Word: militiamen
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...independence militia in East Timor was the price for restoring military ties between the U.S. and Indonesia. Earlier, he had announced that U.S. helicopters and a further 130 communications experts would join the 260 non-combatant U.S. personnel in the Australian-led East Timor peacekeeping force. But pro-Indonesia militiamen are continuing to threaten the peacekeepers, and Australian troops on Tuesday arrested 15 "militiamen" who turned out to be members of the Indonesian military?s Kopassus special forces. "Everybody thought all along that the militia were being run by Kopassus units loyal to the former dictator, Suharto," says TIME correspondent...
...peacekeepers' grip on the island remains tenuous ? they control only Dili's port, its airport and the U.N. compound, and the airport at the second city of Baucau, and haven't yet landed significant armor ? and that increases the temptation of militiamen and any renegade Indonesian forces to strike now. While international pressure may have given Indonesia more to lose than to gain by holding on to East Timor, the same isn't true for the militiamen. The unearthing Wednesday of a grisly massacre site where up to 30 victims had been beheaded underscores the fact that some militia leaders...
...Timorese was a dead man walking when American teacher Pamela Sexton found him. The militiamen had used machetes on his arms, chopping repeatedly down to the bone. His stomach was slashed open. Blood covered his frame. "Where do you put a tourniquet on someone who has been sliced all over?" asked Sexton, a U.N. observer evacuated last week from East Timor. She took him to the Motael clinic in Dili, but he soon died. The militia later came back and burned the clinic to the ground...
Asia has a new killing field--East Timor. After a majority of the population voted for independence from Indonesia Aug. 30, pro-Jakarta militiamen rampaged through the territory, killing, burning and looting with impunity. Priests and nuns were among those singled out for execution last week as shops, churches, radio stations and clinics were torched. The Roman Catholic humanitarian agency Caritas said "a large part" of the 40-member Caritas team, "has been murdered." Some 200,000 people--about a quarter of the population--have fled the territory. By the end of the week, the militias seemed to be withdrawing...
...embarrassment that President Habibie proposed the referendum, ignoring the warnings of powerful military leaders, including armed forces chief General Wiranto. Habibie should have listened. Within hours of the Sept. 4 announcement that nearly 80% of the electorate had voted for independence, Dili and other towns echoed with gunfire as militiamen took over the streets, unchecked by the military. Civilians began pouring into churches, convents and U.N. compounds seeking safety (see accompanying story). "If there is a devil, these militia guys work for him," said a photographer evacuated from Dili after the referendum...