John Aglionby, Kupang – When Ano Loy saw five Indonesian soldiers walking towards his home in Dili on Monday he was sure they were going to kill him. "They were carrying guns and cans of petrol. All the houses around mine were already empty, so they could only have been coming to me."

Mr Loy, a senior member of East Timor's pro-independence movement, described his extraordinary escape to safety yesterday as he embarked on the final leg from West Timor – the adjoining territory to East Timor – to the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

For the previous two days – after the announcement by the United Nations of East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence from Indonesia – Mr Loy (not his real name) had seen the army and the pro-Jakarta militias systematically begin the destruction of Dili.

"They had already driven thousands of people from their homes and killed many," he said. "It was my turn now. My luck had run out."

The soldiers, dressed in combat uniform, bandannas made of Indonesia's red and white flag and wearing warpaint on their faces, did not open fire. Instead they gave Mr Loy, 48, an ultimatum.

"They said I had to leave, to go to the port or the police station, or else they would kill me and burn the house. Luckily they did not recognise me or else I am sure they would have killed me immediately."

To prove they meant business, the soldiers doused both the neighboring houses in petrol and set them alight. By the time Mr Loy was ready to leave, his was the only house in the neighborhood not on fire. He is convinced it is now a smouldering ruin.

Just as he, his wife and his children were about to leave, a young man ran into the house telling a terrible story. He had come from the port, where he and some pro-independence friends had been trying to leave on a ship. The women boarded, but the men were dragged away. Five were stabbed in front of him and their bodies dumped in the sea.

Mr Loy decided it would be a death sentence to take his family either to the already overcrowded port or to the police station teeming with more than 10,000 refugees.

"They would definitely have known me at both places and I had heard that families were being separated and did not want to risk not seeing my wife and children again."

So he took an even bigger risk. His family and some other friends asked to join people the militia were forcibly taking in trucks to the border.

"I had no choice. If I wanted to survive I knew I had to get out. By the time we left there were 124 people in seven vehicles – five pick-ups, one truck and one Jeep.

We were so squashed in but I knew it was our only hope. Almost everyone was crying and sobbing. They had no idea where they were being taken to." The road to the border was packed with vehicles. "Many were not moving. They were just by the roadside. Others were destroyed or burnt."

It took seven hours to reach the border, a journey that normally takes less than three. "The advantage of driving with the militia was that we had no problems with the roadblocks." Mr Loy had disguised himself by brushing his hair differently and wearing a large pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

The scene at the border post at Batugade was chaos. "Cars, trucks and people were everywhere. But this helped us as the soldiers were so overwhelmed ... once again we were just waved through."

After another three hours the convoy stopped for the night in the town of Keva. "There were people everywhere, including many, many militiamen. They were all so proud of what they had done in East Timor, how many houses they had burnt, how many people they had killed for the sake of Indonesia."

Mr Loy's wife told her husband he should go on alone. "She said it was more important for me to get to Jakarta to tell pro-independence leader Jose "Xanana" Gusmao what was happening."