakings having much impact or even being implemented.

Helen Clark suggested that financial sanctions on Indonesia might be required, noting that threat had prompted Jakarta to pull out of East Timor after last year's pro-independence referendum.

United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright joined UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Security Council in condemning the murder of the UN workers.

Herald Online feature: the Timor mission

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor