Barbie Dutter, Dili – Survivors of the savage militia rampage through a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in West Timor told of fleeing for their lives as colleagues were murdered and mutilated by a mob armed with machetes.
Several were injured as they scrambled down a ladder, scaled a two-metre wall or clambered over the roof to escape the marauding pro-Jakarta militiamen in the border town of Atambua.
The mob gave chase with axes, knives and broken bottles. Some escaped only after being pulled to safety by local people who risked their lives to shelter the UN workers.
Jessie Bonce, a Filipino aid worker, was one of the last to flee the building, and found himself surrounded after all escape routes were blocked. He was stabbed in the stomach by a militiaman who chanted: "I've got one." Mr Bonce escaped by dropping to the ground and pretending to be dead, before being dragged away by a resident to hospital.
He said the three murdered foreigners – Samson Aregahegn from Ethiopia, Pero Simundza from Croatia and Carlos Caceres, an American originally from Puerto Rico – had been hacked to death and their bodies set on fire.
"I was told that Samson, who treated me like his own son, was beheaded. Pero, my very good friend, was shot in the forehead," Mr Bonce said.
Toney Aniwari, an Indonesian security assistant with the UNHCR, suffered a fractured wrist during a brutal beating, and cuts to the head after being hit by stones during his attempt to flee.
"When they came into the office they were reckless, they were beasts, they were like animals. The militias were shouting: 'You people go. You are dogs. We don't want you here.' I hid in a room and heard three gunshots, so ran outside and climbed over the wall. But I was caught and beaten by three or four militias.
"As I was lying on the ground screaming for help, with all these people punching and kicking me, I saw a truck of TNI [Indonesian military]. They only slowed down, they didn't do anything. Luckily two locals asked me to hide in their house. That's how I survived."
The UN was yesterday hastily evacuating remaining aid workers from West Timor, alarmed by reports that militias were descending on the main city of Kupang.
The survivors of Wednesday's attack in Atambua gathered alongside hundreds of UN troops and locals at Dili's airport on Thursday evening as a helicopter flew through the dusk, bearing the victims' bodies in three steel coffins. A banner carried by red-eyed UN workers stated: "Carlos, Pero and Samson. Thanks for your helping and for our new nation."
Coffins, draped in UN flags, were set on trestle tables on the airport tarmac. Baskets of frangipani and bougainvillea, borne by weeping colleagues of the dead, were handed to senior UN officials who placed them gently on top.