Dili – There were no smiles of celebration on the faces of the East Timorese in the capital Dili today when the results of the historic independence ballot were announced.
Fear, uncertainty and tension gripped those few who ventured out. Every car or truck that roared down the now deserted streets caused people to turn sharply to see if it was the start of the attack everybody is expecting.
Shots were fired randomly throughout the capital as the militia moved quickly on motorcycles, many armed with handguns.
The wife of pro-independence leader Leandro Isaac greeted me in tears at their home. She whispered the result of the ballot as though it was still a death sentence to speak it openly.
Out the back, Leandro was preparing to go to the safety of the Makhota Hotel, which is protected by over 100 Indonesian police who have barricaded the roads covering the surrounding block.
"We are not safe here, we must go, this house will be the first target," he said. Joao Alves, another senior official of the East Timorese independence party CNRT, who planned to stay at the house until the militia arrived, said, "Of course it is a victory for us but we have to get through the day alive. "All of us here, they will kill us too if they find us, but we are used to this." They had contingency plans to get out to the mountains around Dili to join the Falintil forces waiting there but today they felt some pro-independence people should stay.
Thousands of Timorese were fleeing the city today. All along the main western road leading out of town people were loading up cars, trucks and battered blue taxis with possessions, not even looking up when the occasional pop of an automatic weapon came out of the surrounding suburbs.
No-one was sure if the road blocks on the road leading west that were operated by violent militia yesterday were still there.
Horrible stories were circulating about killings and road blocks outside of town but with no traffic coming into Dili no-one knew if the stories were true. "We have 230 children in our school out here. All the men are sheltering with the priest.
There must be several hundred there and I know most church properties have people hiding there throughout Dili," said a nun who was looking after them in the suburb of Comoro, which was rapidly emptying of people.
"When they announced the vote on the radio there were three trucks of Besih Merah Putih [red and white iron] militia outside our gate so we told the children just to put their hands together quietly instead of cheering, they were all so happy," she said.
At the house of Bishop Belo more than 100 children were sheltering. One of them said through the fence, "Of course we are happy but the Bishop has told us to keep our happiness inside our hearts today because it is very dangerous," a young girl said before being moved away by church staff.
As yet the militia had not attacked, but the fear was that they would start as soon as the Indonesians had left.
At the airport was an Indonesian military transport C130 loaded up with soldiers, families and possessions. Hundreds of people milled about waiting for the commercial flight and the specially chartered Japanese evacuation flight that would take more journalists and their East Timorese staff.
Nervous and aggressive police had sealed off the dock area as Indonesians arrived in military trucks to board two cargo ships bound for Atapupu just across the border in West Timor. Helio Tavarres, an East Timorese who has lived in Australia since 1980, explained the reasons for the police fears whilst waiting for a flight out.
"They don't get told anything and they know that there are Indonesian intelligence and Kopassus troops [special forces] among the militia and they know they plan to attack today." "Basically the Kopassus outgun them and they are scared of being killed," he said.
Pointing to the Indonesian military troops as they fanned out across the tarmac he said, "We don't even know what their plans are. Is it security or will they try and prevent East Timorese leaving?" he said.
In an ironic twist, Helio, an ardent independence supporter ended up translating for militia leader Eurico Guterres as he waited to board the flight to Jakarta.
His men, the Aitarak militia, were still circling Dili, shooting their new pistols randomly after destroying homes this morning in the deserted eastern suburb of Becora, a fervently pro-independence area from which the population fled yesterday to the surrounding hills after militia moved in. Nobody knew what would happen today but the entire town expected violence.