Michael Zielenziger, Dili – His eyes are rheumy and his legs are weak, but for a man in his 80s, Manuel Francisco Gusmao looks fairly healthy – considering the father of resistance leader Xanana Gusmao was reported on September 7 to have been killed by pro-Jakarta militia.

At least three times, marauding militiamen entered a Catholic convent on the outskirts of Dili specifically to look for Manuel and his wife, Antonia Henriques Gusmao, the nuns who protected them disclosed on Thursday.

But here he was, gently welcoming a few visitors. "I'm very happy now, because we can feel the Timorese people are safe with the arrival of UN peacekeepers," Mr Gusmao said.

As for the premature reports of his and his wife's demise, Mr Gusmao smiled modestly. "No, we're not dead. We are here, and the sisters took good care of us," he said.

"That they're still alive is really a miracle," said Sister Marlene, one of those who hid the couple in the sacristy of the convent chapel. Sister Marlene brought the elderly Gusmaos to the convent in a sports utility vehicle the morning after a militia unit went to burn down their home.

At times, she said, the nuns diverted soldiers from the hallway that led to the Gusmaos' room off the chapel by pretending to mop the floor, then admonishing the searchers not to tramp their dusty boots on the wet tiles. It worked.

"A few days after the shootings and burnings started, we heard a report on CNN that the Gusmaos were dead," she said. "We laughed, but really quietly."