Mark Dodd, Suai – Dead men tell no tales, according to the adage, but the body of a dead militiaman can reveal a bounty of information. For the present he is an unknown warrior who was among a group ambushed by New Zealand peacekeepers.
Dressed in black Indonesian military fatigues, he was armed with a 1960s vintage semi-automatic rifle and carrying enough ammunition to start a small war – seven 20-round magazines, 204 loose rounds and five grenades. New Zealand intelligence officers found a spare pair of boots in his pack, a change of footwear to throw off trackers.
But his mission was a lost cause. His last days were spent on the run, tired and hungry. He knew he and his 14 colleagues had been followed since August 10 when his group shot and killed a Nepalese peacekeeper, Private Deviran Jaisai, near Beco village.
Lieutenant Colonel Martin Dransfield, commander of the New Zealand battalion based in Suai in East Timor's south, said the militiaman was part of a force of up to 50 that crossed into East Timor about July 23.
Alert villagers reported sightings of militia moving east. Then came reports of thefts from household vegetable plots and cattle in the southern hinterland. On August 9 a woman living near Beco, about 20 kilometres west of Suai, told the New Zealand peacekeepers she had been briefly taken prisoner by a large group of heavily armed militia and then released.
Peacekeepers were sent to the scene and it was during this operation that the first fatal exchange of fire took place between militia members who had now split up and a Nepalese platoon at Zumulai in the south.
By August 16, the main militia group had crossed into the Portuguese battalion area of operations near Alas. It had become apparent to the militia that villagers would report their presence to UN peacekeepers.
A sweep by Portuguese troops working south foiled further bids by the militia to move north-east into the sanctuary of highlands. "The Portuguese battalion operation has proved there is no soft centre to the country," the new Australian commander of Sector West, Brigadier Ken Gillespie, told the Herald.
With supplies running low, their mission in disarray, and UN peacekeepers in hot pursuit, the militia had no option but to head back into the sanctuary of Indonesian West Timor.
Aware of the perils of making contact with hostile villagers, the armed gang broke into smaller parties. Their mistake was to retrace their original steps along the same dry watercourses and jungle trails they had used to infiltrate East Timor. This time the New Zealanders had observation posts along likely crossing points.
On Tuesday morning a group of 15 militiamen were seen picking their way west across a riverbed. At 11.53am the first of the three armed men came into view of the waiting New Zealanders. From 20 metres, the lead scout in the group was felled with a hail of shots.
No peacekeepers were hurt in the brief exchange that followed and a Fijian border observation post later reported seeing 13 militiamen crossing back into West Timor. They were not looking for a fight, the Fijians said.